Verde Valley Schools react to letter grades By WhatsApp Daulton Venglar Schools and districts across the state received their letter grades for the 2024-25 school year at the end of October and beginning of November. Across the Verde Valley, the most common letter grade was a B. Mingus Union High School received a B letter grade. “MUHS has been intentional about strengthening instruction with a focus on research-supported teaching strategies and utilizing our FLEX program to provide students opportunities for targeted academic support,” Mingus Union High School District Superintendent Melody Herne, Ph.D., wrote in a recent email to families. “FLEX allows teachers to schedule students, during the academic day, for dedicated academic help and allows student choice when they need additional enhancements. “While we are encouraged by and we celebrate this growth, we are not satisfied; Mingus Union will continue to push ourselves and our students towards greater academic pursuits, increased mastery, and overall success.” Mountain View Preparatory earned an A while Oak Creek School, Cottonwood Community School and Dr. Daniel Bright School all earned B’s. Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Jessica Vocca discusses COCSD’s grades at length in her “Sup’s Scoop” column on Page 3A of the Wednesday, Nov. 26 edition of the JOURNAL. The Camp Verde Unified School District received a preliminary C grade overall. “These grades represent a tremendous amount of hard work from many people, and we are proud of the dedication shown by our students and staff,” CVUSD Superintendent Steve Hicks wrote in an email. “That said, we are never fully satisfied and welcome the insights this data provides as we continue to improve. We also have an appeal submitted to the state regarding our high school, and it is currently under review.” Camp Verde High School’s grade was higher this year than the elementary and middle schools, but last year, it received an A. Advertisement The appeals process goes through the state education board’s appeals committee and will be determined at the board meeting on Jan. 26 and will be posted online on Feb. 23, according to the education board’s appeals process page. In the coming days, according to the appeals timeline page, the in-depth report cards will become available on azreportcards.azed.gov with more descriptive scoring per school. Because of the appeal, CVHS will be rated “Under Review” until February. The largest increase was West Sedona School’s jump to a B from a D. “West Sedona Elementary earned a high B, coming just 2.98 points shy of an A,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D, wrote in an email to Sedona families. “Even more impressive, the school nearly maxed out its growth points, showing that our students are not just learning but growing at an exceptional rate.” WSS Principal Alisa Steig said it was a shock to receive the D from the state last year, and the school implemented changes to teaching processes. She said parent-teacher conferences are conducted differently now, which allows students to be in the meeting and share their progress with both teacher and parent, which she said also was a leading factor in improving attendance. “Last year our attendance average for the first quarter was 84% and this year it is 93%,” she said. “On the whole, our approach is very student-centered, which is also visible in our extended day programming which now provides academic supports as well, and parents has been very happy with our changes!” Sedona Red Rock High School maintained its B grade, but was even closer to an A. SRRHS “also earned a B, missing an A by only 0.22 points,” Swaninger said in the email. “Like West Sedona, they nearly maximized their growth measures, and our English-learner students earned 8 out of 10 possible growth points. This has historically been an area of challenge, but through intentional and targeted practices it is now becoming one of our strengths.” Swaninger said the letter grade is not the only metric on how the education is growing and the students are achieving, but it’s a good benchmark for comparison. James T Kling James T. Kling grew up from coast to coast living in places like North Carolina and Washington State. He studied political science and history at Purdue University in Indiana, where he also worked for the Purdue Exponent student newspaper covering topics across the state, even traveling across the Midwest for journalism conferences. James has a passion for reading as well as writing, often found reading historical fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. As the name suggests, he is named after Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek. He spends his free time writing creative stories, dancing and playing music. — Advertisement — Source: https://journalaz.com/2025/12/01/42649/