June 2019

Dear Parents, Community and CCUSD Staff,

On Thursday evening, May 23^rd, the Cactus Shadows Class of 2019 graduated at Grand Canyon University’s arena.  Here is the Class of 2019, By the Numbers:

• The Falcon Class of 2019 has 434 graduates.  Seventy-two are from our CS eLearning Program and 8 were early graduates.
• One hundred and ninety-one of our graduates have been with us from kindergarten.
• We have 220 female graduates and 214 males. 
• Their combined GPA is a 3.41 on a weighted scale and the highest is at 4.917--Congratulations to Valedictorian Luke Rodriguez for your effort and scholarly accomplishments!We had four seniors who had perfect attendance in their four years at CSHS: Mason Knape, Rochelle Ring, Gregory Pierce and Cassidy Schwartzott.Generation Z is known to want to make a difference. Forty-three seniors participated in the Superintendent’s Challenge over the 4 years accruing 9459 hours of community service.  Of those, 34 seniors completed the Challenge—which is 200 hours over four years-and 12 seniors received a varsity letter or pin for completing over 200 hours of community service this school year—so proud of them!I would like to highlight Senior Alexis Stoner—the senior with the most hours over her 4 years who had 701.5 hours of community service. Alexis earned a Varsity letter previously and a pin for her letter this year for 200+ hours in one school year. 
• On AzMERIT, our state exam, the Class of 2019 ranked in the top 7% of AZ high schools for English Language Arts and top 18% for Algebra II—contributing to Cactus Shadows reclaiming their A grade.
• Three hundred and eighty-seven are going onto college and 12 to the military to serve our country. Three will be attending other types of schools. Two are moving onto an apprenticeship and 7 onto Career Education. Seventeen students will move onto the world of work and 4 are taking the year off.
• They have earned $16,343,078 in scholarships to date with 478 total scholarships. If divided equally, this averages $37,657 per graduate.
• Eighteen of our student athletes have signed letters of intent.
• And as far as programs go, the Class of 2019 should be very ready for college and actually starting with college credits already earned:

• Twenty-six seniors were in the IB program;
• Eleven seniors were in the Puma College Connection or Early College;
• Three hundred and seventy-five seniors took PVCC Dual Enrollment courses;
• Two hundred and twenty-four seniors took AP courses over their 4 years.
• And, 401 seniors were enrolled in a CTE or Career and Technical Education Class, over the 4 years.

• And, representing some of our favorite alums from Cactus Shadows High School, thank you to the 11 educators who returned to teach at CSHS:

• Cameron Bender
• Andrew Cupo
• Brittney Dodd
• Elissa Ericson
• Kelsey Garner
• Gracie Goulder
• Molly Gum
• Adam Hillier
• Caitlin Leja
• Doni Nasr, and
• Karson Shipp

Congratulations to the Cactus Shadows Class of 2019!

Respectfully,

Debbi C. Burdick, Ed.D.
Superintendent