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People say that you sometimes don’t know what you have until it’s gone, and COVID-19 brought this reality into sharp focus for many students, families and employees this past year. For many, 2020 helped remind us of the incredible value of a vibrant, thriving public school district like Liberty.
But many don't know that Arizona funds K-12 education at nearly the lowest level in the nation - 47th compared to all other states.
The Liberty District community has a long history of recognizing the importance of education and the importance of local control to address Arizona’s education funding disparity. Since 1983, our community has supported the continuation of a 10% budget override to approve additional funding above what the state provides. Please note that this is not a new tax, and 100% of the funding goes to pay teachers to offer programs for kids.
For less than $12 a month for the average homeowner, voter approval of an override will ensure our ability to continue offering programs to students like art, music, physical education, and full-day kindergarten classes as well as after school sports programs (Based on an estimated tax rate of $0.71 per $100 assessed valuation - home assessed value divided by $1,000 X $0.71).
If the override is not passed, starting next year, the district will need to cut the override budget by 33% for each of the next three years.
Click here to read more about the maintenance and operations budget override.
School Messenger for Parents and Guardians
School Messenger is a new program that parents and guardians in the Liberty Elementary District can use to stay informed with events happening at their child's school. The School Messenger app brings together messages from the district, school and your child’s teacher in one app, so all school communications can be easily found in one place.
School Messenger allows you to set preferences for how you would like to be communicated with — voice messages, email, text messages or a combination. To get started, just follow these instructions:
3. Download the School Messenger app for your Apple or Android device
It's that simple! Once you have created an account and downloaded the app, you'll soon begin to receive messages using the methods you set in your account.
Be a Learning Hero has developed anew Arizona webpage for families to help jumpstart their student's future. This includes a school Readiness Check to help assess a student's reading and math skills.
Check out this tool
IRS payments are made automatically to taxpayers who qualified on their 2020 tax returns, meaning outreach efforts are needed for low and no-income families who may not be aware that they qualify.
The IRS has a tool that can not only ensure families receive their Advance Payments, but also help them receive missed Economic Impact Payments (EIP). This could amount to over $14,000 for a family-in-need with two adults and two children.
Patron Bus Tours Join us for a tour of two schools in our district to gain an insider's view. Participants will start their morning boarding a school bus with Superintendent Shough as the tour guide. At each school, patrons will get to see classes in progress, learn about the school's signature program, and see firsthand what students are learning. It will be a great opportunity to hear both student and teacher perspectives on the opportunities and challenges schools face. Participants will also be able to discuss topics of interest as well as learn more about current issues in the district. To register, please fill out this form. Liberty will send a confirmation email with boarding information.
October 13th, 8:00 am to 10:45 am
Las Brisas Academy
Westar Elementary
Your Help is Needed with Meal Applications
Liberty ESD continues to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students at all campuses this school year. However, we highly encourage all families to turn in a meal application today to take advantage of the additional benefits and ensure your school continues to receive funding. Applications can be sent via email to lgallegos@liberty25.org or dropped off at your school front office. Thank you!
Support your child with the important reading sub skill of phonemic awareness from anywhere. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. You may wonder why phonemic awareness is so critical for reading.
It's because it primes readers for mapping speech to print, connecting sounds with written symbols, and it also gives children a way to approach sounding out, thus blending sounds to make and read new words. You can do the following in the car to support students with phonemic awareness:
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
• Sing rhyming songs
• Match pictures of objects that rhyme
Recognize and produce words beginning with the same sound (alliteration).
• Match your child’s name with a describing word that begins with the same sound (e.g., Terrific Tony) or with things like (Irene likes ice cream)
• Using pictures, have your child make up stories using phrases in which each word in the phrase has the same beginning sound.
• Use your child’s name to show a link between letters and sounds. Say, “John, the word ‘jump’ begins with the same sound as your name. John. Jump. And they both begin with the same letter ‘j’.
Segment sentences into their individual words.
• Say a sentence and have your child count the words in each sentence.
Need Childcare
Before or After School?
Register now for LEAP. Children may be enrolled from any school. If the program is not offered at your home school, transportation is provided. Click here for more information.
Support your child with the important reading sub skill of phonemic awareness from anywhere. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. You may wonder why phonemic awareness is so critical for reading.
