001good morning Parts welcome back to school and happy New Year Happy New Year [Music] it is with great honor and cold Pride that we welcome all of you here today to celebrate our next step in providing a learning environment that focuses on students physical mental and social well-being last school year we received a letter grade of an a congratulations [Applause] that was on our state testing this shows how bright each and every one of you are and how hard all of you are working to approve academically great job Colts even so we as the administration and all of our staff are always looking for ways to not only improve academics but also create an environment that is fun inviting safe and takes into account the whole child during this past summer Mrs Fanning tipped me
002off to a book called The anxious Generation by Jonathan hay this book explores the data associated with the increase of low self-esteem in our youth today how they got there and explores ways that we can get them out of there and get them back we started this school year at Continental by introducing the concept of a phone free school by providing boxes that the students have the option to put their phones in to take a break from the negativity that of the effects of social media can play on their young fragile and developing Minds we also introduced a club called the let grow plague Club can we recognize our two sponsors can you guys raise your hands there they are thank you to them so far this club allows students the opportunity to get together
003after school and c and and create active play by using self-choice and creativity all the sponsors do is supervise and make sure everybody is safe we increase time for all of our students but by allowing them to have free play time not only at recess but prior to the start of the school day all of this has been in an effort to increase our students self-esteem confidence Independence and social skills which in turn has proven to increase academic success Today We Gather to celebrate the opening of our new and improved playground that is around you which will encourage you students to play compete and socialize as you use this equipment you will experience Joy sadness frustration excitement success and failure just to name a few all of these feelings are okay and are a part
004of life I challenge all of you to embrace these feelings and learn from them focus on conflict resolution self-control and building stronger relationships in the face of conflict learn to rise above a setback or a failure don't let it consume you or hold you back rather take it as a challenge and force yourself to overcome any obstacle you may face in life just six months ago this dream to bring an exciting new playground to you formed I anticipated it would take two complete years I made a plan and I shared that plan with staff parents students the school board local businesses and the Continental Foundation many of these members are standing here behind you today and just like that a dream became a reality almost overnight everyone pitched in and started working towards the end
005goal that we look at today a young man Kell ostly Kell can you come and stand up here with me [Applause] who I will mention was a cult just last year and is now in high school and once a c joined the team and took on this massive undertaking as his Eagle Scout project kale what an amazing job you have done I have seen you in just a few short months gain confidence by coming out of your shell by taking on a leadership role by supervising this project even in the making of this new and improved playground you have unknowingly participated in one of our next programs that our students are going to be doing here at Continental School called the let grow experience in which each of our students will make a plan to
006do something on their own to build self-confidence Independence and trust and respect among their parents and Guardians thank you Kell great [Applause] job next Bing Clark can I get you to come up here [Applause] please Bonnie is president of the Continental School District Education Foundation several months ago she invited Matt from Freeport macaran to educate our admin team on availability of Grants and within a few weeks Bonnie completed and submitted the community investment Grant with Freeport macaran within a month the Continental School District Education Foundation donated $50,000 on behalf of Freeport macaran to this project [Applause] the foundation also wrote and received additional funds for the project to go towards the checkers and chest tables that you see off to my right okay from the country fair white elephant Bonnie thank you for seeing the
007vision and the need and making the the funding happen in lightning speed what a Rockstar you are for years your you supported our school by being a board member and also the school board president it has been almost two decades since your children attended Continental School and yet you continue to set an example to others of selfless service for those looking for opportunities to serve please follow Bonnie's example enjoying the Continental School District found um found they're always looking for volunteers yes we are thank you [Applause] Bonnie as you can see this equipment which includes five cornhole sets two of which are up on the four five playground two ladder ball sets which are located in the back corner over your shoulder four Connect fours two are over here and two are on the Elementary
008playground a pingpong table a foosball table and two tables with five total chess boards um is built to last for Generations even in the Arizona Sun thank you to Doan Suns for creating such a fun yet durable product and providing F fantastic customer service from start to finish [Applause] I would be a Miss if I didn't thank my family of which I have two the first family that I want to thank is my Continental family we often speak of our cult family here thank you to all of you for going along with what may seem at times as crazy and unattainable ideas that will just cause you more work you're support and encouragement in this project have been undeniably amazing to my fellow administrators Mrs quos and Mrs Rico thank you for allowing me to
009run with these ideas and always supporting our students in the most positive Ways by letting us bring fun and creative ideas to them a special thank you to Mr Greg Miss petti Miss Jenna Miss do Mr and Mrs Curtis for helping with the logistics and ordering of everything we have and setting up for today they deserve a round of [Applause] applause and now for my own family it's sometimes hard being the kids of a school administrator not only did my kids have to listen to the anxious G ation while on a family vacation while driving but they had to hear me speak about it nonstop ever since and then have spent hours helping with the Sweat Equity of building the playground as we worked side by side I'd also like to thank L Aldridge another
010former Continental cult for putting in over 30 hours the past two weeks of manual labor to help bring this project to you side by side with kale is L with us today and then there's my wife not only has she supported me over these years but has taken the concept of the free play to a whole new level also today Continental School opened up for the first time as sensory walk and a sensory garden to include a continental Labyrinth compliments of Lenny fredman chrisy pulled all of this off in just a few short weeks in an effort to create an inviting campus for all and adding a joyful relaxing and meditative environment many of you I know use that um the the walk this morning did you guys enjoy that was that pretty cool to
011thank you to all of the parents and students who have helped her so far in this continuous Endeavor I am so fortunate to have you as my partner who always helps me obtain my dreams that are almost always Continental cult related thank [Music] you and now I would like to thank all of our sponsors and volunteers the white level sponsors the Blum family the hitchner family The Sweeney family the mcgivan family the struski family the herck family Mr Albert's family Michelle's Creative Design miros Allen and for our blue level sponsors Royal and Sarah Martin final stand LMC Dr jaw orthodontist Triple Play grg construction ultimate Design Studios Busy B Signs for our cult level sponsors MBA Research Services Trio Freeport macaran Continental School District Education Foundation Country Fair white elephant Santa Rita Ranch Incorporated and
012Dave Allen and Linda Downey those last two I want to give a special shout out to as you see building concrete equipment is not light and to the Sanita Ranch and Dave Ellen they gave an entire day the first day you weren't here from school the first day of break they came with their tractors and helped us get all this offloaded of a truck and put in place for you so special thank you to all of our sponsors I would also like to thank Lenny fredman and his group of volunteers representing USA pickleball Association and Madera church members for continuing to paint the court lines on the basketball court and around campus as you see it took him an entire day to paint that basketball court um on Saturday so thank you for U Madera
013church for coming and doing that and as you see the green pickleball court here Lenny fredman and his group of volunteers a big thank you to the all the staff parent students and community members for all your hard work in volunteering to make this project happen and I know you're all freezing and tired to hear me talk so here we go and lastly to all of you current and future Continental Colts who will use this playground work hard and play harder don't be afraid to put down your phones set down your controllers and your remotes go outside explore the world explore your world seek out opportunities to be a friend to everybody find your Independence and let yourself develop into a productive contributing member of society it is my wish for this playground to serve
014as a catalyst to help all who play here to create strong confident kind and independent youth you are the future and the future is bright because of you let grow at this time we'd love to hear from our amazing principal Mrs P can and I challenge to some uh chess today at lunch I think he'll beat me but I look forward to watching all of you play and I really want to thank from the bottom of my heart everybody all of our community members everyone who's come out to support and volunteer who's always there for us I'd like to thank the Continental Continental Educational Foundation for all of the support that you give us we have a Gayla that's coming up and they do so much work for our students for our staff and they
015volunteer their time to raise funds and money for all of these wonderful and beautiful opportunities that they help to provide here for our school so we thank you if we could give a round of applause to our foundation I would also like to give other special thanks to asly for your hard work Kale like this is amazing um you're a true example of what a leader is and I thank you for your leadership and for not forgetting about Continental you're an alumni here and you're going to be forever family and we thank you for all the beautiful things you've done for our students so if we could get a round of applause for kale we thank alri as well for coming out to help I'd like to thank uh Mrs lean and I know she
016also collaborated with our social education department with our uh director Mrs mindis swades and thinking about and planning the sensory walk that you'll see when you do walk um through between the K1 pod and the second third grade pods you'll see that and you'll start to see more of it as it grows but I'd like to thank the students that also came out to help which was Max roas Olivia roas and um I know I'm forgetting Max wera Max wera and if I could have Mrs Salsbury and Mrs Mrs Hoff please come forward over here Mr pilman and Mrs Fanning if you could please also come forward [Applause] so Mrs Salsbury Mrs Hoff are the letro after Club sponsors they did a lot of work and research with reading um the anxious generation book this
017summer and and a lot of research for us as well so thank you for your tireless work and efforts and helping us bring this this club to fruition for our students so if we could give them a round of applause please Mr pilman is and um Mr lean mentioned Mrs Fanning she sent an email to all of us right before we went on summer break about recommending the book The Engish generation and it was also because of Mr pilman and Mr pilman read it and recommended it to her she then recommended it to all of us so in doing that Mr lean started to read it it it started to turn into all of us reading it and this is where we're at today so we thank all of you every single one of you
018and the students thank you because we've been seeing your kindness we've been seeing all the stuff that you've been doing around our campus with the with the equipment that we've had this far and we thank you for for the respect how you're learning how to play with each other um learning how to line up how to take turns problem solving creating Solutions so we thank you for that continue to be amazing Colts and we're excited for you to play with all of this today thank [Applause] you and now we'd like to hear from Mr ouly our amazing School Board president good morning finally Mr L had a good idea right so we all do some jumping jacks get warm but all this stuff that we see here no other places have this I've lived all
019over this country and been to a lot of different schools and to have this our grass that we got last year the shade structures all the things are amazing and it's all for you guys and just enjoy it take care of it and thank you everybody that has helped on all these [Music] endeavors bnie if we could please get you to come up and say a few words and Matt's going to join her from fre Port mcar I'm Bonnie clar and I am the President of the Continental School District Educational Foundation and I'm very proud to be so um we started the foundation in 2000 we're going to have our 25th anniversary in June of this year and we have try to do all kinds of things to enrich the educational experience of all of
020you kids my kids are in their 30s they graduated a long time ago but we have always had the inspiration to pay it forward so that all the kids that are coming through Continental have the same experience that my children had to help them with the foundation to go on to healthy lives um as stepen said if he came to the Continental School foundation in September and said can you help us raise money for this this program and so I said yeah we'll try and do that so we I got met Matt this is Matt Soder and he is at Freeport macaran and he's in charge of all the uh grants that are given out uh by Freeport macaran who give out millions of dollars to Southern Arizona so I met Matt and so Matt
021and I worked and we did the the grant together really because he was giving me a lot of advice the reason is because we want you students to be successful and this is your foundation and now you are going to be able to play while you're you're learning so that is the reason that we did this so you guys take advantage of this and have a wonderful school year and a wonderful life thank you [Applause] I also want to just give a shout out to Michelle wera and Mr and Mrs U for also helping with the sensory walk we really appreciate all your help over break [Applause] [Music] hey everybody how's cental doing today anybody cold know I am I'm scout master Bob I run the Scout Troop that Kale's a part of he came
022to us about two years ago and I knew that he was gonna do some great things I didn't know you were gonna do it this quickly but he did it great just want to let you know so this is the the end of his uh Eagle Scout project just giv you idea of how important it is to be an eagle scout of all the people who start scouting only 4% make it to Eagle Scout 4% that's one out of every 25 people so what he's done here is a pretty amazing thing and it's very challenging to get up there and do it and that's it um just so you know if you make it to Eagle Scout it's yours for life and it helps you if you want to go to college it get you
023kind of closer to the front of the line I know a lot of you kind of still young and not thinking about that but tell your parents that okay and also if you want to join the military it helps you advance and rank a lot faster so being an eagle scout is a big deal it's not just something you get to stick on your uniform it's a big deal so I just want everybody to do me one big favor um if you're interested in becoming a scout you can ask Mrs austr Le who's over there someplace Mrs ustr raise your hand Mrs ustr there she is way in the back there if anybody's interested in being a scout you have to be 10 years old or older and let her know and she'll get you
024in touch with me and finally can everybody just grab your cheeks like this and do this ready go all right do that okay all right thanks a lot everybody take [Applause] care all right and at this time we're gonna turn the mic over to our amazing superintendent Mrs Rico hi everybody run in place move around move your arms get a little bit of TR we are almost done thank you thank you um I would also like to uh to thank Miss Debbie Morales is's here from the Salita Town Council so thank you Debbie um Continental board members can you please step up so that our students can see how many of you are on the board on our foundation board our Continental Elementary Foundation board come forward forward forward like over here forward so that
025everybody can see you these are members of our foundation who um we've been alluding to who helped Bonnie clar is President these are uh Julie ceri is Vice President we have Mr EGU Mr asly Miss romanell so again these are the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes for all of us so can we just give our Continental Foundation board Applause as well thank you thank you very much okay we've said a lot and I just truly appreciate all of you for being here with us today we are so proud of our staff of our students of everybody that helps make Continental a great cult family and make it who we are so I know you have thank you notes so those of you who have the thank you cards I am going to say
026Colts and we're all going to say thank you and you can hold them up and you're thanking all these people that are here behind us ready I say cold you say I say cult you say I say C you say all right you're all very very welcome and we can hardly wait to come out and play with you um during lunchtime morning time so we really appreciate you all thank you than you so much and we are going to be cutting the ribbon all right and now for the moment we've all been waiting for can we please have Bonnie Matt Mr usty K UST and Debbie Morales please come up to the front for the ribbon cutting can we have students with the thank you signs just come up here maybe you can be on
027the side on the sides please for the photo thank you s all right let's give him a countdown from five everybody ready 5 4 3 2 1 your program is now open to play for you for years to come congratulations coach at this time at this time I'd ask each one that help the said come you didn't know this I'm gonna surprise you but over here beags you have to be the first ones to throw so if I can please get you to come over here to theal and be the first be fin [Music] all right let's give him a round of applause thank you thank you all so much for coming and be out here today I know wasn't the west of morning students at this time you can go ahead and head back
028eighth graders eighth graders we're going to ask that you stay here if you get to be the first person play on the equipment