Superintendent’s Office

Message from Our Superintendent

Superintendent’s Message: October 2024

Dear Parents, Students, and Community Members,

Welcome to October, a month where the valley cools off and sports heat up, or at least that’s the expectation. However, on this first day of October we wake up to a high of 113 degrees, our Cardinals are just 1-3 after an embarrassing loss to the Commanders, and the Diamondbacks struggled during the final weeks of the regular season and missed the playoffs by one game. The most devastating sporting event was our loss of the River Rock to Agua Fria for the second consecutive year. Yet, we still have plenty to celebrate.

Commitment Day had a very successful launch, and we are already planning on improvements for next year. Fox 10 and West Valley View had some good coverage of the event. In case you missed it, you can view the Fox 10 coverage on Commitment Day, and we are leaving our Commitment Day webpage up for any students who may need contact information for a booth they missed.

We also had our Professional Development Day on September 25. This was an opportunity for all our staff members, teachers, classified employees, bus drivers, food service workers, and administrators to sharpen their skills. We had an active campus at Copper Canyon High School where our adults had a chance to go from class to class. Some of the popular classes included ways to use Artificial Intelligence to help you make more efficient use of your time and deliver more effective lessons. We know that we need to master AI quickly so we can then shift our focus to teaching students how to use AI. It’s more than just being able to type into Chat GPT. Our students need to know the proper way to prompt AI to generate quality responses and how to use their critical thinking skills to determine when a response needs more prompting or just some editing.

I also want to celebrate our dedicated teachers and our community. There is a nationwide teacher shortage, and based on a report released by the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, “25.4% of teacher vacancies across the state this year remain unfilled, while 52.2% of the vacancies are filled by teachers who do not meet the state’s standard certification requirements.” In our district, we have 687 teaching positions with five vacancies and four teachers on emergency certification. That’s less than one percent for each measurement. This unprecedented success is only possible due to our dedicated teachers and our tremendous support from the community.

As you know, October is a busy month filled with a variety of activities that highlight Hispanic Heritage Month, from mid-September to mid-October. No doubt our schools will be busy working on projects to promote this, especially during Dia de los Muertos. As a district that is nearly 80% Hispanic, we want to be sure to honor the heritage of those who attend our schools and have populated the Tolleson area for more than 100 years.

October is now also our month of kindness. When you picture an act of kindness, I want you to view it as a single domino where you have no concept of what is behind it. As you put that first domino in motion, it seems like such a simple gesture, but it can put other dominoes into motion and then begin to launch multiple lines of dominoes. In your eyes ,you just opened a door or helped pick up some fallen items. We want to encourage kindness, which is why we have launched a Kindness Campaign. It is a contest that is open to any TUHSD student or staff member. We are looking for video submissions where you can nominate yourself or someone else’s act of kindness. Those can be submitted by emailing our Public Relations department. There are prizes, too. They include a grand prize of ten tickets plus a VIP party at the new Mattel Adventure Park in Glendale. First prize gets four tickets to the adventure park, and second and third prize winners will get two tickets. View our video with the Kindness Campaign contest rules. You never know when the kindness you show today will put into motion the kindness you receive tomorrow, so always be kind.

Whether you just moved into the neighborhood, or your family has been here for generations, I want to thank you for your commitment and support to the Tolleson Union High School District. You are what makes our district a remarkable place to learn, grow, and thrive. I am proud to be a part of this extraordinary community, and I look forward to all the wonderful experiences this month will bring.

Upcoming Days of No School:

• Fall Break – October 7–11 (School resumes on Monday, October 14)

Wishing you all a fantastic October.

Be sure to follow our Linktree page to see all of our social media platforms.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Calles

Jeremy Calles
Superintendent
Tolleson Union High School District