Family matters: The Sunnyside Unified School District is opening a family resource center in Los Ranchitos, in partnership with United Way of Southern Arizona, University of Arizona journalism student Eric Trujillo reports1. The First Things First Family Resource Center will offer workshops for parents and childcare assistance, and will include private meeting spaces for parents to discuss other urgent needs. The center will be the second in Southern Arizona, with the first opening last month in the Sahuarita Food Bank. (October 17, 2023)

Every student in the Sunnyside Unified School District now can get free breakfast and lunch on school days. The district announced last week that all students enrolled at any of their 21 school campuses are eligible, effective last Friday. The district won’t have to take on any additional cost to do it, thanks to the expansion of the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program. The move also means less paperwork. Before the expansion, Sunnyside families and households had to apply for the free and reduced lunch program. Now, they don’t have to fill out applications or show they meet any monetary thresholds. (March 4) (Tucson Agenda)

In school board news, Sunnyside Unified School District employees can now pursue higher education at no cost through American Intercontinental University. AIU is an online university that allows students to pursue their associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees at their own pace. Eligible SUSD employees can get a grant and all costs not covered by the grant are billed directly to SUSD, so they can study without taking on debt or out-of-pocket costs. Degrees they can pursue under the grant include Master of Education, Doctor of Education and Leadership, and Master of Arts in Education. (April 1) (Tucson Agenda)

Like a lot of school districts in Arizona, Sunnyside received money from a nationwide settlement with the vaping company JUUL. The governing board decided last week to deposit the $310,000 they expect to get from the settlement into their litigation recovery fund, to help with future legal costs. Statewide, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office received $14.5 million from the lawsuit, which was filed in 2021 and claimed JUUL’s marketing strategy targeted minors, SUSD’s Chief Financial Officer Karla Walter told the governing board last week. The litigation was filed on behalf of 16 million students at 1,500 schools nationwide, including schools in SUSD and Tucson Unified. Walter said that after all legal fees and costs were covered, SUSD would receive their share in installments through January 2027. (April 1) (Tucson Agenda)

Hard to take time off: Some teachers in Sunnyside Unified School District have accrued hundreds of hours of paid time off, and that’s causing a headache for district officials, Arizona Sonoran News’ Refugio Del Cid reports. The district has to pay a substitute teacher when the regular teacher takes time off, which could cost the district a lot of money. For example, the district would have to spend nearly $40,000 if two Desert View High School teachers who’ve accrued hundreds of hours of paid time off used all their PTO. The district is trying to figure out their options, like buyback or payout programs. (May 7)

Helping out: Desert View High School students made prosthetics and took them to people in Peru, the Arizona Daily Star’s Jessica Votipka reports. Students in computer-aided drafting classes designed the prosthetics and then students in precision manufacturing classes used 3D printers to make them. When they got to Peru, people in need of prosthetics came from around the country, creating an emotional experience for the eight Desert View students who made the trip. (February 13)

Over at the Sunnyside Unified School District, officials launched a program to teach middle schoolers about gun violence. In light of the risk to Tucson’s youth, SUSD partnered with the Tucson Police Department, University of Arizona trauma surgeons, and students on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. Their weapon prevention and awareness program started with presentations at Apollo Middle School that show facts about gun violence and moderately graphic images. The plan is to expand it to other middle schools this spring, district officials said at the March 5 governing board meeting. Due to the troubling nature of the presentations, parents were notified beforehand and given the chance for their children to opt out of the program.

“It’s not a matter of if you’ve experienced it, it’s a matter of when you will. It’s a really sad, heavy hard truth, and I just don’t know that it’s possible to get through a full career here without experiencing it (gun violence) firsthand,” said Andy Townsend, executive director of SUSD Student Services. (March 18) (Tucson Agenda)

Career connections: Sunnyside Unified School District is expanding its CommunityShare program to all schools within the district, Arizona Sonoran News’ Refugio Del Cid reports. The program helps prepare students for careers in technology and related fields by providing them with opportunities like field trips and networking with current and retired professionals, including architects, engineers, conservationists and others. The program is currently active in 11 of the district’s 18 elementary and middle schools. (April 3)