Connect Canyons

Send us Fan Mail The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to look ahead and make some plans for the future. If you have a child who will be five years old on or before Sept. 1, 2021, kindergarten is one of the things that’s helpful to start thinking about now. Even if it seems your little one couldn’t possibly have grown this fast, now is the time to begin thinking about what kind of kinder...

Send us Fan Mail It seems counterintuitive that the pandemic — a time of lockdowns, quarantines and physical distancing — could bring us closer together. But we crave human connection, especially in times of crisis, and technology, from catch-up sessions over Facebook to Zoom calls, has made it possible to keep those connections alive. Teachers have wrestled with how to harness technology to meani...

Send us Fan Mail For some students, knowing what’s on the lunch menu might not be the most important part of the day. But for Canyons Nutrition Services Department, it’s everything. From taste tests to strict health requirements, locally sourcing ingredients and analyzing what’s a popular meal and what’s not, Canyons goes to great lengths to make sure students have healthy, delicious food choices...

Send us Fan Mail What is Utah’s Permanent State School Fund? That’s a jargony name that may not mean much to some of our listeners. But this fund is special. It has a special place in Utah’s history, it plays a vital role in fueling school improvement, and to understand its origins and purpose, we went straight to the source: The custodian of the school fund, Utah’s State Treasurer Dave Damschen....

Send us Fan Mail Created by a vote of the people, Canyons District has always enjoyed uncommon levels of community support, and this year — when parents, grandparents and patrons ask what they can do to help — invariably, the answer is substitute teach. More do-gooders have signed up to cover classrooms this year than ever. Even so, COVID-related health and safety precautions have heightened deman...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wonder what it’s like to build a course schedule for a public high school? In Canyons District, we refer to this undertaking as “building a board,” which makes it sound like a parlor game. But the process of making sure the courses you offer align with the faculty members who are certified to teach those courses and with what students want or need to take in order to graduate...

Send us Fan Mail What’s the recipe for student success? Relationships, relationships, relationships. Call it a twist on the “three Rs,” but relationships are truly the foundation of all learning, from the time we are infants enthralled in a game of peek-a-boo to the mentors who influence our path through school, college and the workplace. To borrow an oft-quoted phrase:  Students don’t care what y...

Send us Fan Mail This unique school year is giving student body organizations the opportunity to get creative and reach out to students in more meaningful ways. They’re leading by example, adopting new routines, and finding new ways to stage events and assemblies — and while the school year looks different from what they could ever have imagined, they’re willing to do what it takes to stay in scho...

Send us Fan Mail Midvalley Elementary Principal Tamra Baker arrived at school bright and early on Monday, Aug. 24 to make sure final preparations had been completed in time for an historic moment for her school community. It would be a day of firsts for Baker’s Jr. Huskies: The first day back at school since the COVID-19-related dismissal of schools five months ago, the first day of the school yea...

Send us Fan Mail The right of a fair trial by a jury of one’s peers has taken on new meaning with the creation of Canyons District’s Peer Court. Peer courts, also known as youth or teen courts, are a diversion program where youth charged with minor offenses, such as vandalism or fighting, agree to come before a sentencing panel of their peers. Peer Court sentencing is geared toward holding student...

Send us Fan Mail It’s been said that the world has reached peak disinfection as we work to rid our homes and workplaces of any trace of the COVID-19 virus. Indeed, the pandemic has heightened everyone’s interest in the many germ-fighting tools we have at our disposal. But public schools have always prioritized disease prevention, whether we’re talking about common colds and the flu or vaccine-prev...

Send us Fan Mail The COVID-19 health crisis has tested us all, and as the school year approaches, many of us are feeling uneasy about what the future holds. But over the past five months, scientists and medical professionals have learned a great deal about this disease and how to combat it — professionals like Dr. Brandon Webb. A Canyons District parent who works with the Division of Infectious Di...

Send us Fan Mail Joining Canyons School District in the midst of a pandemic that has strained the systems we rely on to keep us healthy, learning and economically stable isn’t how Dr. Rick Robins imagined his first few weeks as Superintendent. But with every challenge, come fresh opportunities, believes Robins — opportunities to restore connections with the communities our schools serve, renew the...