Eagle Newsletter
October 15, 2021
Upcoming Dates
October Observances -
Filipino American Heritage Month
German American Heritage Month
Italian American Heritage Month
LGBTQ History Month
National Disability Awareness Month
October 25: Dussehra (Hindu)
October 31: Halloween
MVMS Events -
October 20: Coffee with the Principal. In person: 9:30-10:30 am. Zoom: 5:30-6:30 pm.
October 20: No Place for Hate Club 3:15 to 3:45 pm in Room 332
October 21-22: Professional Development, Minimum Days. Dismissal at 12:07 pm.
October 25: Professional Development, Non-Student Day
October 27: ELAC Meeting at 6:00 pm
Action Items
- Remind your student to bring a mask from home.
- The cafeteria is unable to accept cash for a la carte items and snacks. Poway Unified uses My School Bucks for cashless payment. Click here to create or sign-in to your account to add funds to your student's account.
- Follow Mesa Verde and Principal Moore on Instagram @mesaverdems and @principal_moore!
Index of Information
NEW! before a title within the newsletter denotes that it is a new posting this week.
- Message from the Principal
- Meet Our Staff
- Principal's Chat
- Newsletter, Website, Social Media Request Form
- Friendly Reminder: Checking Out Your Student Early
- Upcoming Vaccine Clinics
- ELAC Meeting
- Openings for ASES Morning Program
- MVMS Society of Women Engineers
- Eagle Shout Outs
- Did You Know...
- OCIS-PE Attendance and Performance Records Due
- OCIS-PE Applications
- Yearbooks On Sale Now
- No Place For Hate Club
- 6th Grade SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Lessons
- Parent Education
- Calendar
- Volunteers/Job Opportunities
- Additional Links/Information
- Contact Us
NEW! Message from the Principal
This week was packed full of activity! A quick snapshot of our week consisted of classroom observations by district leaders from Learning Support Services, professional learning to support early interventions for students and a safe school environment, department meetings to support student success and various school efforts, a Foundation meeting to approve budgets and discuss future community-building and fundraising events, and a PTSA event planning session (stay tuned for some exciting stuff for students and families!)!
As we are approaching the end of the quarter, students are focused on studying for quizzes, tests, and unit exams. We encourage you to reach out to your child's teacher directly with questions or concerns about their academic progress, and next week we will be sharing some helpful tips for parents to support the academic success of their child(ren) at MVMS.
This week our sixth grade students began to take the PASS (Pupil Attitudes to Self & School) assessment. This survey helps us identify non-academic barriers to learning so we can better support individual students and inform our school-wide goals and professional learning. This is a quick 15 minute survey which all sixth graders will complete by the end of the month.
This week also consisted of our first Principal's Advisory Council where students spent some time getting to know one another and then did a quick-write and share-out of the best things about MVMS and the one or two things we could do immediately to improve the student experience. It was no surprise that they overwhelmingly shared that the teachers and staff were some of the best parts about Mesa Verde! Students also participated in counselor-led SEL (social emotional learning) lessons in grade-level classes. ASB also continued their efforts to shape the ideal middle school experience by providing music and mini-golf at lunch on Friday, school spirit days (pink-out Wednesdays and school spirit Fridays), and hanging signs to remind students to pick up trash and keep our campus beautiful.
Let's keep finding ways to support one another, work in partnership, and RISE together!
Your Proud Principal,
Kellie
NEW! Meet Our Staff
Benhair Escalona - Spanish & Digital Media, 7th year at MVMS
I was born in Mexico City. I attended Black Mountain Middle School and Mt. Carmel High School. I am the first person in my family to have a BS & MA degree. I coach wrestling at Mt. Carmel. I love learning about different cultures. I enjoy taking photos of my family. My favorite sports are wrestling, fútbol, and football.
Beth Huppert - School Counselor, 4th year at MVMS
I grew up on Long Island in New York - Go Yankees and Islanders! Most of my family and extended family still live on Long Island. My daughters and I typically visit twice a year. Family is very important to me. I went to York College in York Pennsylvania where I earned a BS in Elementary Education. I've worked in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey before moving to sunny San Diego. I received my M.Ed. from National University in Educational Counseling and have also received my Administrative Credential. My husband, Mark, owns a landscape design and construction company. We've been married for 18 years and have two wonderful daughters, Courtney, 17 and Brooke, 14, both at Westview. I love to travel and have been to England, France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Italy in Europe, Jamaica and St. Maarten, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada. I'd love to see Greece, Ireland and Japan. I enjoy volunteering with Girls Scouts and at Penasquitos Lutheran Church where I teach Vacation Bible School and Sunday School. Someday when I retire I hope to travel the USA in an RV. Fun facts - I spent my summers on a boat, was an exchange student in Belgium and I was born on my grandmother's birthday!
NEW! Principal's Chat
Please join our principal, Kellie Moore, for either an in-person or Zoom Principal's Chat on Wednesday, October 20.
Our in-person meeting will be held on campus at MVMS from 9:30-10:30am. Our Zoom meeting will be held from 5:30-6:30pm. Please use this link for the Zoom meeting Wednesday evening.
This month's topic will be "The Ideal Middle School Experience."
NEW! Newsletter, Website, Social Media Request Form
If you have information you would like included in our weekly newsletter, on our website, or on our school's social media platforms, please use use this link to submit your request. Your request does NOT guarantee that your information will be included. Please note that we may edit your submission (content, length, etc.) but will contact you if our edits would change or remove pertinent information.
We hope this will help streamline the way we collect and are able to share information with our staff, students, and community.
NEW! Friendly Reminder: Checking Out Your Student Early
If your student needs to leave early from school, please send a note with your student. Notes should be given to the Attendance secretary in the Administration Office before school. Calling the school in advance, or sending a note, will prevent delays for you (such as trying to get your student while they are running on the lower field) and will help us to minimize interruptions to the classrooms. If you schedule a last minute appointment you may call the Attendance Hotline @ (858) 538-5692 to have an off campus pass sent to your student.
When writing a note please indicate the following:
- Your student's first and last name
- Their grade
- The time your student needs to leave school
- Whether or not your student will return that day
Please meet your child at the Attendance desk to be signed out at the time of departure. Be prepared to show your identification when checking out your child. If your student returns to school after being picked up early, please have him/her check back in at the Attendance desk before heading to class.
Upcoming Vaccine Clinics
Sharp HealthCare will be hosting three upcoming vaccination clinics at PUSD schools for anyone in our community ages 12 and older who would like to receive the Pfizer COVID vaccine.
Upcoming Vaccine Clinics
- Abraxas High School (media center) (12450 Glen Oak Rd, Poway, CA 92064) on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, from 1pm to 5pm.
- Westview High School (dance room) (13500 Camino Del Sur, San Diego, CA 92129) on Friday, October 22, 2021 from 12pm to 4pm.
- Poway High School (room K-1) (15599 Espola Rd, Poway, CA 92064) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, from 2pm to 6pm.
You will need to make an appointment in advance. Sign up here for your appointment by searching for the school’s zip code. The vaccines are free and no proof of insurance is required. A reminder: the Pfizer vaccine requires two doses to ensure full vaccination. The second shot will be administered three weeks after the first shot and you are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after your second shot.
NEW! ELAC Meeting
Please join us for our first English Learner Advisory Committee meeting of the school year on Wednesday, October 27 at 6:00 pm.
NEW! Openings for ASES Morning Program
NEW! MVMS Society of Women Engineers
Join MVMS Society of Women Engineers. We are a social club encouraging young girls to pursue an interest in the engineering field. Get on our contact list to learn about upcoming meetings, guest speakers, field trips, projects, etc. Email us at swenextmvms@gmail.com and please give us your contact information: first and last name, grade, email (not a PUSD email). We look forward to hearing from you!
NEW! Eagle Shout Outs
Let’s hear it for these Eagles who helped us RISE this week!
Did You Know…
Thank you to everyone who has donated to this year's Pledge Drive. Did you know your generous donation to the Foundation may easily be DOUBLED?! Many companies in our community have programs that match employee donations to qualified charitable organizations, such as the Mesa Verde Foundation. Please check with your HR department, or use this link to see if your company offers matching. Doubling your gift can be as easy as making a phone call or sending an email to your company! If you have any questions or need assistance regarding corporate matching, please contact our treasurer, Carolyn Russell at mvmsfoundationtreasurer@gmail.com.
We rely on our parent community to make this school everything it can be for our students, and we truly appreciate your support. Donations can be made online at https://mvmsfoundation.org/pledgedrive.html.
Thank you for all you do for our Eagles!
OCIS-PE Attendance and Performance Records Due
Attendance and Performance Record for 1st quarter (August 18th, 2021-October 22nd, 2021) must be completed, signed by coach, and submitted to MVMS with student’s Attendance and Performance Record by October 22, 2021. Attendance and Performance Record are available for students to pick up at the MVMS check-in/out table for students to grab at MVMS or available on the website.
OCIS-PE Applicatons
Completed 2nd semester OCIS-PE applications are due Nov. 1st, 2021. You can find the application by clicking here. If needed, you can request a hard copy from our office. NOTE: if your child is already in OCIS-PE for 1st semester, you do not need to submit a new application for 2nd semester unless coach changes. If changes to coach or instructor, or a document expires during the school year, new forms need to be submitted.
Yearbooks On Sale Now
MVMS Yearbooks are on sale now! $40 online! Get a treat in June, order your yearbook today! Click here.
COUNSELOR'S CORNER
NEW! No Place for Hate Club
On October 6th an interest meeting was held for students to start a No Place for Hate Club on campus this year. Students who attended or contacted Mrs. Marcotte were asked to give individual input as to which day of the week and time frame worked best for them. For the remainder of our first semester, the club will meet twice a month on the first and third Wednesdays after school (see exact dates below). We will meet from 3:15 to 3:45 pm in room 332. All students are welcome! Students who are in our ASES after school program are welcome to attend as well, just check in with ASES first. We want to build this club, our Students’ voices are important and bring forward the best ideas in how to build relationships and break down bias. Our meeting next week will focus on ideas for rolling out our school wide, No Place for Hate Pledge.
Meeting Dates:
- October 20
- November 3
- November 17
- December 1
- December 15
PARENT EDUCATION
FREE Teen Positive Parenting Program
We are pleased to share that we are offering the Teen Positive Parenting Program in English for FREE via ZOOM! This webinar series is designed for parents and will address raising responsible teenagers while improving family communication. The webinar series offered next month will be in English and please be on the lookout as we will also be offering the Spanish series in January 2022. These workshops do fill up quickly and parents have shared positive reviews and feedback.
When: Tuesdays, October 12th, October 19th, and October 26th 2021 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Parents, if you are interested in attending click here or contact the Caring Connections Center to RSVP at (858) 668-4084 or email: vephraim@powayusd.com.
Got Stress? - All Grades
Let’s face it, parenting can be stressful, especially as we begin to find our new normal after the pandemic. Spend time with Dr. Colleen Kennedy, Psychologist, for this workshop to boost your emotional wellness and increase your parenting skills as you learn to differentiate and manage stress and anxiety.
In-Person Thursday, October 21st at Poway Adult School from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Class fee: $24/individual or $29/couple (for couple enrollment parent needs to contact Poway Adult School). Parents, if you are interested in attending click here or contact the Caring Connections Center to RSVP at (858) 668-4084 or email: vephraim@powayusd.com.
NEW! Cultivating Emotional Resilience & Mental Fitness While Parenting
NEW! Supporting Your Children During an Uncertain School Year: Tips for Managing Anxiety
Free Teen Alcohol Awareness Program
CALENDAR
VOLUNTEERS/JOB OPPORTUNITIES
NEW! Get Involved
New guidance from the Poway Unified Board of Education is allowing us to expand our volunteer opportunities, effective 10/18/21. Volunteers must be fully-vaccinated and show proof of vaccination or show proof of a negative PCR COVID test within the 72 hours prior to volunteering. If you would like more information, please contact Natalie Reyes at (858) 538-5478 or nreyes@powayusd.com.
Sign up here if you would like to hear more.
Library Volunteers
The Mesa Verde library is looking for volunteers to help in the library during the lunch periods (Mon/Tues/Thur/Fri 11:00 to 12:40 and Wednesdays 11:40 to 1:00) once we are permitted to have volunteers again. We need help assisting and supervising students during our busy lunch periods. Volunteers may choose which day of the week and how often you would like to come in (once a week, every other week, once a month, etc.) If you are interested please contact Heather Ryan: hryan@powayusd.com. We will collect this information now to have it in preparation for when volunteers are allowed.
If you are not sure if you are an approved volunteer, contact Amanda Lane at alane@powayusd.com.
Job Opportunities
ADDITIONAL LINKS/INFO
Lost & Found
Feeling Sick? Not Sure What To Do...
CONTACT US
Attendance Hotline
General Questions
If you are unsure of who to contact about a matter, please email us at MVMS@powayusd.com and your message will be answered or forwarded to the correct person.
Mesa Verde Middle School
Email: MVMS@powayusd.com
Website: https://www.powayusd.com/en-US/Schools/MS/MVMS/Home
Location: 8375 Entreken Way, San Diego, CA, USA
Phone: (858) 538-5478
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mesa-Verde-Middle-1493083354314112
Twitter: @MesaVerdeMS