AHWATUKEE, AZ — Students at a Valley elementary school stepped into the spotlight this week, delivering the weather forecast with confidence well beyond their years as ABC15 Kidcasters.
For Kyrene de la Colina Elementary School in Ahwatukee, the visit carried extra meaning. This school year will be the last time its hallways are filled with student voices, as the campus is set to close at the end of the year.
Dozens of third, fourth, and fifth graders packed the gym for an interactive weather assembly near 36th Street and Knox Road. Students asked questions, learned how forecasts come together, and got a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to stand in front of a camera.
Later, some of them became the newest ABC15 Kidcasters.
Nearly 30 students stepped in front of the camera, many for the first time, delivering the forecast one line at a time. Nervous smiles quickly turned into proud grins as each student found their voice.
For Assistant Principal Catie Hunter, watching the students step up was deeply personal.
“Our students are some of the best students I’ve ever worked with,” Hunter said. “Our families are so supportive and wonderful, and our staff is the cream of the crop.”
Kyrene de la Colina Elementary opened its doors in 1986, built during a period of growth in Ahwatukee. Nearly four decades later, the school is preparing to close, a reality felt by students, families, and staff alike.
“We are all experiencing many different feelings with the closure of our school and some other schools in our district,” Hunter said. “What is important for me and my team here at Colina, is that we want to make sure we have experiences for our students to live out their legacy here as Kyrene de la Colina Coyotes, and to be proud of something.”
Hunter said students were excited, a little nervous, but ready.
“To be able to stand in front of a camera confidently and speak and be proud of something that just makes me such a proud leader for them,” she said.
The school community proudly calls itself the Coyotes, a pack that believes in one another, even while facing change.
“We always say, ‘Once a Coyote, always a Coyote,’” Hunter said. “That’s something we take great pride in.”
On this day, the forecast was about belief, belonging, and making sure the school’s final chapter is told by the kids who helped write it.
School leaders say their focus now is helping students process the change while creating moments like Kidcasters so those memories last well beyond the classroom.
