This week, we recognize #extraordinary students and staff making an impact from inside the four walls of a classroom, a lead counselor who fiercely advocates for the well-being of our students, and even students themselves who represented DVUSD with spirit and energy– performing on a national stage! 

2024 Arizona School Counselors Association Advocate of the Year

We begin tonight by honoring the 2024 Arizona School Counselors Association Advocate of the Year - Deer Valley High School’s own, Denise Darre! 

The Arizona Counselors Association recognizes an advocate of the year as someone who has shown exemplary support of school counseling services, outstanding promotion of school counseling services, implementation of new or additional school counseling services, and/or improvement of existing school counseling services. The purpose of the Advocate of the Year Award is to recognize persons who have demonstrated their belief in and support of school counseling programs and who have made an impact on the local, state, or national level. 

Denise is a fierce advocate for all counselors in the district. She works closely with each group of school level counselors including all the elementary school, middle school, and high school counselors throughout DVUSD. Denise develops comprehensive best practices and trains new counselors every year, as well as connecting new counselors with mentors. 

She collaborates with district leadership regularly to improve counseling services and to advocate on counselors' behalf. She implements district-wide programs including a series of evening events for high school seniors to help them discover their next possible paths in life. These events include: Public Arizona University Night, Private Arizona University Night, and Find Your Career Night. 

She has also advocated at the state level, recently meeting with Governor Hobbs regarding SB1717. This bill was passed through the legislature and was signed by Governor Hobbs to increase access to dual enrollment for high school students across the state of Arizona. She also helped revamp the self-harm documentation processes in the district to help keep students safe while making the workload manageable for counselors. She contributed to grant writing to increase the number of school counselors. Denise also enacted one-on-one ECAP meetings at the high school level for more focused, individualized conversations. And, she also happens to work as not only the district counselor coordinator, but, she is a counselor herself at Deer Valley High School with a full caseload of students while tirelessly advocating on behalf of all DVUSD school counselors and students.

Congratulations to the 2024 Arizona School Counselors Association Advocate of the Year, Denise Darre!

DVEF Teachers of the Year, Rookie of the Year & National Board Certified Teachers

We continue recognizing skilled and dedicated teachers who have gained the respect and admiration of students, parents, and co-workers, and who have the superior ability to help students achieve. Since 1986, The Deer Valley Education Foundation, also known as DVEF, has supported the work and achievement of Deer Valley students and staff. And, for the past 30 years, they have recognized our most outstanding teachers.  This group of teachers is selected after an extensive nomination, application and interview process. 

DVEF would like to thank their sponsors: Discover Financial, Chasse Building Team, McCarthy, CORE Construction, Grads Photography, Delta Kappa Gamma, and Valley Schools.

Each teacher of the year receives a trophy, a rose from Delta Kappa Gamma Society, and a check for $500. Now here are our Teachers of the Year for 2022-23:

Carrie Bauer (West Wing School)

Emmett Burnton (Boulder Creek High School)

Kimberlee Donat (Gavilan Peak School)

Steve Hrovat (Greenbrier Elementary) 

Dr. Caryn Kunz (Sunset Ridge School)

Katherine Richardson (Canyon Springs STEM Academy)

Tiffany Roose (Diamond Canyon School) 

Mary Smitten (Norterra Canyon School) 

Courtney Sutton (West Wing School)

Lindsay Trefzger (West Wing School) 

Buffy Vandenboom (Terramar Academy of the Arts)

Shanna Weible (Inspiration Mountain School) 

Enpengfei Zhao (Gavilan Peak School) 

Liam Morales (Boulder Creek High School) We welcome Liam Morales who has been named Rookie of the Year joining the Boulder Creek faculty teaching 10^th grade English Language Arts. 

National Board Certification is the most respected professional certification available in education and provides numerous benefits to teachers, students and schools. It's a rigorous and voluntary process that requires educators to demonstrate their advanced knowledge, skills, and commitment to student success. Achieving National Board Certification signifies a teacher's dedication to continuous improvement and reflects their effectiveness in the classroom. It is an achievement that only 3% of the nation’s teachers have achieved.

This year we have two teachers within DVUSD who have earned the certification for the very first time, and three teachers or DVUSD staff members who have maintained their certification!

Laura Altmaier (Canyon Springs STEM Academy) 

Lisa Byers (New River Elementary)

Maintaining National Board Certification demonstrates a teacher’s continued dedication to education, student learning, and professional growth. These teachers have maintained their NBCT status. 

Stefanie Ewbank (Deer Valley Teacher Prep Program)

Anne Farmer (Sonoran Foothills School)

Judi Williams (Anthem School)

Thank you to all the #extraordinary educators for the incredible work you do in your classrooms each and every day! 

Mountain Ridge POM Varisty and JV National Champions

Finally, we honore a group of athletes you might just recognize from their state championship runner-up title we recognized a few short weeks ago. 

This year at the 2024 USA National Championships in Anaheim, CA, the Mountain Ridge POM team medaled in ALL 5 of their divisions, including two national championships in both the High School All in One Game Day division, as well as the JV Pom Advanced division.

The Mountain Lions left it all on the stage, and were named BACK TO BACK national champions for Ridge Pom in this division.

The JV competition team also won their first-ever national championship in the JV Pom Advanced Small division out of 9 teams, following their exciting state championship win at the JV State Championships this past January. Additionally, Ridge Pom  had two national-runner up titles in both the JV Jazz and Varsity Pom divisions, and a 3rd place finish in the varsity jazz category out of 21 teams. 

Mountain Ridge High School history was made by this team this year placing top-3 in all 5 divisions, and their coaches could not be more proud of the incredible ending to this season. 

Congratulations to Mountain Ridge High School’s Varsity and Junior varsity squads for their Game Day National Championships and national championship runner-up titles!

Congratulations to all of our Governing Board award winners and honorees!