We are gearing up for the 2009-2010 school year.

Summer time at Casa Grande Union High School is a time for us to reflect on the school year and plan for the upcoming opportunities to impact student growth and achievement. We have recently received the AIMS data and sent that out to parents and guardians and are analyzing this information as a district and school to determine our areas of greatest need to for improvement.

We have two sessions of summer school offered this summer as a means for students who have struggled with success to retake courses they did not pass the first time. We have many students taking advantage of this opportunity to prepare themselves to high school success.

Our leadership team has met and shared their plans for next year to include a focus on providing parent forums during which we can provide information to parents as well as take in feedback provided us from our school community. Parents on the leadership team have sought out topic ideas from other parents and will publicize the dates, locations, and times for these upcoming parent forums... all promising to be very informative and useful.

Our teachers will start off the school year with a focus on formative assessment. This will provide us with information about what concepts students are struggling in on a more frequent basis. Collecting this information should help inform the instructional practices so we can address student needs before they get out of hand.

We are working to reshape our tutoring provisions so we can pinpoint specific needs students have and bring back the concept of peer tutoring that we have lost along the way. There are some very committed teachers who are planning for student success with innovative ideas that we are currently working into a finalized form for the upcoming school year.

Planning is the task we undertake each summer. We have great opportunities for growth and work diligently to maximize our summer time to plan for student success. All ideas and suggestions are welcome during this time of planning (and any time in general) as sometimes the outside in viewpoint provides insights we cannot see when in the center of the organization.

Casa Grande Union High School is committed to "Opening a World of Possibilities" for all of our students.

Meaningful Community Involvement...

Community involvement seems to lessen through the high school years in our observations, but it doesn't have to remain our reality at Casa Grande Union High School. The future of our students impacts us all; therefore we would like to reshape our view of community involvement at the high school level as a partnership in preparing our young people for their future.

The CGUHS School Improvement plan incorporates three goals that are aimed at improving student success. These goals are designed to be modified annually at a minimum as we intend to meet our goals and build on our successes. Two of the goals are very specific to academic growth as measured my the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards). The third goal is specifically about increasing community involvement. We hope through seeking input from parents across a variety of methods we will be able to provide parents with meaningful opportunities to participate and have their voices heard. We will have survey opportunities, quarterly meetings, information in the newspaper, as well as a soon to be renovated website for CGUHS. We are hoping throughout this process parents will share with us things they would like to see happening to help us create the optimal high school environment.

Please share ideas for ways you would like to see community involvement take shape at Casa Grande Union High School. Responses to this blog are open for the public to view and responses will be provided through the site leadership team. We look forward to your input!