Monarch Memo

Nov. 7 - 11, 2016

Election Day, Nov. 8, Veterans Day Nov. 11

It was nice to see some friendly competitiveness between departments for Halloween Dress up day.  A great way to show school spirit and establish our staff member’s “cool factor” to students. We are in playoff season for Fall sports and in my all call home to parents (see below), I informed them of the status of our teams.  It will be exciting to have two home matches at this point, Waterpolo on Wednesday and football on November 18.  Let’s get the students excited to come out for both.  Please come by one evening to see our Monarch Theatre production Servant of Two Masters Nov. 9 - 12 at 7:00 p.m.  If you would like to take one or more of your classes to a preview show on the 8th periods 3 - 6 please check out the Google doc. Julie Benitez set up to sign up for the preview.  

What’s new?

WASC - We are all in this together.  

This accreditation process that we all take part in is so important for many reasons.  It is most important because it shows our community our commitment to providing a quality, well-rounded educational program for our students.  We are in the planning stages now gathering data and setting timelines for the steps we all need to take for our self study.  Joe Garcia, Amanda Engstrand, Gina Conner and I attended an organizational training last week.  Amanda and Gina will be co-chairs with Amanda taking the lead now and into the spring.  Gina will do more of the writing and editing with us in the fall.  I will do my best to keep you informed of the process along the way, but if you have any questions please feel free to talk to Amanda as she takes the lead on this now.  

Please look for a brief WASC Focus Group survey coming your way this week.  In the email that contains the link to the survey, there will be an attachment with a description of each of the five Focus Group categories to help you decide how to rank your choices.

The purpose of this survey is to gauge staff preferences regarding placement into WASC Focus Groups. Although the MV WASC and Administration teams will make every effort to accommodate everyone's request, at the end of the day we must make sure all of the Focus Groups have a balance of staff from various departments and positions. Please make sure to complete this survey no later than November 18th.

If you have an interest in helping our school prepare for this important WASC visit by serving as a Focus Group Leader, we would greatly appreciate your service. You will be compensated for your time for both meetings and the actual writing of your section of the report. We are hoping to have two leaders per WASC focus area. Please email Amanda and let her know if you are willing to help. If you have a certain WASC focus area you would like to lead please let us know that as well. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.  

Reminders

• 12 week grades due Monday, November 7 at 8:00 a.m.
• Site Governance is Monday at 7:15 a.m. and AVID Site Team at 8:15 a.m.
• The next advisory cycle will begin on Tuesday, Nov. 15th.
• ASSETs will no longer be delivering snacks to the programs, instead we will have the cafeteria be open from 2:00pm till 4:00pm every day. purposely to serve snacks to all assets attendees. So Please send students from the programs your supervising out to the cafeteria if they wish to get a snack.
• FYI - Rad is out Thursday, Nov. 10, Marietta is at the ACSA Conference Nov. 9 & 10.  Please see Bill and Joe for all your Admin. needs.  

Chromebook reminders from Laura Preble, Librarian

PLEASE DO NOT SEND STUDENTS TO THE LIBRARY FOR THESE ISSUES, WHICH

ARE EASILY FIXABLE IN THE CLASSROOM:

1. If the Chromebook will not connect to the wifi, plug it into an Ethernet cable from the

wall or try resetting the time/date. Often the CB thinks we are IN THE FUTURE. Why?

I have no idea.

2. Check SETTINGS for things like trackpad tap-to-click or trackpad sensitivity.

3. Check AUDIO SETTING if headphones don't work.

4. Reset is CONTROL and ALT(bottom left) and the POWER BUTTON at the top right.

           Do this if it gets stuck on a video or audio file and freezes.

Information from the District

Security, Privacy and Protection

of student and staff data are a priority to GUHSD ETS staff.  This note is a reminder that just as in our personal lives we are all conscious of this and do not share our personal user codes or passwords, we should follow the same practice in the workplace. If at any time you receive suspicious emails or an email that asks for personal information please report it as spam, do not open anything attached to it and then delete it.

EL Students in College Prep Courses, Fall 2017 - Michele Estill, EL Director

To prepare teachers for EL students will be in college prep courses, specifically English, math, science, and social science, we have developed a professional learning opportunity to help teachers enhance their skills in addressing the needs of EL students in their college prep courses. Additionally,  we will be working with the "new" 2012 ELD standards and framework to increase their knowledge and understanding on how to implement these new standards.  We believe that teachers who attend this training will be better equipped to serve all students.  Please click here to register for the December 1, training.  If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact myself or Doug Martin at dmartin@guhsd.net or 619.593.2712.

A message for employee with Benefits- Open Enrollment Nov. 4 - 18th

See email sent Nov. 4 titled PLS Read email: Benefits…..

The HIPAA Privacy Regulations require employers to remind all employees, no less than once every three (3) years, about the availability of its Notice of Privacy Practices and how to obtain copies of the notice.  For the HIPAA Privacy Notice   click here.

Employers are also required on an annual basis to provide the Medicare Notice and Women's Cancer Rights notice to employees.  Both notices are available below.

Annual Medicare Notice  click here.

Annual Women's Cancer Rights  click here

BENEFITS OPEN ENROLLMENT

NOVEMBER 4th THRU NOVEMBER 18th  @ 4 pm

GUHSD's benefits open enrollment starts Nov. 1.   We are asking all benefit eligible employees to please review the 2017 Open Enrollment Communication that has been distributed to employees and is also available by clicking here.  This communication will answer most employee's questions.

The phone message sent home to parents on Sun. November 6, 2016

We have some great athletics news to share. Congratulations to Diana Martinez and Susana Espinoza, they are the Grossmont Hills doubles tennis champions.  Our girls volleyball played El Centro in the playoffs on Saturday.  Although they did not advance, we are very proud of their season play.  Boys Water Polo will host San Ysidro in the first round playoffs on Wednesday, November 9th and football earned a number 2 seed and will host a playoff game here at Monte Vista on Friday, November 18th.  Please join us for Water Polo and Football and support our athletes.   

Seniors - many college application deadlines are at the end of this month.  The Guidance Center is here to help.  They will be open for college application assistance from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays through November 30.

Are you looking for some great entertainment this week?  Our talented Monarch Theatre presents “The Servant of 2 Masters”.  This production takes place for four evenings from November  9 - November 12 at 7:00 p.m. in our Theatre.  Tickets may be purchased in advance for $7.00 or guests may pay $9.00 at the door.  Children are only $3.00 and ASB and GUHSD theatre discounts are honored.  

Just a reminder that Friday there is no school in observance of Veterans’ Day.  On the Saturday of this three day weekend there are tryouts for Boys’ Basketball, Girls’ Water Polo and Wrestling.  Detailed information about our tryouts and many campus events is available on our fabulous Monte Vista website.  Please check it out daily to stay informed and up-to-date.  

Have a great four day week Monarchs.