A2  PALO VERDE VALLEY TIMES, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018

Corrections &
Clarifications
In the Jan. 31 edition of the Palo Verde Valley
Times, an incorrect headline appeared on page A2.
The headline should have read “Robbery suspect
caught, arrested by BPD”. The Times regrets the
error.

Obituary
Jerome Kenneth Lutz II
April 7, 1956-January 10, 2018
After a brief illness, Jerome
Kenneth Lutz II passed away
peacefully on January 10,
2018, surrounded by his wife
and three children in Las
Vegas, NV.

On April 7, 1956, Jerome

Kenneth Lutz II was born in
Maryville, IL to Jerome
Kenneth Lutz I and Dolores
June Lutz. At the age of 17,
PHOTO BY CATHYLEEN RICE/PALO VERDE VALLEY TIMES Jerry joined the United States
DYLAN HAWKINS (CENTERED) WAS AWARDED BY  the friendly staff at Ruth Brown Elementary School for being one of many Navy as an air force mechanic.
students attending school each day, during the month of January. With the support of the principal Cintia Robinson, right of He also did stints in the Air Force Reserves from 1982-
Hawkins, senior attendance clerk Lindsey Stewart right of Robinson and Narciso Pedroza left of Hawkins, the school continually 1983 and Army Reserves from 1989-1990. After the
rises through the rank in the district to improve on their having perfect attendance. military, he made the Department of Corrections his
career. He then moved to Arizona in 1987, worked for

Ruth Brown Elementary combats and

the Arizona Department of Corrections until moving to
Blythe, California in 1994. He worked at Chuckawalla
Valley State Prison until a work related injury in 2006
where he medically retired from in 2010.

improve perfect attendance markings
BY CATHYLEEN RICE the students to want to
TIMES REPORTER attend school everyday,
it was a no-brainer to
Plan, prepare,
implement and improve: start awarding those
those are the steps Ruth who received perfect
Brown Elementary staff attendance.
has executed since the Since developing a
schoolwide attendance
start of the new year
strategy that will
in hopes of increasing
incentivize students’
the school’s perfect
efforts by using the host
attendance percentage.
school’s parent club
However, Stewart said,
“For these drawings
it’s not perfect, perfect
attendance, it’s no
absences for the month; so
if they came in tardy, they
still will have a chance
to win. If they had to
leave early for a doctor’s
appointment, they still
will have a chance to win,
because they were here.”
He married his wife Vickie Lutz from Mesa, AZ on
September 11, 1987. They welcomed their daughter
Kayla in 1989 and twin boys, Matthew and Michael in
1997.
to confront and heighten
their percentages across He is survived by his wife Vickie Lutz, his children Kayla
the board. Lutz, Matthew Lutz and Michael Lutz, brothers Ben Lutz
(Terry) and Lenny Lutz (Cindy) and sister Spring Wild.
The State Board of And also countless nieces, nephews and cousins. He is
Education says, “The preceded in death by his mother and father.
importance of attendance
is clear; students There will be a private ceremony at a later date to lay
need to be present in him to rest.
Please sign the guestbook at
school to benefit from www.legacy.com/obituaries/paloverdevalleytimes
the curriculum, meet
academic and other

Science as a
With the support diploma requirements,
funding, Stewart and According to the and [to] partake in special
of Narciso Pedroza, Pedroza are working national and state
the school’s dropout opportunities that school
closely together to help initiative organization, offers.”
prevention specialist,

and Lindsey Stewart,
the senior (attendance)
clerk, devising an action
plan to help reduce the
chronic absences, as of
Jan. 31, Meliton Sanchez,
the Palo Verde Unified
School District Director
of Business Services
proudly reported to the
Times that Ruth Brown
is definitely improving
considerably.
By monitoring and
understanding the
attendance trend of its
pupils, key school staff
members like Pedroza
and Stewart have, “daily
attendance meetings in
the morning,” where
the pair, “brainstorm
all the time and come
up with ideas,” to help
raise perfect attendance,
as Pedroza shared last
Friday.
According to Stewart,
working as a team to find
out what would interest
cultivate a desire among
students to want to attend
and be in school all day.
And according to both
staff members, their plan
is working.
The school awarded
their first student, eighth
grader Dylan Hawkins,
with a Nintendo Switch
for having perfect
attendance. Hawkins
was selected by a random
drawing.
Pedroza said, “It’s the
latest gadget out there
so I thought that just by
providing the chance for
kids to win that, it would
create a buzz [that would]
make all the kids want to
[earn perfect attendance].
With high expectations
for students continually
working hard to be in
attendance every day
and learn, both Pedroza
and Stewart are looking
forward to awarding
perfect attendance
students every month.
Attendance Works,
“Across the country,
more than 7 million
students are missing so
many days of school,”
which results in “chronic
absences which means a
student misses 10 percent
or more of school days.”
Steward said “Because
we cover Ripley and
Palo Verde, a lot of our
students were not coming
to school if they had a
runny nose or was sick.
They didn’t want to come.
Our attendance wasn’t
great. It’s been the highest
this year in I’d say a few
years.”
Even in instances
when a child misses
his or her bus, Pedroza
said the school offers to
pick the student up, to
make sure they’re given
the opportunity to be in
school that day.
Every school in
the district has been
implementing new ways
To stay on a steady
trend of improvement,
at the end of this month,
both Stewart and Pedroza
will be awarding one
lucky student with a
Playstation 4!
He said, “At the end of
February, the school is
planning to give away a
Playstation 4 and some
gift cards, because we
want more than just one
student to win, and for the
month of March we have
a carnival plan, [where]
the challenge for March
will be, if we can get two
days of everyone coming
to school, meaning every
child at school for just
two days in the month
of March, we’re going
to hire a carnival from
Arizona to come down
and we’re going to have a
carnival here on campus
for the kids. All the kids
will get to eat and play for
free.”
universal language
ASU professor’s STEM initiative
virtually puts Phoenix, Egyptian
students in the same classroom
BY LEAH GOLDBERG
CRONKITE NEWS
PHOENIX — To
improve communication
between people from
different cultures, an
Arizona State University
professor has developed
the Leadership Through
Problem-Based Learning
Initiative, based on the
idea that science is a
universal language.
Peter Rillero, associate
professor of science
education at ASU, created
the grant-funded STEM
(science, technology,
engineering and
mathematics) program
to teach high-school girls
to solve complex, real-
difference between
Egypt and Arizona,
students and teachers
said they continue to
build friendships and
communicate outside of
class. Ahmed Hussein,
the director of the Al
Farouk school, recalled
how one of his students
in Egypt and a student
from the United States
communicated through
Facebook for about three
hours just getting to know
each other.
Marilyn Ghazoul, a
sophomore at Xavier
College Preparatory and
STEM biology student,
said the things she

Church world problems involving

biology and physics. The
first noticed about her
Egyptian partners were

Briefs program is available to the structure of their

Feb. 16
Movie night
The Faith for Life
Church of Ehrenberg,
4911 Ehrenberg Road,
will have free movie
night on Friday, Feb.
16 at 6 p.m. Everyone
is invited to enjoy a
Christian film and
refreshments. For more
information, call Leon
Travis at (760) 238-2738.
Need to place an ad?
Give us a call! (760)
922-3181
young women at Xavier
College Preparatory, a
Catholic all-girls private
high school in Phoenix,
and Al Farouk Islamic
Language School in
Cairo.
The students, grades 9
through 12, communicate
virtually through
WhatsApp, Dropbox
and such social media
websites as Facebook. For
both physics and biology
classes, each student
partners with one or
two girls from the other
country to solve realistic
science problems.
Despite their cultural
differences and the
eight-hour time
homes and their social-
media presence.
“They are
conservative with their
more
Instagram pictures,” she
said.
Gabriela Soto, another
sophomore at Xavier Prep,
noticed that her Egyptian
partner did not have
Instagram or Snapchat.
However, Soto’s Egyptian
counterpart still managed
to send her pictures
through other messaging
sites.
Even though these
young women are in
regular communication,
their differences, at times,
have created roadblocks.
Living on opposite sides
of the world has caused
confusion, despite their
similarities as high-
schoolers studying
science.
There was an incident
between Soto and one of
her Egyptian partners
where politics interfered
with their relationships.
Some of the Egyptian
students thought Soto and
her Xavier Prep partner
were judging them based
on their Islamic religion
and culture.
The program is funded
by the Stevens Initiative,
which was founded in
honor of J. Christopher
Stevens, a U.S. career
diplomat and ambassador
to Libya who was killed
when the U.S. consulate in
Benghazi was ambushed
by rebel fighters in 2012.