Outstanding Achievements
We have a long tradition of outstanding students and staff.
Here are the district's previous outstanding achievements.
12-10-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Catalina Foothills High School's Counseling Department nominated seven outstanding sophomores for participation in the prestigious Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) Seminar; CFHS senior student selected for the Arizona All-State Jazz Clinic Choir; Fifteen Esperero Canyon Middle School students selected and participated in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) statewide Contaremos Honor Choirs in November while ECMS Julia Higgins, Choir Director, served as choral educator and CFHS Jeffrey Evans, Choir Director, served as clinician and conductor; CFSD hosted the Tucson Regional First Lego League (FLL) tournament at Orange Grove Middle School where six CFSD teams of elementary and middle school students will advance to compete in the Arizona FLL State Challenge Competition in Tempe, AZ on January 18, 2025.
11-4-24 Outstanding Achievements:
CFSD schools earn an “A” rating from the Arizona Department of Education; SDES achieved a perfect score of 100 in the Arizona Accountability Model; Seven CFHS seniors have been named National Merit Semifinalists; CFHS girls’ golf team competed in the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division II State Championship; CFSD choirs earned the title of Superior with Distinction at Fall Festival; ECMS student is a winner of the annual AZ529 Essay Writing Contest; CFHS boys' golf team delivered an outstanding performance at the Division II State Golf Championship; CFHS Falcon Marching Band achieved remarkable success at the University of Arizona’s Band Day competition.
10-22-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Approximately 100 choir students from Catalina Foothills High School, Esperero Canyon Middle School, and Orange Grove Middle School performed the National Anthem at the Arizona Diamondbacks game to an audience of 41,192 fans; Catalina Foothills High School has earned a place on the College Board's Advanced Placement School Honor Roll for the 2023-24 school year; The Catalina Foothills High School Falcon Marching Band delivered an outstanding performance at the 2024 Arizona Regional Championship.
10-1-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Two CFHS students have achieved a perfect ACT score; Eight CFHS students have been recognized as Commended Students in the National Merit® Scholarship Program; CFHS Junior is one of three Tucson junior golfers who qualified for the Pebble Beach at the PURE Insurance Championship Impacting First Tee tournament; CFHS tech theatre students went to Live Theatre Workshop in preparation for the state competition in November.
9-10-24 Outstanding Achievements:
CFHS Boys Golf team placed 2nd in the Brophy Rodeo National Golf Invitational at Grayhawk: Twenty-five students from CFHS have been awarded National Recognition by the College Board, setting a new record for our high school; CFHS Junior was named the girls champion of the cross-country Rio Rico Rattler Cross Country Invitational; Seventh grader at Esperero Canyon Middle School, has been named one of the Top 300 Junior Innovators in the 2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC).
8-13-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Hughes Federal Credit Union awarded two CFHS graduating seniors $2,000 scholarships to pursue higher education. Scholarship recipients are Class of 2024 graduates Siena Hazel Davoli-Boen and Anderson Peters; CFHS senior Nina Raju was a finalist in the U.S. Department of State’s 2024 NSLI-Y Russian Summer Program in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
5-14-24 Outstanding Achievements:
MZES Maura Baker, gifted specialist, was honored with the Tucson Values Teachers' (TVT) Award; Two CFHS Juniors will represent CFHS at Boys State 2024; Three CFHS students have been selected to participate in the KEYS Research Internship; Fifty-nine CFHS students were recently inducted into the National Honor Society (NHS); Three CFHS students were invited to compete at the Junior Olympics; CFHS Art student placed first at the Congressional Art Show; CFHS Advanced Theatre students took home multiple awards at the Southern Arizona Festival of Theatre; Five CFHS students participated as members of the Arizona All-State Choir; Thirteen CFHS student athletes signed letter of intent at the NCAA National Signing Day 2024; CFHS yearbook from last year was selected once again to be featured; CFHS senior won Best Actor at the Monte Awards; OGMS boys and girls track and field team won the league championship; OGMS 8th grade volleyball team won the division championship; OGMS 7th grade baseball team won the league championship.
4-9-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Multiple students from several CFSD schools placed well in the Arizona Regional Science & Engineering Fair (SARSEF); Two CFHS students are 2024 Flinn Scholars; CFSD 2024 Poetry Contest Winners have been announced; CFHS art student was chosen as one of five winners of the Outstanding Emerging High School Artist Award; OGMS student won 1st place in the
Aline Goodman Young Artist Award competition; Our district has been recognized with a Best Communities for Music Education Award; CFHS senior in our Early Childhood Education program received the Gold Medal award in her interview competition at this year's state Family, Career and Community Leaders of America competition.
3-12-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Two CFHS Juniors were selected for the 2024 Arizona Girls State; Twenty-four CFHS students were selected for the Arizona Music Educators Association (AMEA) Regional Honor Choir; Sixty-Eight band students were selected for the AMEA Regional Honor Band and Regional Honor Orchestra Winds; Eleven Sunrise Drive students placed in the Chinese Language Teachers Association speech contest; Three CFHS seniors were chosen for the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards; Pioneer Robotics won the MOTIVATE Award at state competition; Two CFHS Seniors were named 2024 National Merit Scholarship Finalists; Two CFHS Intermediate Theatre Arts students were selected as finalists to participate in the regional Shakespeare competition at the University of Arizona; Three CFHS Art students were selected by the Arizona Art Education Association for a special exhibit at the Western Spirit Museum; Ten CFHS DECA students competed at State. Five are going on to the International Center Development Conference; Our three CFHS orchestras performed well at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association's (ABODA) Area Concert Festival; The ECMS band also performed well at an ABODA Festival.
2-13-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Esperero Canyon Middle School Counselor is named Arizona's Counselor of the Year; Two CFHS Seniors are among the recently named 36 Flinn Scholarship Finalists; The 2023 CFHS Falcon Yearbook received a 1st Place Award from the Arizona Scholastic Association; The CFSD Foundation announced its 5 finalists for the 2024 Teacher of the Year award; CFHS Senior has received the prestigious Navy ROTC Scholarship; CFHS DECA students competed at the District 3 conference; CFHS high school choir members performed at the Arizona Tier 1 Solo & Ensemble Festival; CFHS theatre department did very well at the AZ Thespian Regional Festival; CFHS placed first at the Science Olympiad invitational tournament; CFHS VEX Robotics Club participated recently in a VEX Robotics Challenge(VRC); At the 2024 FIRST LEGO League State Championship, CFSD teams had a strong showing; CFHS Graphic Design students participated recently in the Quickfire Design challenge; Two CFHS girls basketball players were named to the Arizona Interscholastic Association's All-Region 1st Team; Five of our students have been admitted to the STARTALK Chinese language program.
1-9-24 Outstanding Achievements:
Esperero Canyon Middle School 8th grade boys’ basketball team are the Northwest League Champions; Orange Grove's Science Olympiad Team, “The Atoms,” on December 12, scored first place overall at the Science Olympiad competition; At the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) AZ Diamondback Tucson Qualifier on December 16, CFHS Pioneer Robotics earned two awards recognizing the team's overall excellence and gracious professionalism.
12-12-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Congratulations to our 8 FIRST Lego League robotics teams with elementary and middle school students who competed in the 2023-24 FLL "Masterpiece" season challenge and competed in the Tucson Regional FLL tournament on Saturday, December 3rd. And good luck to the teams that won awards and are advancing to the state tournament in January.
11-14-23 Outstanding Achievements:
All of CFSD's K-12 schools (elementary, middle, and high) were graded A by the Arizona Department of Education; Concert Chorale, Concert Silver and Change of Pace earned the highest possible rating, Superior with Distinction, at the regional Fall Choral Festival hosted by CFHS; The Sinfonia and Symphonic Strings orchestras performed at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association Fall Orchestra Festival. Sinfonia earned an Excellent with Recognition and Symphonic Strings earned a Superior with Distinction; The Marching Falcons represented CFHS at the Bands of America Festival in Flagstaff, AZ. The Marching Falcons returned home having earned 8th place overall and 2nd place amongst the bands from Arizona; CFHS Varsity and JV Cheer teams both won first place at the Arizona Crown championships; At the State Championship, Foothills Girls Swim and Dive came in second overall; Advanced Theatre students represented in the tech challenge by two teams, and one won 2nd place in quickest costume change at the Arizona State Thespian Festival; CFHS Boys Golf earned four of the 2023 Southern Arizona Boys Golf All-Star awards from All Sports Tucson; Emaan Iftikhar, CFHS's nominee for the UofA 2023 Young Women of Impact, was recognized for her commitment to and demonstration of six core values of UofA.
10-3-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Congratulations to our National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students. The semifinalists are Ethan Blakely, Matalyn Hall, and Luke Sadalla. The commended students are Ethan Beckett, Rylee Chung, Jude Fell, Zakary Gruber, Ethan Jeon, Benjamin Upton, and Cyrus Zhang; At the first competition of the 2023 marching season, the Mountain View High School Show, our CFHS Falcon Marching Band swept all of the caption awards (General Effect, Music, Visual, Auxiliary and Percussion!) and scored a 1st Place Win in the 5A division; CFHS senior Henry Bonomolo is part of a select group admitted into Apple Developer Lab to work with experts to test, refine, and enhance his app on multiple platforms. Henry developed an app that enables students with cognitive and/or visual impairments to program the robots in the LEGO Education Spike Prime sets; The Orange Grove Middle School cross country teams ended their successful cross country season at the NW League championships. The girl's team won the championship and the boy's team earned 4th place.
9-12-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Congratulations to the eight Catalina Foothills High School students who have been awarded National Recognition from the College Board. These students earned this academic honor because of their outstanding performance on the PSAT/NMSQT® and/or AP® Exams and a GPA of 3.5 or higher; National Hispanic Recognition Award: Diego Baca, Henry Bonomolo, Ivanna
Viloria Enciso, Lauren Thompson, and Eliza Cabrera Urzen; National African American Recognition Award: Mariah Bime, Quincy Hopkins, and Julian Safo.
6-13-23 Outstanding Achievements:
CFHS sophomore Nina Raju received a Melikian Center Award, which provides scholarships for distinguished applicants to study any language at ASU's Critical Language Center; For their performance in Urinetown, The musical, Vivianna Colson, Lance Jacobson, and Kiera Kuehnle were selected as semi-finalists to compete at the Monte Awards; At the 2023 Arizona High School Open Track & Field Championships on May 13, CFHS senior Brandon Martz finished first in the boys 3200 with a time of 9:16.84, making him the state champion.
5-9-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Three Esperero students ("Brick Bros" team) won first place at the first ever Tucson Mini-Master LEGO Building Competition; At the Division II tennis doubles state championships on May 1, the CFHS team of Jason Jia and Santiago Lietzau won 1st place; The CFHS boys and girls tennis teams won the Division II State Championship. The boys tennis team has set a new Arizona record with nine consecutive state championships; CFHS Kiera Kuehnle, Intermediate Theatre Arts student, participated in the National Shakespeare Competition in New York City; At the All-State Choir Festival, CFHS's Julia Jonas was asked to perform as part of the Tier III honors recital inside Gammage Hall at ASU ; Two CFHS Computer Programming students qualified to go to the National Competition in the Computer Game & Simulation Programming event; Several Orange Grove 8th graders participated in the Arizona Council of Economics Education competition; On April 15, the Orange Grove track teams took 1st place for the girls and 3rd place for the boys at the Kiwanis de Amigos Relays.
4-11-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Eight (8) Esperero choir students participated in the Arizona Music Educators Association Junior High All-State Choir; The high school Sinfonia Orchestra earned a Superior with Distinction at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association Area Festival; CFHS senior performed in the Arizona Percussive Arts Society festival; CFHS photography student won "Special Recognition" at the Pima County Library Art Invitational; Multiple CFSD students and their projects were winners at the Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation (SARSEF) science fair.
3-14-23 Outstanding Achievements:
The CFSD Foundation announced its Teachers of the Year; CFHS Falcon Pomline won 1st place at the Pink State Championship; Sunrise Drive 5th grader was among the 12 winners at the Tucson Festival of Books of the Aline Goodman Young Artist Award 2023; Two CFHS Theatre Arts students represented CFHS and competed at the English Speaking Union's 36th Annual Shakespeare Competition at the U of A; Four CFHS Graphic Design students competed in the Tucson Area High School Graphic Design Championships; Twelve CFHS athletes signed their letter of intent for athletics at the NCAA Signing Day; CFHS Sophomore was named Arizona Central's Athlete of the Week; Two Catalina Foothills High School teams reached the final four in the 5A state championships; CFHS Change of Pace performed at the 2023 Jazz Madrigal Festival hosted by Northern Arizona University; CFHS singers held 1st chair positions in the Soprano, Alto, and Tenor sections at the Arizona Music Educators High School Regional Festival; CFHS Colorguard took 1st place at the recent Mt. View Winterguard Invitational; At the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Concert Band Festival three CFHS concert bands received the top rating of Superior with Distinction; At the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Concert Band Festival three CFHS concert bands received the top rating of Superior with Distinction; Pioneer 327 won three judged awards at the FIRST Tech Challenge state championship at Northern Arizona University; DECA students attended the State Career Development Conference, the flagship conference of Arizona DECA.
2-14-23 Outstanding Achievements:
Congratulations to 3rd grade Canyon View teacher for earning her National Board Certification and to MZ 1st-2nd multiage and CFSD learning support specialist for renewing their certification; Congratulations to CFHS Assistant Director of Bands who was recognized with the O.M. Hartsell Award for excellence in music education; Congratulations to two CFSD students (CV 2nd grade) and (OG 6th grade) who were named runners-up in Governor's "An Arizona for Everyone" inaugural art contest; Congratulations to CFHS senior who was named one of the 82 Flinn Scholarship Semifinalists; Congratulations to two Esperero students who took 2nd place at the Arizona State Championship Blitz Chess Tournament; Congratulations to three Sunrise Drive 1st grade chess team members who won 1st place in the state chess tournament on January 21; Congratulations to CV 5th grade student who is CFSD's spelling champion for 2023; Congratulations to CFHS senior who was named the 2022-2023 Arizona Boys Cross Country Player of the Year by Gatorade; Congratulations to the CFHS Pioneer Robotics who was named the recipient of the INSPIRE award (overall winner) at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Diamondback Qualifier; Congratulations to two CFHS student musicians who performed in the Arizona All-State Jazz on February 2nd; Congratulations to the CFHS Colorguard who took 1st place at the Mountain View Winterguard Invitation on February 11.
12-13-22 Outstanding Achievements:
Six CFHS athletes signed their Letters of Intent to continue to pursue both their academic education and athletics in college; Community Schools fielded six FIRST Lego League teams at the regional tournament on December 3rd where team Grocery Gurus became the regional tournament champions.
11-8-22 Outstanding Achievements:
All CFSD schools earned an "A" letter grade by the Arizona Department of Education; Several Esperero Middle School and Canyon View Elementary students were selected by audition to participate in the Arizona Choir Directors Association State Cantaremos Honor Choirs; The high school's Sinfonia Orchestra performed at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association (ABODA) Fall Orchestra Festival and received a Superior rating; The high school's Concert Chorale, Concert Silver and Change of Pace competed in the Arizona Choral Educators Fall Festival at Palo Verde High School where all three choirs received the highest possible award of "Superior with Distinction; The high school's Falcon Band received a top score in Music, Visual Performance, and General Effect at the U of A Band Day; At the Eye of the Tiger 2022 Cross Country meet hosted by Marana High School, both the CFHS girls and boys teams placed first in their divisions in the 5000 meter run finals; The CFHS boys golf team placed 3rd in the Division II State Tournament and the CFHS girls golf team placed 8th in the state tournament; The CFHS boys and girls XC teams competed in a tournament at Rio Rico. The boys placed 2nd in their region and the girls placed 1st in their region; The CFHS swim & dive teams competed at the Division II state finals last Saturday in Paradise Valley. The girls team placed 3rd overall, and the boys finished 7th.