Joseph City School District

Our Junior High CAD students spent the week in Fusion, precisely modeling custom, functional "LEGO" bricks from scratch. Next is the ultimate test. We will be printing the blocks to see if they fit well with each other and add them to the growing wall of bricks that sits on my desk.
For Way Back Wednesday, we took those digital designs back to where it all started and traded our mousepads for a giant box of physical LEGOs! Cutting back on screen time in a tech class can be difficult, but building block-by-block is basically human-powered 3D printing. We compared building with LEGOs to 3D Printing—debating layer lines, print orientation.

Turns out, whether you're slicing a model in CAD or stacking bricks on a desk, engineering principles don't change. Hands-on learning, zero screen strain, and only a mild risk of stepping on a brick. I'd call that a way back win!
#CAD #3DPrinting #Fusion #WayBackWednesday #STEM #LEGO #HandsOnLearning

This past week was a blast in the math department at the JH/HS! Our Geometry students became city planners and used midpoints and distance ratios to make a citizens daily life more efficient. Our 7th grade math classes got to use proportions and unit rates to make edible cookie dough and put their own twist on it!! Algebra 2 got to study functions using marble tracks to catch all the points and then describe those paths by equations! Also, shout out to my cross country students for being so thoughtful!

Wildcat Family,

Three things this week, and then something I want to ask of you.

Tonight's game. If you were planning on the home opener, I am sorry. Valley Lutheran canceled on us. Tyler Murphy got on the phone and found our varsity a game rather than let them lose a Friday night, so they are in Bullhead City tonight against Mohave Accelerated. The bus left at noon and they will not be home until very late. If you are making that drive, thank you. Our chess team is on the road too, at a two day tournament at Alchesay.

If our website still shows a home game tonight, it should not, and we are fixing that.

We are going cashless at events, and here is why.

Starting soon, tickets and concessions at our events will be handled through GoFan rather than cash. I want to explain the reasoning instead of just announcing it.

Right now, every home event means someone counting a cash drawer before the game, someone counting it again after, and someone carrying a bag of money to the office. That is our staff, usually volunteers and usually the same handful of people, spending their evening on bookkeeping instead of watching the kids they came to watch. Then it all has to be reconciled by hand in the business office, which is more staff time on the back end.

Going digital means the money lands in the right account automatically, every event balances, and our people are in the stands instead of behind a cash box. It also means our records are clean, which matters more than it sounds like it does when the auditors come.

And we are working on an option for families without a card. We are looking at selling our own prepaid cards that could be purchased right at the front office of either school during the school day, so a student who wants to buy a drink at a game, or a family that would rather use cash, still can. I am not going to put in a system that shuts anybody out. If you have thoughts on that, tell me, because we are still building it. We are not currently ready to sell our own prepaid cards, but in the meantime, prepaid Visa cards are available at many locations in the county.

Now the ask. If you know a family thinking about Joseph City, send them our way.

Our enrollment has fallen about twenty five percent over recent years. In Arizona, school funding follows students, so every family that chooses us is not just another kid in a classroom. It is the difference between keeping programs and cutting them.

And we are worth choosing. This is a district where a student can take college classes through NAVIT and Northland Pioneer before they graduate, where the chemistry classes run real labs, where we have an agriculture program and a pool and an auditorium, and where class sizes are small enough that your kid is known by name by every adult in the building. Open enrollment is available. If you know somebody weighing their options, have them call us or come walk the building. I will show them around myself.

Monday we are home. Volleyball against Holbrook, three levels, starting at 4:00.

Come to that one. Our kids notice who shows up, and this town has always shown up.

Go Wildcats.

Shannon Harvilla

Superintendent

In a special Board Meeting, our Governing Board voted to change our Spring Break to March 15, 2027 – March 19, 2027 to align with NPC’s Spring Break for our students.

Due to this change, our Spring Parent Teacher Conferences will be March 11, 2027 with an early release for students that day.

The public calendar on jcusd.org reflects the changes.

(Thank you to my editor, John R.)

ATTENTION FANS -

We have two important updates regarding High School Athletics:

1. VOLLEYBALL - Mogollon is unable to host their volleyball games with us, Thursday, 8/27.

We will be hosting instead!

FR/JV/Varsity games tomorrow at 4/5/6pm.

2. FOOTBALL - Valley Lutheran has forfeited the Varsity Football game on Friday, 8/28.

We will not be hosting a football game this weekend.

Remember, our games are now cashless. Card only for tickets and concessions.

From AR reading to American Self-Government review stations, my students have been working hard! I’m so proud to see them collaborating, supporting one another, and preparing together for Thursday’s test. Their teamwork makes all the difference!