A+ School of Excellence Archive

We felt that the community of staff, teachers, parents, students, and administration strive to make Lagos a community where everyone feels welcome. The flagship dual language immersion program at Lagos is a point of pride for the school and student/parent community alike. The teachers and students take great pride in teaching and learning in both Spanish and English. The spirit of the school and their greater community is visible in every aspect of the school. Lagos is a special place where students and staff celebrate leadership, community, and language acquisition each and every day.

It was our honor to engage with the school family of Dreaming Summit, and yes, we used that word on purpose as we heard it over and over again from every stakeholder group. Not only did the responses align with the claims made in the application and reasons for the visit, but a true consistency of messages and implementation was heard throughout our visit. We even had this same quote from a first grade student and a teacher, "Dreaming Summit is the greatest school and I hope to never leave."

Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School is a true learning community where the leadership, staff, and families collaborate to ensure students are learning and growing. Cielo’s Firebird Pride is evident among all school members who are genuinely valued, supported, and empowered. Cielo is a neighborhood school loved by longtime staff and countless former students who choose Cielo for their own children.

Each member of the site judging team was impressed that the site visit provided evidence of everything listed in the A+ application. However, even more impressive, was how much more evidence was demonstrated while we were on the Aprende Middle School campus. The campus was clean, orderly, and well-managed. Each of the meetings with the staff, students, and parents brought a common theme of pride in the school in terms of the administration, the teachers, and the feeling tone. Students were genuinely complimentary of their teachers, the Administration was complimentary of their staff and students, and teachers demonstrated appreciation for the Administration and each other. The hallmarks of our visit were pride, respect, and emphasis on the students' academic and individual well-being! Congratulations to all members of the Kyrene Aprende Middle School community!

Kyrene de la Colina provides a safe and caring school where students and families are excited to be a part of the culture. Colina supports inclusion and will do whatever it takes to meet their students needs. Staff have a sense of ownership that all students are theirs and will do what is best to help students achieve excellence! Colina teachers and administration have created a culture of curiosity that is beginning to emerge as a STEM School and are working towards full implementation. Over and over they showed how their community and school family supports everyone.

- Families feel connected and supported by teachers and administration and feel safe to send their children but also safe to bring up concerns when they arise and feel heard and valued.
- Student Agency and the ability to be a part of leadership opportunities across campus.
- Families are included and encouraged to be a part of their children's education from PTA, volunteering in classrooms and the library, eating lunch with their kids and the WATCH D.O.G.S program.
- Staff feel that they are a part of the community and are able to share their ideas to continue to make their campus great. Staff collaborate, feel supported and listened to and continue to come back year after year because of the family they have built with their colleagues and students.
- STEM Room is beginning to take shape and as they are developing this initiative their are great things already taking place with this.