Shivani Misra, North Canyon High senior is one of 22 Arizona students to be named a Flinn Scholar, one of the most competitive and prestigious undergraduate awards in the nation. The $100,000 award covers tuition at an Arizona university, other educational expenses, room and board, international travel-related study and other benefits.

Hidden Hills Elementary School was awarded the A+ designation from the Arizona Education Foundation, April 2012

PV schools have received 16 A+ designations from the Arizona Department of Education since 1992. They include:

• Pinnacle High School
• Copper Canyon Elementary
• Desert Springs Elementary
• Desert Shadows Elementary
• Greenway Middle
• HIdden Hills Elementary (twice)
• Liberty Elementary (twice)
• North Ranch Elementary (twice)
• Palomino Elementary
• Sandpiper Elementary (twice)
• Sonoran Sky Elementary
• Vista Verde Middle

Pinnacle High School senior Robert Jansen is the Phoenix 2012 Outstanding Young Man of the Year for council District 2.

Karen Mensing, second grade teacher at Sonoran Sky Elementary School, was selected as the 2012 Arizona Technology in Education Association Teacher of the Year.

The seventh-grade Honors science class at Mountain Trail Middle School won first-place in the state for the Disney Planet Challenge. The students researched water pollution as an environmental issue, specifically prescription medications in our water system, and created a project to address it. Their teacher is Michelle Cannon.

Tanner Kemp and Donald Coon, Horizon High School students who attend Paradise Valley High School for Future Farmers of America, have been recommended for the 2012 State FFA Degree. This is one of the highest awards the Arizona Association FFA can bestow upon its members and the second highest level of FFA membership.

PV has three 2012 individual state wrestling champions. From Horizon High School, competing in Division 1: Samson Imonode and Garrett Ryan; From Shadow Mountain High School, competing in Division 2: Luke Braun.

Both Campo Bello and Echo Mountain Primary Schools have been awarded Gold labels from the Beat The Odd Institute, a rigorous, multi-year school improvement program. Beat the Odds is based upon the Center for the Future of Arizona's nationally acclaimed research study that found six elements associated with successful minority schools: a strong and steady principal, clear bottom line, ongoing assessment, collaboration, a program built on individual student needs and a commitment to stay with successful instructional programs.

Only schools that attain gold-medal status are conferred the title of a Beat the Odds School. It requires demonstrated, consistent growth in student academic achievement over at least three years, among other criteria.

Jennifer Minor, principal of Sonoran Sky Elementary School, location of one of the district's self-contained gifted programs, was selected by the Arizona Association for Gifted and Talented as the 2012 Gifted Administrator of the Year.

Horizon High School was awarded the 2010-11 Arizona Cup (in 2012) from the University of Arizona.The Arizona Cup is awarded annually to the Arizona high school with 30 or more of its graduates earning the highest cumulative grade point average during their freshman year at the UA.

Village Vista Elementary is named Arizona's National Title I Distinguished School

Copper Canyon Elementary School is one of five schools nominated from Arizona for the 2012 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award. This U.S. Department of Education recognition highlights schools that are producing outstanding results and have demonstrated consistent excellence.

Wesley Peng and Autumn Dharma Towne, both second-grade students at Sonoran Sky Elementary School, earned a perfect score for 2nd grade Noetic Math contest, tying four other students for highest score in the country

PVschools is one of only two school districts in the nation to offer a dietetic internship program, managed by the PV Nutrition and Wellness Department

Juliana Baumkirchner from Sonoran Sky Elementary School and Teresa Smith from Pinna le High School, have earned the designation of National Board Certified Teachers. The Paradise Valley Unified School District is one of two districts in the state with the highest number of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs). > Read more

Megan Bird, gifted specialist at Sonoran Sky Elementary School, was honored with the Distinguished Faculty of the Year Award from the University of Phoenix where she teaches at the college of education.

Twenty-one National Merit Commended students:

Paradise Valley: Noah Way and Tyler Allen; Shadow Mountain: Conor Chard and John Marinick; Pinnacle: Nicklaus Arnold, Andrew Y. Cho, Emmaline G. Frey, Whitney T. Howson and Stephanie Zeped; North Canyon: Sarah Bracy, Lauren Coles,Thomas Hartwell, Tobin Kopp, Hara Kumar, Anjana Patel, Ross-Edward Raymond and Alexandra Scoville; Horizon: Sean T. Chappell, Sarah N. Davis, Kaiden M. Dion and Jacova K. Snyder.

The Core Knowledge® Foundation has declared Pinnacle Peak and Wildfire Elementary Schools Official Core Knowledge Schools and Visitation Sites. Pinnacle Peak and Wildfire are the second and third public schools in Arizona to achieve this status following Grayhawk Elementary School, which was awarded in January 2005.

Horizon High School is ranked among America's Best 500 High Schools by Newsweek magazine

Pinnacle, North Canyon and Horizon ranked among the best in U.S. for preparing students for college by The Washington Post. The PV district had more schools on the list than any other district in Arizona. Read more

Sunrise Middle School eighth-grader Luke Hellum is the first place winner of the 2011 state National Geographic Bee, and will compete in the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 24 and 25 where with winner will receive a $25,000 scholarship. Luke is a student in the Digital Learning Center program at Sunrise. Other PV students who competed in the Bee were Shailee Shah, Copper Canyon Elementary; Marshall Anema, Shea Middle; Griffin Burke, Desert Cove Elementary; and Saaketh Narayan, Sonoran Sky Elementary.

Pinnacle High School was awarded the A+ Ranking from the Arizona Education Foundation

Saaketh Narayan, a fourth-grade student in the Sonoran Sky Elementary School self-contained gifted program, placed third in the 2011 Arizona Spelling Bee. Saaketh became one of the competition's youngest finalists in recent history and the only finalist from Phoenix in the spelling bee. He was eliminated when he misspelled desiccant, a drying agent. The competition is open to students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Will Zandler, a junior at Shadow Mountain High School, is the Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC) Career and Technical Education Student of the month of March. Career and Technical Education courses prepare students to embark on a career in a variety of industries. (Photo: teacher Debbie Kovesdy and Will Zandler)