Welcome to Continental School District, home of the Continental Colts! We are a small school district located in Green Valley, Arizona, approximately 20 miles south of Tucson, and 40 miles north of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. There are many exciting and beautiful things to see here in our area of the desert southwest.

Our school serves around 550 students in pre-school through 8th grade. We are very proud of our outstanding students and dedicated teachers. Because of their efforts, our school received the “Excelling School” title in 2007 from the Arizona Department of Education. We have high expectations for the students in our care and we are devoted to their success.
 
We hope you will spend some time on our new Web site. We have tried to include information you may need about our school and District, as well as Helpful Links we hope you'll find useful. If you would like to contact us directly, we would love to visit with you. We look forward to getting to know the people in our community who make Continental School District a supportive place to learn and grow.

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year. Below is information for families and staff for the fall semester.

Registration (all students): July 19th – 22nd 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
                                                 July 20th evening registration, 3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

The office staff is currently enrolling new and continuing students for school. Registration has changed to make the process a bit easier for returning families. It is most important for the school to have accurate emergency information from the first day of school.

Meet and Greet Ice Cream Social: August 2nd 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Parents and students are invited to see the classrooms, meet the teachers, enjoy some ice cream, and get information from our hosts, the Parent Teacher Club. This is a come and go event designed to orient parents and students before school starts. Please join us!

First Day of School: August 3rd, normal school day (see school and bus schedules).

School starts on Tuesday, August 3rd with all students reporting for a regular day of school. We hope that all students will be registered and in attendance since the funding for the school next year is based on the first 100 days of Average Daily Membership (ADM) this year. If you have not registered your children by August 3rd, they do not count for funding purposes until the day they are registered.

Superintendent/Principal’s Message, Dr. Virginia Juettner

Returning to Continental School District after so many years in Alaska feels like coming home. I taught 1st-3rd grades from 1970-1976. Continental was my first school bond and construction experience. During the 1970’s, there were 9 teachers, K-8, one for each grade. We had a superintendent/principal, a business manager, and some part-time help in the business office as well as a lunch program and bus/maintenance staff. I started teaching at the old school site down the hill and spent three years teaching in a doublewide trailer. It is wonderful to see the growth of the district and the school’s fine reputation for producing excellent students and good citizens.

We have many challenges and many exciting possibilities this year. The budget is tight and the Board had to make hard financial decisions. Whether you call it doing more with less or working smarter, we are challenged to maintain the high quality of education with less funding.

One initiative, the Solar Project, offers the opportunity to control escalating energy costs by becoming the first solar school in Arizona. The funding for this is secure and construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in about a month if all goes well. This project will cause some physical changes to the school grounds, but will not have a heavy impact on students, teachers, or parents. We will be working with traffic patterns when this project starts and I will keep you posted.

In November, there will be a bond for a new school building and an override election. Parents, as well as all other voters, will be given complete information on both the school bond and the override.

Because I am new the school community (only Yolanda is still here from my teaching days), I want to spend this year learning about the new Continental School and the interests and priorities of parents, teachers, staff, students, and community. I want to know what you treasure and what you want to change or improve. I want to know the dreams you have for your children’s education and how we can work together to achieve those dreams. I want to know if you have visions for schooling that haven’t been explored or solutions that haven’t been tried.

I would also like to have some fun along the way and develop new friendships. I am an avid reader and have an interest in book groups. In my last school, we formed a parent/teacher/staff book group. I wonder if Continental School has fostered reading by sharing good books across audiences. Some of the best books on the market are books being written for children.

I love the wonderful Arizona weather. I was a hiker, climber, backpacker, and member of search and rescue in my past life. I plan to get back to some of these activities as time permits. In the 1970’s I took my third grade class camping one spring after the students spent the year planning the trip including budget, food shopping, cooking on a camp fire, and earning the funds to pay for the bus. I know that Continental teachers plan some wonderful field trips to enrich their classroom instruction and look forward to new learning adventures for our students.

This is a very busy time for all of us as we prepare for a successful school year. Though busy, if you have any questions, needs, comments or just want to talk, please contact me and I will do my best to get back to you in a timely fashion. My e-mail is vjuettner@csd39.org and this is an easy way to get in touch. You can also call the school number, 625-4581, and ask for me. I look forward to meeting and getting to know parents, students, and staff as we start the school year.

Virginia Juettner, PhD, Superintendent/ Principal