Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, PXU! We are proud to celebrate the culture and heritage of many of our students and staff across the district. Please check out PXU's social media for celebrations throughout the month! 

PXU is now hiring substitute Safety Assistants through ESS! If you successfully refer a friend, you can earn $100 through the ESS referral program. Visit ESS.com/PXU to see the listings. Spread the word! 

EXPO is approaching! This year's EXPO is Saturday, November 7th from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM at Phoenix College. It's not too early to spread the word and let everyone know. If you know anyone with a current 8th grader preparing for high school, encourage them to attend our EXPO! 

PXU is proud to share that Danchi Nguyen, microschool leader at Camelback Montessori, has been selected to participate in The Forum for Educational Leadership's Cohort 14. The Forum employs a comprehensive development model to prepare cohorts of leaders for the academic, political, legal, and logistical rigors inherent to K-12 education. She will attend sessions in early 2027, and her tuition was covered through Teach for America. Congratulations, Ms. Nguyen! 

Camelback Montessori students recently received a shoutout from the Creighton Elementary School District for their hard work volunteering at the Community Garden Acre 51. We are so proud of our students for being so involved in their community! 

Recently, we celebrated Metro Tech Flower Shop's 11th Annual Grand Opening! The students all worked diligently in various roles including floral design, retail sales, management and much more. A few students were even interviews by various local news stations to share the good news about their program. Congratulations to all involved on another triumphant launch of the Flower Shop! If you're looking for a bouquet, a cute plushie, or a variety of other gift ideas, the Metro Tech Flower Shop is open for business on school days during school hours. 

North hosted a College & Career Day where students had assistance from Access ASU, College Depot, and other resources, as well as presentations from PXU’s very own Superintendent, legal team, and CFO. We hope all of the students in attendance learned a lot and feel more equipped for their futures!

Recently, PXU hosted a Classified Professional Development opportunity that was a partnership with the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) to offer a Customer Service Training for classified staff. This was a pilot training designed to strengthen customer service skills and explore how we can continue providing relevant, skill-based professional development opportunities for our classified employees. The training initially focused on employees in clerical and front-office roles, since they are often among the first points of contact for students, families, staff, and community members. We also included other classified employees whose roles involve regular interaction with customers and the school community. The session was interactive and gave participants an opportunity to reflect on customer service practices and how everyday interactions can contribute to a positive experience for those we serve. An important part of this pilot was gathering participant feedback. We plan to use that feedback to determine how the training can be improved, expanded, and potentially offered to additional classified employees in the future. This training is part of our larger effort to provide classified staff with meaningful professional development that supports their work, builds practical skills, and recognizes the important role they play throughout PXU.

Linda Abril hosted a small schools dodgeball tournament for themselves, Bostrom, Bioscience, Franklin, and Wilson We love seeing our small schools come together and build community! We are looking forward to their upcoming sports competitions this school year. 

PXU hosted National Voter Registration Day events across the district earlier this month. We are proud to share that over 200 students who will be 18 by Election Day successfully registered to vote Thank you to all who made this day successful, especially PXU Family & Community Engagement! 

Franklin and Alhambra both completed a Chains of Hope activity in honor of September being Suicide Prevention Month. Students wrote encouraging messages on a chain link and all of the messages were connected, forming a Chain of Hope. We are so proud of both schools for their compassion towards others. 

Franklin recently hosted their annual Community Fair. Attendees had so many things to do like play games, have food, win prizes, see performances, and engage with dozens of community resources. We are so proud of Franklin for always putting community first and putting on this successful event every year. We love you, Franklin! 

PXU would like to give a huge shoutout to the Family & Community Engagement department for a successful September resource distribution. They distributed resources to 190 families and continue to provide critical resources to our families. Way to go, FACE! 

PXU would like to congratulate Patty Sanchez from Desiderata for being selected as one of the APS Supply My Class winners She received $500 to help her purchase items for her classroom and students. Congratulations, Ms. Sanchez! 

Michelle Wagner, an English teacher at Maryvale High School, presented a session at the annual Arizona English Teachers Association at Chandler Gilbert Community College. She presented a session on teaching flash-fiction writing. The session discussed using O. Henry's stories as mentor texts and incorporating creative writing strategies. 

Last year, Chris suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a car accident that left him without movement below his chest and accessible transportation. Corbin Carroll visited him in the hospital and helped purchase an accessible van to help him continue his education. Click the button below to view the story about Corbin's generous gift to Chris: 

Submitted by Bioscience

Dragon Robotics 2375 won the off-season Summer Scorcher 2026 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Event at Cactus High School this past weekend.  In the qualification matches, we had a record of 11-5-0 with the second-highest scoring average of 216 points per match and 42 points in Autonomous Mode of the 22 Arizona and 1 Nevada teams present.  Roughly speaking, a point amounts to one fuel game piece, a yellow 6-inch diameter ball, scored into the hub.

The 16 matches we played (not including playoffs) were considerable for a single FRC event compared to a typical 10. So, the event was a battle of endurance: Which 130-pound robot could hold up for the brutal 16 matches?

Our robot, Spitfire, can pick up game pieces from the ground, hold up to around 60 fuel, and shoot 12 fuel per second. All of our mechanisms must work mechanically and electronically properly to win.

After losing in the finals at the Arizona Robotics League (ARL) event in June, our team decided to rebuild and upgrade the robot to raise our competitive ceiling: widen the shooter for higher scoring throughput and flip the electrical board for easier accessibility. We would be ready and excited for the Summer Scorcher in August.

However, at the start of the event, the Spitfire faced several issues because it was competing with its new upgrades for the very first time. A couple matches into the event, Spitfire’s intake plate split in half. We took the intake apart, replaced the broken plate with a spare all within the 20 minutes before our next match. Next, our Swerve broke. A gear had misaligned, which meant taking the wheel apart fully and replacing the gear with a new one. Despite these obstacles and other robot-mending operations, we finished as the third-ranked team after the first day of competition.

In the end, we were the top pick of the first alliance. Our alliance won every match in the playoffs by an average of nearly 400 points by scoring 604.5 points per match, with our highest score being 681 points total in our final match. Our team gives great thanks to our drive team of Ivan Sesmas (Primary Driver), Iza Lewis (Secondary Driver), Crimson Sotelo (Human player), and Malakai Wilson (Human player) for their tireless dedication and exceptional skill. Po-pe Enrique (Bioscience), Jason Bruso (Bioscience) and Robert Mainieri (MetroTech) are the mentors of Dragon Robotics 2375.

South Softball, Maryvale Softball and Trevor Browne Baseball were all recent recipients of the Play Ball Fund from the Arizona Diamondbacks. They each received a $1,000 grant from the Dbacks, and the opportunity to attend a Dbacks vs. Cubs game! See the video above that includes footage of the teams in their seats at the game! 

Three PXU students participated in a counselor appreciation video created for the AZ College Ready Conference. The following students are included in the above video: 

Jennifer Sarmiento from Maryvale

Landon Clark from Fairfax

Connie Argueta-Alay from Phoenix Coding Academy 

We are so proud of them! 

Recently, Central High School's 828 Marketing Lab collaborated with Share the Spirit Foundation for an amazing community service activity that gave brand new shoes to some students in transition. We are so proud of them for giving back to their community! 

A school is more than a building — it’s a community! When students show up every day, they:  

✔️ Strengthen friendships  

✔️ Stay on track in class  

✔️ Build lifelong learning habits   

Let’s make attendance a priority in PXU. Together, we can help every child thrive! ✨  

We're excited to introduce ParentVUE Absence Reporting, a new way for parents and guardians to notify schools when a student will be absent.

Using ParentVUE, families can:

✔ Report absences anytime
✔ Submit supporting documentation
✔ Stay informed about attendance

If you do not have a ParentVUE account, your school's Family Engagement Liaison can help you get started.

Let’s work together to support student attendance and help every student stay on track for success

If you are a PXU staff member concerned for yourself or a colleague, please don't hesitate to reach out for help. Our Staff Health & Wellness Clinician, Dr. Erika Collins-Frazier, is available to PXU staff. See the flier for details. 

ElevateEdAZ is an initiative of the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation focused on aligning classes and curriculum with workforce needs, creating opportunities for students to apply academics through work-based learning, and increasing student exposure to career pathways. ElevateEdAZ is designed as a model for Arizona schools to better integrate high wage, high demand, high skill career pathways into the K-12 education system. With College and Career Coaches already embedded at the Academies at South Mountain, Metro Tech High School, and Phoenix Coding Academy, ElevateEdAZ looks forward to providing many impactful experiences to students and educators.

We encourage you to share with your networks and encourage students to seek out the resources that ElevateEdAZ provides!

Stay connected with us! If you have any content you would like PXU Marketing to include in the PXU Newsletter or on PXU Social Media, please reach out to Vanessa Herb at vherb@phoenixunion.org.