100 Days of Achievements

School has now been in session for 100 days! It has been a busy and exciting year full of learning for all and we wanted to share some of the accomplishments we see happening throughout the district. We asked schools and departments throughout the district to send us a quick list of the highlights of their first 100 days. Here is what they said.

Career Technical Education (CTE)

Due to our dedicated teachers and amazing students, CTE has so many accomplishments to report.  We have teachers and students in Centennial Middle School, Dixon Middle School, Independence High School, Provo High School and Timpview High School. CTE programs cover so many aspects of learning job skills and life skills. Thank you to our busy teachers and wonderful students, we have an ongoing process of learning, growing and seeing more potential than ever thought before.

• Our students have sewn PJ pants, skirts, hoodies, and learned fashion design.
• Some have learned different cutting techniques in food preparation, knife safety and how to cut up a chicken. We have students who participated in Iron Chef competition.
• Students in welding classes have learned safety, work ethic and practicing many welding techniques.
• Our welding class @ Provo High won a promotional video contest for Baileigh Industrial.
• Welding class @ Timpview High is learning how to make lamps, etc. out of metal pipe.
• Our woods classes have also been very busy. Students have learned safety on machines and the art of wood turning. Others have constructed many other wood projects including beautiful wood bowls and beautiful tables.
• Provo High students in woods class constructed 200 trophy-type apples for a Chamber of Commerce event.
• Other students in the health occupation field have learned first aid, blood draw and some are interning at the Hospital.
• Many students are learning how to build and program robotics, wiring light switches and electrical outlets, while others are learning the art of 3D printing.
• Some students are learning about child care, and running a daycare. 

Business Department

The Business Department continues to provide support for student education by offering excellent service and information to Provo City School District stakeholders. Here are a few highlights for us this year:

• Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Award given by The Government Finance Officers Association
• Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Award given by The Association of School Business Officials
• Popular Annual Financial Report Award given by The Government Finance Officers Association
• Paid out employee incentives
• Streamlined purchasing card controls
• Consistent Clean audit
• Continued employee financial training
• As always, balanced budget

Learning Initiative

• 18 new classrooms brought onboard for the 2019-20 school year
• 12 additional new teachers receiving training who then took over other classrooms due to teacher attrition
• 22 teachers in their second year of intensive technology integration training
• Secondary teachers have been working on area content projects as well as training on Canvas, the Learning
• Management System (LMS). The LMS is essential for college readiness as well as helping students with their organizational skills
• Elementary teachers have been training on formative assessment programs as well as various instructional programs. Individual classroom training has occurred with creative writing, storytelling, math, spreadsheets, communication and presentation skills. STEAM integration has been a priority this year.
• In addition our system of replacing older chromebooks has become operational. A system of tracking Learning Initiative teacher’s attrition has been implemented in order to bring new teachers into the Learning Initiative in a more timely manner.

Provo Adult Education

• Provo Adult Education has served 134 adult basic education and adult high school students and 316 adult English language learners so far this year.
• Ten adult high school students graduated in December.
• Twenty-one English language students received refurbished computers from United Way’s Digital Inclusion Program after participating in Digital Literacy classes.
• Two adult education teachers Steve Park and Gayle Painter were awarded scholarships from the USBE to attend the Coalition on Adult Basic Education conference in Baltimore.

Sunrise

There has been a huge increase in community awareness about Sunrise as a Preschool for all students. While we maintain a focus on identifying and serving students with disabilities, our typical peer population has increased 350% in two years. This has provided crucial peer examples for students with disabilities and helped bolster the general education rigor of our classes. We have also increased communication and parent involvement through parent nights to create better relationships with the school, teachers and parents. We are excited about the amount of parent support and volunteers we have had that has made this year one of the most successful years we have had.

• Created different placement options for our students on IEPs-which in return has made us a stronger, better program and we are able to meet the needs of our students.
• We have awesome paraprofessionals that make our school run smoothly.
• Students have transitioned out of a special class placement to go to a general education placement .

Oak Springs

Our students at Oak Springs School have to deal with mental health challenges in addition to the challenges of a student at a mainstream school. Most of our students are deficient in credits for graduation.

• Recently, one of our students who struggled with significant mental health challenges and anxiety was too far behind for a high school graduation certificate. Despite these downfalls, the student was determined to get a GED and enrolled in the program while attending school Oak Springs. After a little time, this student was assessed with the CASAS test to determine their grade level. The student showed that they were at level to take the GED practice test. This student took all the subtests and passed. On the last of school day before his 18th birthday, he was taken to a GED testing center were all subtests were taken. This student was able to pass all of the subtests and passed the GED. We are very proud of our student. The ability to complete all the requirements even when time was limited was extraordinary.
• Every year Oak Springs School has an annual poinsettia sale. The students from our school have been involved in the tracking and maintenance procedures for growing poinsettias. The students measured the height and width of randomly chosen plants. They then counted the number of stems/branches and leaves to track the growth cycle of each of the chosen plants. This data indicated how the plants were responding to light and shade. The data also indicated us how the fertilizer program affected their growth, and how heat manipulates the finished product. Of the 1,400 poinsettias, 1,100 of them were for BYU the rest were for sold to the public.

Child Nutrition

In the 1st 100 days of school Child Nutrition celebrated National School Lunch Week:

• “School Lunch: What’s On Your Playlist?” Provo Schools Celebrate National School Lunch Week National School Lunch Week (NSLW) is a celebration that focuses on the efforts of those involved with feeding our school’s children and promotes participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Healthy and interesting menus are a priority for Provo School District and attracts students to purchase or participate in school lunch, which in turn delivers the proper nutrition children need for healthy development in school and at home.During the week of October 14-18 the NSLW theme “School Lunch: What’s On Your Playlist?” was used to provide a fun event with prizes, giveaways, special guest appearances, and live music. Provo School District directs 18 schools in the Provo Utah area and is a huge advocate for promoting the NSLP. Each school was given photo booth backdrops and props to use in the lunchroom to reflect our theme days and provide a fun activity during lunch
• Child Nutrition launches its online donation site: Feeding a Child’s Success. We will never let a student go hungry under our care. It is our mandate to ensure that enrolled children in our district eat a nutritious meal regardless of their ability to pay on any given day. We will never deny food to children, and we will never offer an alternative meal. To do so can be embarrassing for a child, and can single them out in front of their classmates. We work with families to help them apply for and understand how the Free/Reduced application process works. Unfortunately, some families in disadvantageous circumstances may still not qualify. Donations made by community go towards helping our families struggling to pay for their kids’ breakfasts and lunches. Besides helping alleviate the financial pressure on these families, it also alleviates pressure on the schools to absorb these balances themselves. Learn more at: https://provo.successfund.com/itsmealsprovo

Amelia Earhart

• Our ELA growth score from 2019 RISE testing was 21.7% higher than the state average.
• Our Math growth score from 2019 RISE testing was 28.1% higher than the state average.
• We were given “Commendable” status from the State on our overall growth scores from 2019 RISE.
• We had 108 STEM Fair project entries.

Canyon Crest

• Students, Rachel J. in the 5th grade, won a $1,000 scholarship with her bookmark design to an annual Make Your Mark bookmark design contest.
• Ben B. competed in the 2019 National Spanish Spelling Bee.

Franklin

• New Admin Team!
• Donations from Verask and other companies for school supplies for the whole school!
• We purchased backpacks and held a barbecue for all the students in the highest impacted area of our school boundaries along with Sunset View Elementary!
• Three Donors Choose Projects fully funded to help our school!
• Cheering in the School Year with ROCK THE HALLS! Parents lined the hallway and we blasted awesome music and cheered the kids to their classes!
• Started off the year with a huge assembly with confetti cannons!
• Root Beer Float Party celebrating the end of the first week of school!
• We have had five student of the month assemblies celebrating the awesome students at our school!
• Living Planet Aquarium came and visited the second graders!
• Mobile Food Pantry has come four times and donated enough food for 400 families!
• Students in Fifth Grade ate flavored crickets to prove they can do hard things!
• We had a parent night and had a pizza party with over 200 people in attendance!
• The Choir had their first successful concert in December!
• We had a rocking Halloween Spook Alley that the fifth and sixth graders helped Mr. Benson put together!
• We competed in an epic Pumpkin Painting Contest!
• We had a cool Luau celebrating kindness week and having fun together!
• We successfully evacuated buses in our Bus Evacuation Drill(even the kindergartners!)
• UVU came and helped beautify the school by helping with the landscaping and the walls in the school!
• Miss Davis’ class got a mini grant and will get to grow their own classroom chicks!
• We had Lunch Week and dressed up in decades!
• We created some super cool sleighs out of cardboard for our STEM groups!
• We are underway for our Battle of the Books competition!
• Students have all participated in our school Space Lab!
• Every Student received a blanket and stuffed animal for Christmas thanks to kind donations to our school!
• Students got to attend free basketball workshops as part of an eagle project in December!
• Students were able to shop for their family members so they had something to give to other members of their family thanks to another eagle project at our school!
• Santa came and visited the school, accompanied by the Mayor, the Fire Department, and the Police Force!
• Thanks to United Way, Vivint, and Larry H. Miller, more than 85 of our school families had Christmas provided for them this year!
• Thanks to kind donations at our school from the Bicycle Collective, 20 students were able to receive refurbished bikes!
• Upon learning that students didn’t know how to ride bikes, members of the Bike Collective Provo put training wheels on the bikes and stayed to help teach kids how to ride bikes!
• We were able to add a third kindergarten and make it ALL DAY thanks to our kindergarten numbers increasing!
• We have an awesome ESP group with the best head secretary, head custodian, and lunch manager this side of the Mississippi!
• Students put chains with each link representing an act of kindness up on the walls of the school!
• Sixth Grade made some super cool Egyptian Wall Paintings for the hall!
• We raised over $10,000 in our Chocolate Fundraiser!
• Brandon Mull came to visit and taught us about writing!
• We learned about being kind and how to work with bullies in a Cougar Strong assembly with Cosmo!
• We used the Chocolate Fundraiser Money to purchase many cool things for the school, including books for every single classroom!
• We have our STEM fair coming up this month!
• Our fall Book Fair helped us purchase $2000 in books for the school library!
• Mahauni Fuller won the Golden Apple Award!

Lakeview

• Four of our teachers won $2500 worth of grants for digital inclusion
• Four students received Excellence awards in Reflections contest
• Utah Valley Student of the Week–Sina Albert and Student of the Month–Benjamin Young
• Our school donated 4,834 pounds of food to the food bank
• Debi Snyder won the Provo Way award
• 96% of our families attended SEPs with their child’s teacher(s) – We appreciate this support so much!
• 82% of our sixth graders are current with all assignments–good prep for junior high!
• We have 3 teachers that have been teaching 30 years and 4 teachers that have been teaching 20 + years
• Our fifth grade team of teachers wrote a STEM song for the students to learn and perform in their STEM program
• Our social worker Chris Miller was featured on the TV show “Random Acts of Kindness” for all the work he does with our students and in the community
• Everyone has been working towards improving our Acadience reading scores… so far we are seeing great results thanks to the work of teachers, intervention aides, parents, and most importantly, students!
• We partnered with Playworks to improve recess time, which has led to students being more active, engaged, and happy at recess.
• More students are getting involved as student leaders through the Playworks Junior Coaching program, Hope Squad, and Kindness Club
• Referrals to the office and LSR for behavior concerns have decreased by 20% when compared to last year at this time!
• Our faculty attended the REACH training on multiculturalism and we hosted an event for Native American Heritage month, with more events to come!
• Our academic intervention program has grown and improved in many ways with more students receiving interventions and more of our staff being trained in the programs.
• Our PTA gave every student their very own Lakeview Lion shirt and planned many activities including a Back-to-School Carnival.
• We celebrated kindness week with kindness bingo boards, motivational signs in the bathroom, and students making a chain of kind deeds!
• Every day, our teachers, staff, parents, and students make Lakeview a wonderful place to be!

Provo Peaks

• Provided students with support for social emotional learning
• We have been using Playworks to support students on the playground. It has been very helpful to have student coaches teach kids games and set up the playground.
• We have made great growth for reading from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year.
• Our academic interventions have been very successful. Students are making great growth with the help of interventions and Tier I instruction.

Provost

• Smart Start Assembly and a Magic Show
• Green Ribbon week-Bike Safety
• Character Counts Assembly
• Reflections Night
• Hope Squad
• Character Counts
• Hee Haw Farms
• Geography Bee
• STEM Family Night
• Character Counts Assembly
• Play auditions
• Red Ribbon Week
• Parent University
• Choir and Orchestra Christmas Concert
• Second Grade Play
• Morning Singing the last week before Christmas
• Christmas Assembly
• Singing in the Round–Special Visitor–Santa
• Variety Show
• 3rd grade dictionaries
• STEM Fair
• School Spelling Bee
• The Stem Bus came
• BYU Assembly from Fine Arts
• White Ribbon Week
• Red Ribbon Week

Rock Canyon

• Lynnette Risk – Daily Herald Educator of the Week
• Brenda Miller – Daily Herald Educator of the Week
• Elisha S Geography Bee winner
• Provo Way Award winners: Kallee Duncan, Nikki Cox, Danielle Fueger

Spring Creek

• Audrey West –United Way Technology Award that provided additional technology for her classroom
• Over 30 Donors Choose Projects Funded
• Leslie Stilson — Foundation Mini Grant Funded for STEM Supplies and Microscopes
• Fun and engaging grade level parent and family engagement activities in Preschool through 6th grade
• Free book for every student during parent teacher conferences
• Targeted practice materials for students available with training for parents.
• Spring Creek Fall Color Spectacular sponsored by the PTA — Celebrating another new beginning of a school year with chalk throws, dancing, races, food trucks and colorful glowing sticks, light sabers and jewelry
• Provo Way Awards — Miss Amy Wright — nominated by a former student. Mrs. Barbara Clark — nominated by a parent, Leslie Stilson — nominated by a fellow teacher, Emma Sazo — nominated by the principal
• Spring Creek Tiny Art Show — going on right now throughout the halls of Spring Creek
• Singing Around the Christmas Tree — a tradition started back at Maeser Elementary in the 1900s and continued when Maeser was closed and we moved to Spring Creek.
• Principal’s 200 Club Activities — walking to 7-eleven for Slurpees, Hot Chocolate and Jenga Party in the Faculty Lounge
• Spring Creek continues to be an outlier for both progress and proficiency for schools with similar demographics.
• Completely full enrollment in the Spring Creek AfterSchool Academy with a waitlist of students wanting to participate.

Sunset View

• On our school report card, we saw massive growth in our EL student population – 36% adequate progress and 2% reaching proficiency last year to 70% adequate progress and 10% reaching proficiency this year
• Michelle Fordham won a Mini-Grant to create a STEM center in her classroom
• Successful parent engagement with our STEM Night and Night at the Art Museum
• 95% of parents in attendance at Parent Teacher Conferences
• We have had amazing student attendance all year

Wasatch

• Fall Musical was a smashing success
• STEM Fair grand champion: Grand Champion – Bella Hanson “Dirty Money”
• Playworks Jr. Coaches have been doing an awesome job teaching recess games to our younger students
• We have some 5th and 6th grade students helping in kindergarten on a regular basis (Shari Payne is the teacher contact with more information)
• Mrs. Ma, one of our Chinese teachers, was named one of five finalists for the 2020 Utah Teacher of the Year!

Westridge

• Evening of Giving – Put together 88 Complete Thanksgiving Dinner Baskets by Grandview Neighborhood for Westridge and Franklin Schools
• Checks for $1300 for Westridge and Franklin Schools to use for families in need.
• Mrs. Stocking’s class tied 25 blankets for the Pediatric Unit at the Hospital
• Canned Goods donated by the Grandview Neighborhoods for the Principals Pantry
• Personal Care items donated by the students at Westridge
• Kindness Club Retreat
• 5th Graders went to Salt Lake to the Junior Achievement BizTown and worked at different jobs
• Polar Express Family Literacy Night
• 4th Grade Skiing at Sundance
• Sprint Presented Westridge Elementary with a $5,000 Check. Only one other school in the northwest United
• States received a check as well.
• 2nd grade had a field trip to Rock Canyon
• 1st grade visited Jaker’s Pumpkin Patch a got to pick out a pumpkin to take home
• Mrs. Parker’s 4th grade went to Larson Davis Labs to learn about measuring sound and also learned how to solder.
• John Jackman’s class was recognized in December by Reading Plus as having the highest average number of combos in the state (a combo is earned when a student reads two passages in a row with at least 80% comprehension). He was also recognized in October as being the 2nd highest in the state.
• Sawyer Seamons, a 6th-grade student, completed the Reading Plus program, only a few students across the state accomplish this each year. NOTE: What it means is that the student progressed far enough in their reading that they advanced to our highest level (College level material – lexile levels above 1380) and demonstrated good comprehension by reading at least 20 lengthy passages with at least 80% comprehension at that level.
• 40 students were recognized as having perfect attendance from August through November
• 211 students were recognized as having perfect attendance during the month of December
• STEM Family Night – UVU, BYU, US Synthetic, Larson Davis, United Way, Provo Library, Google Fiber and STEM & Robotics Education are all participating in our STEM Night.
• Mrs. Sessions was awarded a Foundation mini-grant.

Centennial

• 8 students choreographed pieces that we will be showing in our spring dance concert!
• Over 100 students are involved in the school musical – either onstage or in some tech capacity!
• The beginning ELD kids went to Swig and were able to order in English!
• We had 7 of our orchestra kids make it into the utah state jr. high all-state orchestra this year, which is more students than any other school!
• Our students have completed their first round of fitness testing with new test which include: bench press max, 20 yard dash, vertical jump mile 12 minute run, max sit ups, max pull ups, max push-ups max body weight squats, broad jump
• Mrs. Wilcox’s Plus class went well above any before and donated so many awesome gifts for our Christmas Angel.
• Many, many students have shown intestinal fortitude to re-teach themselves the correct way to keyboard by rising above very deeply ingrained incorrect habits. This has resulted in increased words per minute and increased accuracy! I’m very proud of them for accepting and concurring this challenge!
• Students participated in a shortened Passover Seder to help them understand Jewish traditions as we learned about the Holocaust.
• Students honored Holocaust survivors by writing informational essays about survivors’ lives and efforts they made to stand up against the Nazi Regime.
• In Math Support 7 classes (6) the average SuccessMaker gain so far is 6 months with only 5 months of work! That is awesome considering that the average starting level is more than a full grade level behind (5.91). Nine (9) students have already made more than a full year’s gain on SuccessMaker. The highest is at 1.60!
• Tricia Midgley finished my science endorsement classes at BYU, so I now have 4 endorsements under my teaching license. 
• Both Hyrum Reynolds and Anson Taylor played lead roles in a community theater production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
• Both Horatio Lewis and Marcellus Hill have spent countless hours designing, coding and creating their own server for a popular online design interface. It is close to being ready to be released to the public.
• Mock Trial got to sit in on court at Scott Matheson and then have a special law school class at the U This semester, students created a giant mural of books in a classroom. Each book is one that touched their hearts in some way.
• Over 85% of my students passed the Civics Test, which they need to pass before they graduate high school. So they did a great job! Most of the 8th graders passed the test already.
• Chamber Singers got to be guest artists for the Lux Singers this October at their fall concert.

Dixon

• We took our first team of 8 students to participate in Shakespeare Competition, and we had a monologue take first place in our division!
• Our librarian got a HUGE grant and has been ordering new books and replacing old books non stop which has resulted in thousands of books being circulated in our library!
• We had a first year of after school intramurals and the yellow team beat the staff team in soccer!
• We had several students artwork published in The Utah English Journal!
• We started a permanent food pantry in the school!
• We had our first ever Multicultural Assembly!
• Dixon’s AVID students won week 9 of the AVID polly challenge. Polly up is a computational challenge where students modify a variety of expressions, equations, and algorithms to solve mathematical puzzles. Through November and December we competed against other AVID classes across the country. The prize we won is a $250 gift card to the AVID store and we are going to be buying some swag for each AVID student with the money.

Independence

• IHS 12 early graduates have finished
• We had three students graduate early this year from Independence High School. Yay for graduation!!!! 🙂
• Julie Powell Provo Way Award

Provo High

• Provo Bulldogs Football took region (#1)
• Teacher Michael Bradley won the Provo Way Award
• Provo High School Social Worker Darren Burdett also won the Provo Way Award
• Our Theater Arts Department put on an absolutely amazing performance of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Our PHS Brass Choir – Conducted by Mr. Rittel qualified for State!

Timpview High

• Over 200 veterans attend our Veterans Day Tribute
• Boys Football went to the State Championship Game!
• Terri Taylor became a National Board Certified Teacher
• Many of our teams placed top in Region!
• 100% of students in Mrs. Napierski’s class made growth in reading comprehension.
• Stephen Van Orden was awarded the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation Teacher Award.
• Math Team received 1st place in National Math Madness Competition.
• Sub For Santa program raised thousands of dollars to help many families in our community this holiday season.
• STEM luncheons for students are being held monthly and have a great attendance and response. Latinos in Action collected nearly 6,000 baby items to be donated to the Womens, Infants, and Children Center.
• We hosted the state’s first Science Bowl Tournament.

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