Dear Canutillo Community,
This week, Associate Superintendent Dr. Debra Kerney, Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction Jesica Arellano and I spent time in Austin to attend the first session of the Leadership Collaborative at the Holdsworth Center. The Center is one of the state’s most illustrious education training outfits and admission to its program is highly competitive. It’s therefore an honor for us three to represent Canutillo ISD and to be able to bring back home some of the outstanding initiatives that will ultimately benefit our students and community.
The focus of this 18-month program is to help districts develop corps of highly motivated aspiring principals who are ready to tackle the challenges of leading modern school systems. The three of us will work with Holdsworth experts to define what great leadership looks like in Canutillo and use this definition to design systems and structures to strengthen the principal pipeline.
I strongly believe that the most impactful person in a student's academic growth is the classroom teacher. Second on that list is an effective principal. Therefore, it is imperative for us as a District to not only do our best to find outstanding training for teachers, but that we also do so for our principals and potential principals. Canutillo ISD is blessed to count on the leadership of amazing administrators, but we know that our strength is sustainable only if we continue to build on the leadership of these assistant principals and principals.
Speaking of teachers and principals, we are ready to welcome back our instructional staff for the 2023-24 academic year. Teachers return to work on Monday and we will kick off the weeklong training with an amazing GRIT convocation at Canutillo High School. On top of job-alike staff development, teachers will hear from celebrated educator and motivational speaker Dr. Doug “Luff” Luffborough.
Welcome back, teachers! Let’s do great things for our kidos!
Pedro Galaviz
Superintendent of Schools