The Cave Creek Unified Education Foundation (CCUEF) is best known for its yearly showcasing of musical talent, Rock the District, which not only grows, presents and applauds our students’ musical talents, but raises much needed dollars for our classrooms.

This year, CCUEF celebrated our teachers whose grants were funded with Grant the District and brought along members of the CCYEF (Cave Creek Youth Education Foundation) and two reporters from CSPress (Cactus Shadows High School’s Award winner student-run newspaper). The annual Grant the District event has a CCUSD school bus traveling to the schools of the teachers receiving grants. Teachers and their classes are brought to the front of the school and surprised by the CCUEF Trustees who jump off the bus with a giant check, balloons and flowers. This year, a student group from Cactus Shadows High School—Cave Creek Youth Education Foundation (CCUYF), also rode the bus, along with a CS Press reporter and photographer, and local dignitaries. Below are this year’s winners:

• Ms. Cardin, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Steward (Black Mountain Elementary) $2,302 for kindergarten Chromebooks;
• Ms. Hendrie (Lone Mountain Elementary) $2,250 for Preschool;
• Ms. Camarasa (Desert Willow Elementary) $2,500 for El periodico;
• Ms. Bayless (Desert Willow Elementary) $2,268 for iPads for the art studio;
• Ms. Kerschbaum (Desert Sun Academy) $2,500 for Don’t Put Your Health in a Pickle;
• Ms. Stumpo and Mr. Nielson (Sonoran Trails Middle School) $1,000 for French 1 & 2 library;
• Ms. Lindstrom, Ms. Dahlke, Ms. Watts and Ms. D’Ambrosi (Sonoran Trials Middle School) $1,844 for Special Education Technology; and
• Mr. Conklin, Ms. Fauss, Ms. Knuteson, Ms. Petrine, Ms. Skinner and Ms. Spiess (Sonoran Trails Middle School) $2,500 for adding technology to the Science lab.

CCUEF’s four pillars are: Classroom Supplies (including Technology); Music and the Arts; Health and Wellness; and International Learning.

Superintendent Burdick said, “CCUEF is a group of dedicated, hard-working volunteers who only want the best for our students and schools. They make sure each year that teachers have the opportunity to access additional resources for their classrooms and CCUSD is so grateful and lucky to have this small but mighty foundation supporting our mission, Inspire Excellence, through their four pillars.”

For more information on CCUEF, visit their website at www.ccuef.org