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Local principals outline student wins, events and grant-backed programs
Summary
Principals from Virgin Valley Elementary, Hughes Middle and Joseph Fuller reported on student activities, upcoming family nights, robotics competition wins, declining absenteeism, and planned use of CF grant funds for programs including a pre-K bridge program.
Three school principals updated the Community Education Advisory Board on events, student achievements and programs funded in part by CF grants.
Matt Bennett, principal of Virgin Valley Elementary School, invited the public to the school's math and science night (5:30 to 7 p.m.) and described a PTO-run online walkathon running Feb. 3 through March 5 with an in-person event on March 6. Bennett said the school is using grant funds to support kindergarten roundup and a short summer bridge program for pre-K students to prepare them for kindergarten. He also outlined spring calendar items including reading week, the school musical (Shrek) with dress rehearsal March 9 and shows March 10'12, and spring break March 16'20.
"So from the district calendar, of course, Monday is Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So there's no school," Bennett said while walking through the upcoming schedule and listed initiatives aligning with the district's "core 4" priorities.
JD Wilson, principal at Hughes Middle School, said enrollment was about 553 students, a modest gain from earlier in the school year, and that chronic absenteeism is down to 19 percent. Wilson highlighted the robotics program's success at a Las Vegas tournament, with teams qualifying for state competition, and said the school will use CF grant funds to operate an on-site game room as an attendance incentive and to support clubs and after-school tutoring.
"We've used [grant funds] for supplies for our cooking club," Wilson said, adding that the robotics team helped cover some tournament fees and that staff volunteer support has been important.
Chris Jenkins, who stated "for Joseph Fuller," described after-school programs that keep students until 5 p.m., a forthcoming school musical (Dare to Dream), and a science fair scheduled for next Wednesday evening from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Jenkins also reminded the board that state testing is scheduled to begin in April.
Each principal fielded brief questions from board members about partnerships, competition logistics and guest speakers. The updates focused on family engagement nights, extracurricular opportunities and use of grant funds to support programming.
The board did not take formal action on programming during these reports; items were provided for information and to solicit board support where needed.
