News and Announcements

We are excited to welcome you to the Florence Unified School District Office, located at 1000 S. Main Street in historic Florence, Arizona, for our upcoming ASPRA Quarterly Meeting on Friday, April 25th!

We’ll begin our day at 8:30 AM with time to network and enjoy a delicious breakfast sponsored by Florence Copper. We are grateful for their continued support of public education and school public relations.

During this meeting, we will also have all of the corrected awards ready for your team to take home. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding throughout the challenges we've experienced with the vendor. If you are unable to attend, we are happy to arrange for delivery or mail the awards to you—but we sincerely hope you'll be able to join us in person.

This will be an informative meeting, that will include a presentation on the launch of the Every Day Counts in Arizona attendance campaign—an important initiative we are excited to support together.

Please use the link below to RSVP and let us know if you can join us:

👉 ASPRA QUARTERLY MEETING

PHOENIX, AZ – The Arizona School Public Relations Association (ASPRA) is proud to announce the upcoming launch of Every Day Counts in Arizona, a statewide attendance communication campaign designed to support school districts in addressing the attendance issues plaguing schools across the country.

This year-round initiative provides ASPRA members with research-based resources and strategic support to supplement and complement their districts’ work on systemic attendance challenges. It was developed in collaboration with CESO Communications.

ASPRA President Michelle Valenzuela said Every Day Counts in Arizona is the organization’s first statewide collaboration and it represents ASPRA’s commitment to its members and, more importantly, to all students in Arizona.

“Chronic absenteeism continues to be a pressing issue for school districts across the state,” Valenzuela said. “The Every Day Counts in Arizona campaign provides an opportunity for school districts to join forces and send a unified, amplified message about a critical issue that directly effects the children our members serve.”

Research conducted by John Hopkins University and the nonprofit Attendance Works shows how much absenteeism impacts student achievement:

• Poor attendance in the first month of school can predict chronic absence for the entire year.
• Absenteeism in kindergarten can affect whether a child develops the grit and perseverance needed to succeed in school.
• Absenteeism in preschool and kindergarten can influence whether a child will be held back in third grade.
• Absenteeism in middle and high school can predict dropout rates.
• When students reduce absences, they can make academic gains.

“ASPRA is proud to provide school districts across the state an opportunity to come together to share the message that being in school improves the lives of children,” Valenzuela said. “This initiative represents school communicators’ commitment to students and the potential power of statewide collaboration to pursue of common goals.”

For more information about ASPRA or the Every Day Counts in Arizona campaign, please visit azspra.org or contact Michelle Valenzuela at mvalenzuela@amphi.com.