The speaker crackles as the new yellow school bus grazes bumps, shuffling Superintendent Kevin Stoltzfus in his seat.
Nonetheless, he continues with Flowing Wells Unified School District trivia.
“And that is our newest school in the district. The Emily Meschter Early Learning Center on Prince Road,” he tells the busload of 20 new teachers. “The Emily Meschter Early Learning Center is named after Emily Meschter, who is an incredible philanthropist who supported the district over the years” when she sponsored a class of fourth graders at Laguna Elementary in 1994, promising to pay for their college education if they completed high school, he said.
“We are now rolling up to Flowing Wells Junior High School, home of the Mustangs,” Stoltzfus says.
“Woooooooo!”
“YEAH,” shouts a teacher from the back of the school bus.
Whistles and claps fill the bus as it comes to a short stop at Flowing Wells Junior High on La Cholla Boulevard.
The stop is one of 11 on the new teacher bus tour of the Flowing Wells Unified School District, one of the smallest districts in the Tucson Area. Twenty teachers joined administrators last week to check out 13 square miles of the district and its schools.
“The bus tour is about culture,” said Flowing Wells Director of Professional Development Megan Larson. “How do we build culture in our classrooms between kids, between teachers and kids, and then how do we also get to know the culture of the district? And one of the ways is we prove it through the bus tour: Take a look at these other school sites and look at how welcoming and excited they are.”
Staffers greet the bus at each stop. Homemade neon signs and hats are visible from the bus bay. Administrators hop on at each stop. Candy peeks out of goody bags. An Uncrustables PB&J, mini bag of chips, and a Capri-Sun come in another.
“They know these people are in their corner and they know that we really are a tiny district. We can bus tour 13 square miles pretty quickly,” Larson said. “So when you meet someone from Hendricks (Elementary), they’re just up the street, or if you meet someone from Douglas (Elementary), they’re just down the street a bit from you.”
That small-town feel and family atmosphere is a reason educators and administrators all say they choose to work for Flowing Wells, which has about 5,200 students in north Tucson. The area was farmland in the early 20th century and Flowing Wells High School opened in 1954.
Just over 72% of Flowing Wells District students identify as Latino according to the Arizona Department of Education. And its students and teachers stay. In the 24-25 school year, Flowing Wells retained 86 percent of its teachers, according to a state department of education survey.
The district awaits news this week on Flowing Wells Junior High teacher Emily Godlove, who is one of five finalists for Arizona Teacher of the Year. And its high schools: Flowing Wells High and Sentinel Peak High were both rated A+ schools by the Arizona Educational Foundation, a nonprofit celebrating excellence in public education across the state.
Last week’s bus tour was part of the district’s induction program for new teachers. It includes teacher instruction, classroom management and culminates with the bus tour, giving educators the chance to see other schools, along with the neighborhoods where most of their students live.
“Getting to see everyone introduced with the band and the cheerleaders was a highlight today,” said Flowing Wells High physics teacher Isabella Olin after she got off the bus. “I was also a student teacher here at the high school last year so it was also fun seeing some of my students from last year celebrating us when we were coming in.”
As a University of Arizona student from Yuma, Olin made the switch from astronomy researcher to teaching. She earned her master’s degree and chose to teach at Flowing Wells after a “fun” district-wide faculty meeting.
“The first introduction I had to Flowing Wells when I started my student teaching was their district-wide faculty meeting. It is a high-energy event with dances and people just cheering each other on,” she said. “And I left that so excited because I am kind of extroverted and I like the pep and community. I was like, ‘Wow this is a really special place.’”
New chemistry teacher Jennifer Winkenwerder spent over three decades in the military and sought out Flowing Wells because of its professional development program.
“I’ve lived all over the place. I interviewed in three different states: Multiple positions in Arizona, one in Iowa and two in Minnesota,” she said. “And just the sense of family in Flowing Wells and wanting everyone to succeed and the programs that they had for teachers, I could tell they were really vested.”
Winkenwerder begins her teaching career at Flowing Wells High when classes begin today for everyone, including district’s 297 certified teachers.
Showing educators where students live and play and walk to school connects them to students, Larson said. “We need kids to be the focus of everything we do.”
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