Monarch Memo
June 5 - 8, 2017
Enjoy your summer break!
Last week was filled with celebrations and recognitions for our amazing Monarchs. All these events could not take place without the hard work of our staff and great clubs and organizations. For the Senior Breakfast, Kiwanis worked diligently to flip the pancakes that accompanied the food prepared by our awesome kitchen staff - thanks Jennifer and ladies. Thank you to the Senior Class Advisors, Cody, Val and Mark, their officers and to Monarch staff who worked the lines and check in. The pool party was a great success thanks to the support of the ASB who decorated, served and cleaned up afterward. Kudos to Bill and Edgar for the grilling. Also, Jen Wilson coordinated the cap and gown distribution so efficiently that the items were distributed in less that 25 minutes. Thank you to the Guidance Center staff and many other staff members who jumped right into help us.
Both Senior Awards and Pride of the Lions were well organized and well attended events. Thank you to Billie for the Senior awards coordination with the assistance of Gracia, Martha and Denise and to Robin McGrew for Pride of the Lions (thank you to the Choir for their performance). Thank you to the teachers, staff and Guidance staff who presented at the Senior Awards. It meant so much to the Seniors for you to honor them. Preparing and organizing the awards takes so much time. Thank you ladies, you did an outstanding job.
Thank you for the support of Derek Marso and Valley Farms for donating the meats for our Champions BBQ on Thursday. They prepared the pork and chicken and Bill prepared his award winning BBQ beef. The students thoroughly enjoyed this special meal as well. Thank you to Steele, Manny, Kristine and Kristy for all the set ups this past week. We know there is more to come with graduation and we thank you in advance.
2017-2018 School Year
Events Calendar for 2017-2018 - I want to thank the staff members who provided dates for their events, performances and field trips for the upcoming school year. We know that some of you may not know the dates of potential field trips/events or may be waiting to see where some of the annual events fall on the calendar. Just a reminder that we must be informed of events or field trips at least one month in advance for approval in order to complete all paperwork or get approvals. If there are circumstances that are beyond your control, please email or speak to Marietta immediately. Remember, all excuse lists for on or off site events must be given to Robin in plenty of time to be emailed out to all staff.
For your convenience, we have created a Google Form for scheduling EVENTS and FIELD TRIPS for Approval. These forms have a timestamp so the request date is easily documented. These Google forms generate a spreadsheet with all the pertinent information for Kristine and will make it easy for us to log the event on the calendar.
We will be sharing a Google Monte Vista Events calendar for 2017-18 as soon as we can get it done after this busy week. This takes time to complete so we appreciate your patience and cooperation.
Safety Committee and Updates
Thank you to the staff members who served on the Safety Committee that met regularly from March through May. Their insight, suggestions, feedback and teamwork was greatly appreciated. Thank you to Rob Gorney for taking on the role as Chair to provide structure and continuity to the meetings. We appreciate his thank you email to the staff for their contributions and information on future steps.
As you may recall, the initial goal of the committee was to address immediate concerns that could be organized and implemented with cooperation of the entire staff. The re-enforcement of existing policies, procedures and guidelines that provide structure will help our students understand and ultimately consistently follow our rules and expectations. These expectations will be communicated to students at the beginning and throughout the school year. Thank you for being on board and helping us communicate and reinforce these expectations in the fall.
We will continue to address safety concerns at our Site Safety Meetings, but we will also move forward with looking at culture and climate as we seek to provide a school environment where students feel safe to be themselves and get the support they need to function successfully in the world around them. By hosting Unity Days during the first weeks of school, we plan to start off the year with students building positive relationships while connecting to staff and one another. Thank you to our Guidance team for their efforts to make this happen.
Advisory and Freshmen Advisory in the fall
In alignment with our safety, culture and climate efforts, both the Advisory Committee and Safety Committee addressed the need for a more effective Advisory system in the fall. As you may know, we are not able to change the length, placement in the day, or structure of Advisory without a vote of staff. Both committees were in agreement that we re-establish the initial structure of Advisory attendance ensuring all students with D’s and F’s (or F’s at least) attend Advisory during the first four weeks of school. Since the assignment of Advisory for these students dropped off the last few years and consequences for not attending has not been followed through, not all students value or respect the Advisory period. Simply stated by both groups, students should not be rewarded with a one hour lunch for the first four weeks of school if they did not pass a class the previous semester. That being said, we will be working with the district to generate the list of students who need study/tutorial time so they can be assigned an Advisory beginning the second week of school. Unlike the Advisory assignments throughout the year, we likely will not be able to place students with their current teacher in the subject where they are struggling. This is because many of our teachers will be teaching Freshmen Advisory. The goal is to have students, who received at least on F, assigned to one of their current teachers. Please be prepared to have students assigned to you. Although we are not 100% sure we can make this work perfectly, we are going to try. We are also planning to set up a system for attendance in Advisory (for example, holding off on clearing for the first days) to more easily identify students to assign detention for skipping advisory. Any teachers who are willing to assist with Advisory in a supervisory role rather than in their classroom, please do not hesitate to contact me. We will likely need assistance in various organizational capacities. I appreciate all the feedback and information on past practices by so many staff members regarding Advisory. We will do our best to provide the structure needed to make Advisory beneficial for every student.
Reminders/Information
- Nominate 1-2 students for the Monte Vista Leadership Conference, “Leading with Pride”, Saturday August 26, 2017, 8am - 12:30pm Nomination Form See Marisa Alvarado if any questions or if you want to get involved.
- The FINAL grading window is now open for grades and conduct marks. Gracia will need to sign your check out sheet before you give it to Denise. The grading window closes at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 8. Senior “F” lists were also placed in your mailbox. Please turn these into Gracia according to the schedule she provided.
Although this may be the last Monarch Memo for 2017-2018, please check your email on occasion over the summer for any updates and information on Back to School activities.
Week at a Glance
Monday, June 5 Finals periods 2 and 6
Tuesday, June 6 Finals periods 1, 3, 7
Wednesday, June 7 Finals period 4, 5
Graduation practice at 12:30 in the quad
All Senior Chromebooks due today to Library
Thursday, June 8 Staff Potluck at 11:00 a.m. in the gym
Graduation 6:00 p.m. in the stadium
Monday, June 12 Summer School begins - Questions see Bill
Parent message sent home on Sunday, June 4, 2017
Good Evening Monarch families, here are announcements for the last few days of school.
You made it to finals Monarchs. Here are the bell schedules for the next three days. Period 2 and 6 finals are tomorrow. The period 2 block starts at 8:15 a.m. with a break to purchase food at 10:13. Period 6 begins at 10:33 a.m. School ends at 12:31. We have the same bell schedule for Wednesday when the students take their finals for periods 4 and 5.
Tuesday’s bell schedule is different. Finals are periods 1, 3, and 7 with period 1 beginning at 7:15 a.m. That is one hour earlier from the day before so please be prepared. Food will be sold at the breaks. Students without a period 7 class will be out at 11:31 a.m. on Tuesday. Students with a period 7 will be dismissed at 2:04 p.m.
For returning Monarchs, your last day of school is Wednesday, June 7th. Please make sure to turn in books,pay fines and most importantly, complete online registration for next year. Remember, this is something new and required before August 1, 2017. Please visit the Grossmont District website link provided on the email version of this message. http://www.guhsd.net/our-schools/online-registration/registration
Seniors have mandatory graduation practice on Wednesday immediately after school. and must turn in or purchase their Chromebooks by 3:00 p.m. Senior parents, please expect separate graduation reminders later this week.
We want to recognize our athletes who recently finished up the spring sports season. We are very proud of softball team and baseball team who advanced far in the playoffs this season. Congratulations to our track athletes Earnest Dawn, Ashlyn Edwards, Jr. Pitoau and Brittany Kempton who won league and advanced to CIF finals. Thank you to all of our athletes for their dedication to their sport and season.
Monte Vista is hosting two, 3 week sessions of summer school. The first session begins on June 12th. Students who were recommended to attend summer school have been notified, however, if families have any questions, please contact the Guidance Center directly (619) 660-3040.
Good luck on finals Monarchs. Have a great summer break. Parents, we will send some reminders and updates over the summer as needed. Congratulations to the Class of 2017.
