A Publication for

The Boarder

the CFSD Community

Staff

A Summary Report of the May 12, 2015

C F S D Governing Board Meeting
Executive Session
The governing board held an executive session for the
annual performance review of Superintendent Mary
Kamerzell.

Student Recognition

CFSD Star Award

The governing board recognized Catalina Foothills

th
High School 4 Place National Chess Championship
Team. Eileen Jackson, board vice-president, honored
the following individuals with a certificate: Sumhith
Aradhyula, Derek Chen, Aiya Cancio, Amber Fox,
Hugh Fox, Patrick Froehlich, Bryan Hu, Lucas
Johnston, Nicholas Johnston, Eyad Krunz, Rohan
Mittal, Josh Pennock, Jeremy Segal, Udai Singh,
Emma Wing, Kinsleigh Wong, Coach Robby Adamson,
and Assistant Coach Steven Pennock.
The governing board honored the Catalina Foothills
High School (CFHS) All Girls National Championship
Chess Team. Board Member Eileen Jackson honored
the students and coach with a certificate and Star pin.
The students are Aiya Cancio, Amber Fox, Emma
Wing, and Coach Robby Adamson.

The governing board recognized Southern Arizona

Research, Science and Engineering Foundation
(SARSEF) Science Fair project winners. Board
Member Amy Bhola, honored the following students
from all four elementary schools and the high school
with a certificate. Note: Their teachers names are
shown in parenthesis.

Canyon View Elementary School

The governing board honored the Catalina Foothills

st
High School (CFHS) individual 1 place winners in their
categories at the State Speech and Debate
Tournament. Board Member Amy Krauss honored the
students and coaches with a certificate and Star pin.
The students are Sumhith Aradhyula, Sena Maruflu,
Elana Quint, Alexander Relich, and Coaches Taylor
Johnson and Chris Lambert.

2nd grade, 1st place

Ella Wiegand, How does my flower get
power? (Jocelyn Dubs)

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3rd grade, 1st place

Felix Fan, Good wipe, bad wipe, gentle wipe,
harsh wipe (Melissa Schantz)
3rd grade, 2nd place
Julia Beskind, Is Ultraviolet-C light as effective
as alcohol for cleaning your cell
phone? (Melissa Schantz)
Sahasrakshi Dasika and Harini Rajendra, Shoo
away pesticides? (Mary Clark)
3rd grade, 3rd place
Sahasrakshi Dasika and Harini Rajendra, Acid
rain: germinators or terminators?
(Melissa Schantz)
5th grade, 1st place
Aiden Baruch, Improving thermal performance
of emergency shelter for hot climates (Cheryl
Williams)

Bhargav Ghosh, Point of Parabola (Libby

Hays)
5th grade, 2nd place
Emily Kamp, Germ in a Shepherd (Josef
Torres)
5th grade, 3rd place
Rohini Ghosh, Experimenting with Tsunamis
and Wavedepth (Libby Hays)
Catalina Foothills High School
1st place
Sylvia Zarnescu, A novel approach to
treatment for ALS through metabolomics in a
Drosophila model (Terry Fortunato)

Manzanita Elementary School

5th grade, 1st place

Nathaniel Cross, What if Ringo's mom had
made him play the violin? (Elizabeth Pagels)
Simone Gelety, Oh say can you sing? (Kelly
Taylor)
Nathan Kuo, pH-antastic sourdough! (Julie
Stigler)
Noah Wellman, What lives in the holes
outside? Can Raspberry Pi help? (Julie Stigler)
5th grade, 2nd place
Brianna Brinkley, Ant Pheromones (Nina
Hernandez)
Natasha Myer, Project wind (Kelly Taylor)

Maggie Proebsting, Soils that foil? The effect

of soil type on radish growth (Jennifer
DeBenedetti)

5th grade, 3rd place

Emmeline Close, The search for the
Goldilocks ball (Kelly Taylor)
Melina Leonard, Hydroponic vs. organic
growing systems (Elizabeth Pagels)
Elliott Liu, Viewing stars with filters under light
pollution (Julie Stigler)

Sunrise Drive Elementary School

Kindergarten, 1st place

Class of 24, How to sink a
marshmallow (Maura Baker)
1st grade, 2nd place
Basil Wood, Going the distance: which folded
airplane design will fly the farthest? (Allycyn
Jacobs)
2nd grade, 2nd place
Vivianna Colson and Ella Franklin,
Hydrodynamics of swimming
(Natani Sundstrom)
Reid Park Zoological Society Award,
Madeleine Hazzard, Do animals adopt?
(Tieyan Gonzalez)
4th grade, 3rd place
Shaurya Chauhan and Travis Dover, Free
power and energy from the sun (Denise
Ybanez)
5th grade, 3rd place
Class of 4, Snazzy Sudoku - Can Sudoku help
improve memory? (Michelle Luff)
Max Hagerty, Wild fire (Michelle Luff)
Michael Lee, The case of the blue garlic (Teri
DeFoor)

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Arizona Department of Education (ADE) World

Language Standards Committee
Scott Olmstead, CFHS Spanish teacher and
department chair, was selected to serve on the ADE's
Foreign and Native Languages Standards Revision
Committee this past year. Scott was one of 42
representatives from a broad spectrum of K-16
educational institutions. The committee's work product
is a new framework for language learning in Arizona.
He reports that the new standards will seamlessly
integrate into our CFSD curriculum because our world
languages program is already focused on the same
benchmarks.

Ventana Vista Elementary School

Kindergarten, 1st place

Ezra Mandel, How does your Jack-O-Lantern
stay fresh the longest? (Leah Mandel)
1st grade, 3rd place
Ethan Bialis and Annalise Runyon, Which
sunscreen is best? (Jennifer Olson),
2nd grade, 1st place
Zoe Wung, Traffic during morning drop-off and
possible improvement (Shu-Fen Wung)
3rd grade, 1st place
Zoe Iacomini, Do you want a fluffy
pancake? (Christie Iacomini)
3rd grade, 2nd place
Diana Klestadt and Steven Klestadt, Gabions
save the soil (Ingrid Klestadt)
4th grade, 2nd place
Renee Li, Dull or shiny (Yan Lin).

Superintendent Mary Kamerzell shared the following

student and staff achievements.
FIRST Lego League (FLL) - Adult Coach/Mentor of the
Year
Charlotte Ackerman, FLL coach, was named Adult
Coach/Mentor of the Year at the FIRST World Festival
Championship held on April 25. The award goes to the
coach or mentor whose wisdom, guidance, and
devotion are most clearly evident in the team's
discussion with the judges.
Charlotte has coached over 60 FLL teams in her 12year history of coaching in CFSD. Several of her
former students wrote to FIRST Lego League crediting
her teaching as their gateway to studying science at
colleges like CalTech, MIT, Stanford, the University
of Arizona, and Penn State.

Business Office Honor

Congratulations to Director of Finance Sandra
Thompson and the entire CFSD business office staff
for earning the Certificate of Achievement for
Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year
ending on June 30, 2014. It is the highest form of
recognition in governmental accounting and financial
reporting.
FIRST Lego League (FLL) World Festival
Championship
Local Legends, our FLL team competing at the World
Festival Championship, was nominated for four
awards:
Research,
Gracious
Professionalism,
Innovative Solution, and Strategy & Innovation. Team
members are Alex Chiu, Wesley Chiu, Michael Gross,
Josh Tint, and Jeremy Wang.
Arizona State Science and Engineering Fair (AzSEF)
Four Manzanita students were award winners in the
state science fair competition. Simone Gelety and
Nathaniel Cross won first place in behavioral sciences.
Nathan Kuo won second place in chemistry.
Maggie Proebsting won second place in plant
sciences.
KFC (Kasparov Chess Foundation) All-Girls National
Champions
Our Foothills team won the All-Girls National
Championship sponsored by the Kasparov Chess
Foundation of the United States Chess Federation.
Team members are Aiya Cancio, Amber Fox, and
Emma Wing. This was the 12th year of the competition
but the 1st year that we entered a team.
CFSD 2015 Poetry Contest
The following students are our 2015 poetry winners. At
each grade level, the winning poem is listed first,
followed by the honorable mention winner(s). Their
teachers and schools are also noted.
Kindergarten
Winter
The Mop

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Max Auman
Jillian Bea

Jones
Sulik

MZ
MZ

Winter

Giovanni Metzger Jones

MZ

First Grade
Glowing Moon Nathan Kim
Brave
Sophia Ledyard
Rainbow Bridge Grace Seo

Hyde
MZ
Cucciarre MZ
Weeks
CV

Second Grade
Piano Recital
Addison Levine
The Pencil
Romi Gioffredi

Jurgenson SD
Jurgenson SD

Third Grade
Candlestick
Brothers

Vincent Clark
Clark
Megan Longnecker Prucell

CV
SD

Fourth Grade
Tomorrow
Blacks Life

Nick Urbanski
Ally Arreola

Beyer
Dodson

SD
VV

Fifth Grade
An Echo
Natures Quilt

Melina Leonard
Rohini Ghosh

Pagels
Hays

MZ
CV

Sixth Grade
A Willow Sits
Silence

Adam Plante
Staton
EC
Max Rubin-Toles Bindschadler OG

Mistletoe
The Sun Is a
Tyrant

Twelfth Grade
Picture a Room Dakota Garcia
Your Eyes to
Sandra Muller
Mine
He Will Be All
But Forgotten

We Strive for
Perfection

Hill

HS

Mitchell Kaufmann Hill

HS

Tenth Grade
Scarlett Misery Mikelena Panchesin Dennis
To Waltz Upon Mikelena Panchesin Dennis
the Breeze
Love

Dennis

HS
HS

Hill

HS

Elementary School Chess

The Ventana Vista young chess team of 2nd and 3rd
graders placed 6th in the Arizona State Chess
Championship. Team members are Alex Hoover, Zoe
Iacomini, Cooper Medvec, and Walter Zacherl.
Manzanita Elementary
Manzanita's math team that won the county
competition also won the state championship for
Mathleague.org last weekend. Team members are Jad
Bader, Nathan Kuo, Elliot Liu, and Noah Wellman.
Elliot Liu was the top scorer among all students in the
competition. Individual winners also include Annabelle
Samuels - 8th place among Arizona 4th graders; and
among 5th graders, Nathan Kuo - 6th place, Eliot Liu 1st place, and Noah Wellman - 4th place. Their coach
is Kelly Taylor.

HS
HS

Meena Venkataramanan Guajardo HS

Eleventh Grade
The Equal and Hannah Beskind
Opposite Reaction

Kittredge
Hill

Middle School Chess

The Orange Grove Chess Team placed 6th in the
Arizona State Chess Championship. Team members
are Rueshil Fadia, Justin Fritz, Preston Martin, Ryan
Thompson, and Jacob Waitt.

HS

Richelle Sandin Wright

HS
HS

History Day State Championship

CFHS students, Nadia Louri and Elyssia Salamanca,
qualified for Nationals in Washington, D.C. at the April
18 state competition. Nadia won for her website on
Alice Paul, and Elyssia won for her website on Harvey
Wiley. Students Sarah Kaddoura and Aidan Jackson
are alternates.

Eighth Grade
Walking Away
Maddie McCue Staton
EC
From a Strom
Valentines Day Sophie Holtzman Binschadler OG
at Middle School

Annika Lauer

Anthony Delviro

Guajardo
Johnson

Young Author's Competition

CFHS students, Annika Lauer and Haley Chen, are
winners in the 2015 Young Author's Competition held
in conjunction with the Tucson Festival of Books.
Annika won for her story, "Dear Allen", and Haley won
for her story, "The Aspen Leaf, both included in
the Anthology of Winning Entries.

Seventh Grade
Streetlamp
Grace Proebsting Binschadler OG
Trench Paradise Malachi Dodge
Crocchi
EC

Ninth Grade
Things She Left
Behind
Running Sets
Me Free

Brendan Scobie
Natalie Aaronson

Winter Sports All Stars

The following CFHS athletes were recognized by the
Arizona Daily Star:

HS
Girl's Soccer - Player of the Year - Emily Parker; 1st
team - Emily Parker, Alexandria Skidmore, Samantha
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Weisband; 2nd team - Olivia Lai, Sarah Lansey;

Honorable Mention - Meaghan Hawkins, Payton
Maxwell, Brooke Nelson
Boy's Soccer - Player of the Year - Jeremy Siwik; 1st
team - Jeremy Siwik, Grant Hubble, Galen Vincent;
Honorable Mention - Hagan Hyatt, Brandon Le, Prince
Pohi
Wrestling - 2nd team - Zachary Davis; Honorable
Mention - Jacob Davis, James Dick, Bryan Ellwood,
Ryan Martz, Mario Trujillo
Girl's Basketball - Honorable Mention - Caroline
Schulte, Kelsey Siemons

Entrepreneurship and Media Production (Film & TV) for

implementation in the 2015-2016 school year.
Approval of New Middle School World Languages
Course (second reading)
Dr. Conery presented and the board approved the
proposed new middle school world languages course,
Global Citizens, for implementation at Esperero
Canyon Middle School for the 2015-2016 school year.
Public Hearing on Revision of FY15 Budget
President Carole Siegler opened the public hearing for
comments from anyone in attendance. No comments
were expressed, and the public hearing was closed.

State High School Tennis Championship

Approval of Revision of FY15 Budget

Director of Finance Sandra Thompson presented and
the board approved changes that reflected actual vs.
projected revenue and expenditures for the fiscal year
2015 budget.

The CFHS boy's tennis team won the Arizona State

Championship last weekend. Members of the boy's
team are: George Jiang, Mike Lee, Kian Milani, John
Miller, Conner Oseran, Bogdan Racolta, Nate
Rasmussen, Dalton Reisig. The boy's coach is Bill
Wright.

Fiscal Year 2016 Maintenance and Operations

(M&O) Budget
Ms. Thompson gave an update on the FY16 straw
budget, incorporating changes in the areas of prepaid
legal service, property and liability insurance, and
election services fiscal year 2016.

The CFHS girl's tennis team were runners-up (2nd

place). The girl's team members are: Mari Bangoura,
Kirtana Bhat, Morgan Chakroboty, Cierra Colell,
Kendall Colell, Tori Hirsch, Cody Hutchison, Deanna
Pedrahita,Abby Watson, Katie Watson, Halle Zadro.
and Chuck Reisig. The girl's coach is Kristie Stevens.

Consent Agenda Items

The governing board approved the following consent
agenda items.

Boy's Basketball - 3rd team - Dakota Kordsiemon;

Honorable Mention - Nik Nehls, Michael Pecora

Approval of smartschoolsplus Phased Retirement

Program (second reading)
Dr. Kamerzell presented and the board approved the
service agreement with smartschoolsplus, inc.. The
service agreement is a Phased Retirement Program in
CFSD. As a retention strategy, the district has been
working with smartschoolsplus inc. to design a
program whereby retirees can continue working at
CFSD as a contracted employee through a third party
vendor.
Approval of Proposed Revisions to Policy GCQE
Retirement of Professional/Support Staff Members
(second reading)
Dr. Kamerzell presented and the board approved the
proposed changes to the policy that match the
provisions of the smartschoolsplus phased retirement.
Approval of Proposed Revisions to CTE/JTED High
School Courses (second reading)
Associate Superintendent Mary Jo Conery presented
and the board approved the revisions to courses in the
two
high
school
CTE/JTED
programs
of

Page 5 of 6

April 28, 2015, Regular Governing Board Meeting

Minutes memorandum
Expense Voucher memorandum
Field Trip Request memorandum
Fund Raising Request memorandum
Personnel memorandum
Gift and Donations memorandum
Approval of Administrative Contracts for School
Year 2015-2016
Approval of IFB 15-08-19 Backflow Testing &
Maintenance/Reclaimed Water Inspection
memorandum
Approval of IFB 15-07-19 On Call Plumbing
Services memorandum
Approval of Estimated Fiscal Year 2015-2016
Cooperative Purchases memorandum
Approval of Authorization of Use of Signature
Stamps for 2015-2016 memorandum
Approval of Authorized Check Signers for District
Banks Accounts for 2015-2016 memorandum
Approval of Career Ladder Addenda memorandum
Approval of Sole Source Vendors for Fiscal Year
2015-2016 memorandum
Approval of Delegate Authority for Issuance of
Duplicate Warrants for 2015-2016 memorandum

Approval of Authorization for District

Representative for RFP Procurements for Fiscal
Year 2015-2016 memorandum
Approval of Student Activities Treasurer and
Assistant Student Activities Treasurers
memorandum
Approval of Delegation of Authorization to Certify
Cash Balances for Fiscal Year 2015-2016
memorandum
Approval of Authorization for District
Representative for Emergency Procurement and
Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2015-2016
memorandum

Upcoming Board Meeting

The next regularly scheduled governing board meeting
is Tuesday May 26, 2014, 5:00 p.m., Catalina
Foothills High School, Building 4, Room 712.
The tentative agenda is:
Executive Session for Annual Performance Review
of the Superintendent
Consideration of Revisions to Human Growth and
Development Curriculum (first reading)
Approval of Proposed Arizona School Boards
Association (ASBA) Legislative Action Items for
2016
Consideration of Revisions to the CFSD
Performance Award Plan (first reading)
First-Year Implementation of Physical Education
and Health Standards (2014-2015) Report
Fiscal Year 2016 Maintenance and Operations
(M&O) Budget
Review of Capital Needs
o District Additional Assistance (Capital)
Override Technology Proposal
o Bond Project Proposal

CFSD

Please welcome new CFSD staff members:

Katherine Bindschadler, Kindergarten Teacher, VV
Daniela Bober, CS Office Coordinator, CS
Devon Inglee, Art Teacher, VV
Brenda Rivera Lopez, Office Clerk, SD
Kathryn Nizai, History Teacher, CFHS
Kevyn Wakefield, Special Education Teacher, OGMS

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