May 30, 2019

Dear Navajo Buffalo Family,

Congratulations, one and all, on the successful conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year! Despite the unforeseen challenges at the beginning of the year, we came together as a community to support our students’ social, emotional and academic needs.

Were it not for all of you and the way in which you embraced Navajo’s hardship, we would not have succeeded in delivering another year of outstanding education to our nearly 350 students. They rebounded strongly, with a smile on their faces, and our teachers buckled down to overcome many obstacles to establish new routines at our temporary Oak Street home. All of us united behind our students, teachers, staff and Buffalo traditions to overcome what would have knocked over most others. I am so proud to lead the Navajo school community!

While you head out for family vacations and some well-deserved downtime, rest assured that the work to return us to our Granite Reef and Camelback campus continues. Barring any unforeseen difficulties, it is still the school district’s intention to send us ‘home’ after Winter Break in the coming school year. We want to thank district leaders for standing behind us through it all. We very much appreciate their willingness to breathe new life back into our fire- and smoke-damaged campus and to make important safety updates along the way. We cannot wait to get home!

In the meantime, we look forward to restoring some of our past practices: When the new school year starts August 5, we will go back to our normal start time of 8:45 a.m. and dismissal time of 3:15 p.m. Also, we will reunite with our PANDA and preschool friends who have been attending class at Hohokam and Pima Traditional schools since August!

Things are looking up. Now it is time to enjoy our families, relax and have some fun – we deserve it!

Have a safe summer, and we look forward to welcoming you to the 2019-2020 school year on Monday, August 5!

Matthew Patzlaff
Proud Principal
mpatzlaff@susd.org