Paradise Valley Unified School District No. 69

VISTA VERDE MIDDLE SCHOOL
NEWSLETTER
May 2008

Elaine Jacobs, Principal
Gary Callahan, Assistant Principal

A Message from the Principal……………………..

Can 2007-2008 be done already?  It seems that we just welcomed our students in August.  In this final newsletter I’d like to reflect on “some” of our successes this year.

· We have just been nominated as a certified AVID school.

· We expanded from one grade to two grades in our IB program, from 49 to 135 students.  Next year we will have 185 students in the program.

· Our junior varsity and varsity wrestling teams were undefeated.

· Our girls track team won festival

· We began a Gen-Yes technology program.

· Our Fast ForWord program won a national award.

· We had our first Arizona Science Bowl team compete in the state contest.

· We trained a school site team to understand and oversee the Olweus anti-Bullying program, which we will begin in 2008-2009.

· We hosted two national programs:  Rachel’s Challenge and Jodee Blanco.

· Our students truly worked hard this year to take AIMS seriously and do their best work.  We celebrated that school-wide effort with a lunchtime disc jockey.

· Students had a great time participating in “Read Across America” week, launched by Barbara Van Fleet.  There was a full week of activities celebrating reading.

· Notmykid delivered six social issues presentations to rapt student audiences.

· We had a teacher, Nancy Bryant, recognized by the Arizona Middle Level Association as an “Educator of the Year.”

· We improved our school label to “Performing Plus.”

· Our Patriots team received recognition from the National Association of Middle Schools as an “Outstanding Team.”

· Our PTSA partnered with Denny’s at 32nd and Bell to raise funds and celebrate our community.

· We took more 7th graders to San Diego on the Oceanography trip than ever before.

· We participated in World Math Day for the first time.  Our top student answered 3,090 questions correctly as he competed against students around the world.

· We had an expanded and very successful AAA math club after school.

· We held our first-ever Saturday math days before AIMS. We held our first-ever Shakespeare Festival, which we hope will become an annual event.

 

We’re already thinking about and planning for next year.  As always, I want to wish all of you a wonderful summer.  To our 8th graders and their parents – best of luck in high school.  To our 7th graders, we hope you enjoy your vacation and come back to school August 11 ready to learn.

Elaine Jacobs

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A Message From the Assistant Principal

OLWEUS BULLYING PREVENTION PROGRAM

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Our school cares about the safety and well-being of our students. We want to make sure our school is a good place for students to learn. To do this we are going to be using a program called the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.  The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is one of the best-known bullying prevention programs.  OBPP has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying.  The goals of OBPP are to reduce bullying problems and prevent new bullying problems from happening. The program also works to make relationships better among students.

The program is for all students, not just those who are being bullied or who are bullying others.

Parents and guardians play a key role in this program. Your child will be asked to tell

an adult at school and at home if he or she is bullied or sees bullying happening at

school. It will be very important that you take any bullying seriously and tell our school

staff. Our school staff members are being trained to deal with bullying situations when

we are told about them.

We will also be having parent meetings where you can learn more about the program.

We encourage you to come to these events as much as possible. Bullying should not be seen as “kids being kids”or something that students just need to deal with. Having a safe school experience is something that all students should be able to enjoy.

If you have any questions about the program, please call your child’s teacher or me.

Sincerely,

Mr. Callahan
Assistant Principal

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Paradise Valley Summer Music Camp

June 2 - 19

8:30 am - 12:15 pm

Sunrise Middle School

Grades 4 - 10

Band, Strings, Choir

Don't miss this exciting opportunity!

For more information go to pvmusiccamp.org

Open House 2008

August 7~  5:00-6:30 PM

*The start time is early to avoid conflict with a Governing Board Meeting.

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 Students Selected for National Junior Honor Society

More than 60 students are positioned as academic leaders for the next school year as members of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS).  All 7th grade students with a cumulative grade point average of 3.8 were invited to apply for membership.  Congratulations to these students, who were inducted into NJHS during an evening ceremony on May 15:

Kimberly Aroche - Andrea Avila

Supreet Bains - Cheyenne Bauman

Ashley Bienek - Logan Billman

Shaye Breitenfeldt - Victoria Castro

Kish Chavez - Kelli Cupp

Helen Dailey - Heidi Denham

Autumn Dove - Nina Ekmescic

Tiffani Faiello - Brook Faye

Gabriella Felix - Samantha Gibbons

Eric Gooley - Dominic Goshert

Prerna Gupta - Alissa Hatfield

Linda Hicks - Christopher Hockenberry

Brittany Jacobson - Kelliann Jensen

Erika Jorge - Tiffany Kessinger

Melissa Kettelkamp - Tyler Laursen

Denise Liaiga - Lauren Lynch

Marisa Maisiak - Tommy Manno

Creshendah Martin - Jesse Martinez

Johnna Martorana - Lara Masterson

Mitra Mazlumzadeh - Gabrielle Miller

Mayela Nieto - Rebecca Nintzel

Taylor Osten - Christopher Owens

Carson Purtell - Amber Rodriguez

Carly Rose - Dhara Shah

Taren Sherrill - Lorenzo Slavin

Rachel Spillers - Katie Stone

Tayler Strand - Conner Swanson

Ivona Talic - Hailee Tashnick

Jessica Teague - Nicole Thompson

India Torrez - Laura Valdez Bojorquez

Nathalie Warner - Nina Wilson

Ashley Wisman - Kathryn Yancone

Lexzee Young - Lea Yunckes

NJHS Members Complete 1,500 Hours of Service

Because ‘service’ is one of the five key principles of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS), members were required to perform 25 hours of volunteer community service this year.  Many went far above the requirement.  In fact, more than 50 eighth grade NJHS students received Community Service Awards for volunteering their personal time and talents.  A total of more than 1,500 hours benefited worthy causes.  From sorting cans at P.V. Emergency Food Bank to tutoring elementary schoolchildren, our NJHS made a big difference this year. 

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School Starts

August 11th

7:54 AM - 2:30 PM

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Physical Education News

7th Grader, Missy Kettelkamp broke the Physical Education Friday Run record in May with a time of 3:19.  The old record was set in 1999 by Ashley Marshall with a time of 3:22.  The Friday Run is 7/10's of a mile.  Missy also broke the school mile record in December during the Festival Track Meet with a time of 6:03.  The previous mile record holder was 8th grader Alissa Brennan who ran a 6:22 in 2006.  Congratulations Missy !!

Physical Education uniforms and locks will be sold during the first week of school.  Uniforms will cost $20.00 and the lock rental is $5.00.

Festival Sports will begin in September next year.  Girls' Softball and Boys' Basketball will have their first practice on Sepetmber 2nd.  Coaches will be making announcements about where to pick up permssions slips so pay attention to the announcement videos.  The cost for all Festival Sports for the 2008-2009 school year will be $55.00.

Marena Saragosa, NBCT, M.Ed

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Estimados Padres/Tutores:

Nuestra escuela se preocupa mucho por la seguridad y el bienestar de nuestros estudiantes.  Es por eso que queremos asegurarnos que la escuela sea un lugar seguro en el que los estudiantes puedan aprender.Para lograr este objetivo se implementará el Programa Olweus de Prevención del Abuso.  El Programa Olweus de Prevención del Abuso (OBPP)es uno de los más importantes programas que ha demostrado mayor eficacia en la prevención y reducción del maltrato. Los objetivos de este programa son reducir el abuso (“bullying”),así como prevenir que ocurran nuevos casos.Además,trabaja para mejorar las relaciones personales entre los

estudiantes.El programa es para todos los estudiantes,y no sólo para lo que maltratan o son víctimas del abuso. Los padres y tutores juegan un papel muy importante en este programa.Se le pedirá a su hijo(a) que informe a un adulto en la escuela y en su casa si él o ella ha sido maltratado(a) o sabe de algún caso de abuso en la escuela.Es de suma importancia que usted tome muy en serio este problema y le comunique a nuestro personal si sabe de algún caso.El personal de la escuela ha sido capacitado para saber responder a este problema.

También tendremos reuniones con los padres de familia en las cuales se podrá saber más sobre este programa.Por ello,le pedimos que participe en dichas reuniones con la mayor frecuencia que le sea posible. El abuso (“bullying”) no debe considerarse como un “asunto de niños”o como un simple problema que los estudiantes deben soportar.El sentirse seguro en la escuela es algo que todos los estudiantes deben poder disfrutar.

Si tiene preguntas sobre este programa,por favor póngase en contacto con el maestro de su hijo(a) o personalmente conmigo.

Atentamente,

Gary Callahan
Asistente Director de la escuela

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QUESTIONS: E-MAIL ELAINE JACOBS AT:
ejacobs@pvschools.net