Dear Canutillo Community,
One of the most frequent comments we get as educators is: It must be so nice to get the summer off when the school year ends.
While the vast majority of our instruction-connected employees deservingly do have the summer off to rest and recharge, many of us in the world of public education work through the break in order to get schools ready for the upcoming school year. As anyone who has ever worked in education knows, the summer months can be some of the busiest times of the year. Let me share with you what is going on throughout our District.
We can start with our campuses. Most of them took virtually no time off before welcoming back students to a myriad of summer programs that include credit recovery, camps, training and other enrichment activities. Walk into any of our hosting schools and you will hear the familiar sounds of learning happening – from summer STEM camps and one-on-one meetings with mental health providers to P-Tech orientation and basketball training, our schools are busy.
Add to that the fact that most of our schools are serving as summer meal sites where any child under the age of 18 can receive free breakfast and lunch. As we do every year, the CISD Child Nutrition Department cooks up delicious and nutritious meals for our community even when kids are on vacation. We are cognizant that for some of our families, the meals our schools provide may be the only access to nutrition children may have. For that reason, it is important to continue to provide this service to our families.
Our Facilities and Maintenance Department is very busy, too. The custodians and maintenance crews of the District take the summer to delve deep into the needs of our campuses. Our custodians take the opportunity of empty classrooms to do the type of intense cleaning our parents expect and demand, while our crews are out there doing what they can do to make our campuses look as presentable as possible with the limited facilities resources we have available to the District.
Then there’s Central Office. Our departments are hard at work making sure we make the most out of the summer weeks to develop the programs, resources and support the schools will need to open back up in the fall. Finance is putting the finishing touches on the budget for next year in order to make sure our schools get the funding they need to operate, while Human Resources is setting up interviews and hiring committees to fill job vacancies. Our Curriculum & Instruction Department is working on staff development to help teachers grow and Instructional Technology is imaging and setting up the tools our students and staff will need to learn and lead.
As you can see, Canutillo ISD doesn’t take a break during the summer. We are happy to keep on working to improve the lives of the children of our community. That’s the Canutillo way.
Pedro Galaviz
Superintendent of Schools