Governing Board | From Summer Learning to Student Success

The start of a new school year is always a time of excitement and anticipation. For some of our students, it will be their first year in public school. For some of our staff, it will be their first time working in public schools. It has been three and a half years since I retired from teaching in our district, but those feelings of excitement and anticipation have yet to fade. I start to feel like I need to be preparing my classroom and obtaining needed supplies, then I say to myself, "No, Tony. Remember? You are retired." I do, however, still get to experience the emotions through my grandchildren as they prepare for the upcoming year. This time around I'm blessed to have one who will be in elementary school, one who will be in middle school, and one who will be in high school.  

Our staff has been busy during the summer months preparing themselves to make this coming year a great one. July 8 was the annual All Administrators event where administrators from across the district meet and spend the day planning how best to implement new laws, new curriculum, and new logistics for the year. This frees teachers and support staff to be able to expend their energy on direct classroom instruction. 

North Canyon High School was the site for an AVID training in PVSchools that included approximately 100 staff and school administrators. This was a regional path training so as to be able to apply AVID principles with fidelity at every site.

The Workshop Workout Summer Institute offered a wide variety of professional development that our staff could participate in. This year there were over seven hundred attendees who were enrolled in 49 course offerings. These included, but were not limited to: TWIG Bootcamp, National Board PreCandidacy, Really Great Reading Blast, Building Student Reading Stamina through StudySync, Elementary Specialized Programming Gemini Bootcamp, Socratic Seminars (a personal favorite of mine), Inquiry Cardio with Gizmos, Backwards Design, and much more.

Many teachers and staff also enrolled in courses for professional development at various community colleges and universities. Some also were able to take advantage of the National Education Association's Micro-Credential classes.

After all this preparation and learning, our teachers, support personnel, and administrators are chomping at the bit to start applying what they've learned for our students. It promises to be another dynamic and productive school year and I am thrilled to be part of it.

Tony Pantera
Governing Board President