This Week's Block Schedule: AB - B - A__
NOTE: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are MINIMUM DAYS. Thursday is the last day of school.
Monday, May 20, 5:30pm - 7:00pm: ELP WOW! Event (See flyer below)
Tuesday May 21:
- Field Day for 6th & 7th Grade (Volunteers Needed! See Below!)
- Minimum Day - School out 1:49pm
Thursday May 23: Last Day of School / Minimum Day - School out 1:49pm
- SIGN UP: Help with 6th Grade Field Day (9:15am - 11:15am)
- SIGN UP: Help with 7th Grade Field Day (11:45pm - 1:45pm)
- SIGN UP: Parent Hosted Parties!
- DONATE: Staff appreciation fund
- CONTRIBUTE / VOLUNTEER: Staff Appreciation Lunch
Field Day THIS TUESDAY - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We still need more volunteers for both 6th grade and 7th grade. It looks like it will be a perfect sunny warm day! If you don't have time to volunteer, we also need donations of snacks and to borrow shade tents for the day. You can drop them off at the back parking lot in the morning. See the two sign up links below.
Thank you for supporting our Toros!
- Your PTO
It's been a great year! Thanks so much to all our teachers, administrators, staff, PTO members, and parent volunteers for supporting our Toros. Wishing success to our promoting 8th graders and hello to our incoming 6th graders!
Thanks for reading the eBulletin, the website, our social media accounts, and ParentSquare. We look forward to welcoming our Toros again in August and keeping you up to speed on all the activities at Montera!
-The PTO Communications Team (Jeni, Christy, Andrea, and Grace)
POSITIONS STILL OPEN for 2024-25 PTO Board
We have a number of board positions and Lead Roles open for next year. Please consider volunteering! Without a strong PTO Board and membership, we can't do the important work our Montera students, teachers and families need from us.
You can review next year's open roles and indicate interest in this form. We will get in touch with you to go through the job description and time commitment. Many of these roles can be shared.
Staff Appreciation Lunch & Gifts
Thank you to everyone who donated to the staff gift card fund or brought drinks, food, desserts, and wine! Our teachers and staff were very grateful; here are a few thank you's from teachers in their own words:
"Thank you so much to our PTO for the wonderful celebration yesterday and breakfast last week! I'm so grateful to work in a school that has such great support from our families."
"One of the best parts of this job is building relationships with these kids/students. Being acknowledged and appreciated by their parents is gratifying to say the least. A heartfelt thanks to our awesome PTA."
"Thank you for the lovely meal, the fun raffle (I won a bottle of wine!!!) and the gift card. It felt really nice being acknowledged and appreciated by the PTO and families."
"Please pass on our heartfelt thanks for the wonderful end of the year appreciation. Thank you for all the PTO does for our Montera community!"
Yearbooks Have Arrived!
Our beautiful yearbooks have been distributed! A huge thanks to Jeni Paltiel and the Yearbook club!
- It's not too late to order - people can order now and have it shipped to them at home
- We don't have any extra hard copies on hand.
- Books ordered now don't include the free custom pages at the beginning.
- If you're not sure if you ordered one, please email the Yearbook Club here
- If you need help beyond just looking up the order, you can reach Treering customer service at support@treering.com
Yearbook Coordinator
Do you have a picky passion for spell-checking and a flair for photo aligning? Do you have a couple more years at Montera? You could be the next Yearbook Coordinator! We're looking for a parent to shadow our current volunteer coordinator next year and take over the Yearbook Club for the 2025-2026 school year. If you're interested and want to find out more, please email monterayearbookclub@gmail.com.
Montera Annual Fund Goal ALMOST Met! Thank You!
Our goal for Annual Fund + Corp Matching this year was $50,000. We're at $45,300 -- 91% of our goal! . We'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has donated! It's not too late to help us reach our goal! Donate using the link below.
Invest in Your Children — Invest in Montera
We are asking families to give what they can. Suggested donation is $450 per student. Donations range from $10-$2,000.
- Make a one-time or monthly donation online via PayPal
- To donate offline, download this form and submit to Montera by mail or drop it off in the school office.
Summer Fun Fundraisers at the Chase Center
Check out these fun, family friendly, affordable and unique opportunities for a fun day in the city! Hot Wheels Monster Truck Live Shows and Cal Classic Games! CLICK HERE to purchase tickets (and raise money for Montera!).
- $7.50 to Montera each ticket purchased for Hot Wheels
- $10 to Montera for each ticket purchased for Cal Classic
Please note à we will be adding in our Cal Classic games onto the link in the coming weeks once pricing is finalized. These are our NBA summer league games at Chase Center (happening in July).
TRACK & FIELD: The final results of the district Track & Field Championships are in and Montera Girls placed 1st in team competition and Montera Boys placed 3rd overall! In addition, there were over 40 individual and relay team medals awarded to Montera athletes. We extend big thanks to Montera teachers and coaches Cooper and Pettengill, as well as many dedicated parent volunteers. What a great season! Go Toros!
BOYS VOLLEYBALL:
The Montera boys volleyball team succeeded in making the playoffs (only the top 4 from each division did)! They lost to an undefeated EBIA team. We're celebrating a successful season for the Toros! See the team photo below!
SPORTS UNIFORM / JERSEY RETURN:
If your student played any sport at Montera in the 2023-24 academic year, please check your home for Montera athletic gear. It is important we get all uniforms as the costs for replacements keep rising.
Any questions or requests please contact sports@monterapto.com.
8TH GRADE PROMOTION - Wednesday, May 22, 3pm @Skyline High School, Rawley Theater
- Each student will receive up to 6 tickets
- Tickets will be handed out at the final promotion rehearsal
- If you have extra tickets, please return them so we can give them to others who need them (or give them directly to someone you know who needs tickets)
- There will be a lottery for any additional tickets - details to follow
- Tickets are required for admission due to limited space
- All 8th graders participating in promotion must be at Skyline by 2pm
2025 DC Trip Info
The cost of the 2025 DC Trip will go up on May 1st. SIGN UP NOW! For those who could not attend the original meeting, here is a recording of the meeting as well as the Presentation Slides.
June 2025 Italy Trip - Meeting Summary
This document is the summary for the parent interest meeting for the June 2025 trip to Italy for this year's 6th graders. Interested parents who did not get to attend the meeting (or who need to revisit information) should visit this link for the sign-up QR code, slides, and video of the meeting.
5 Day Overnight Bike Tour!
Join the California Field School, OUSD Summer Learning, and Oakland Goes Outdoors for a free 5-day overnight bike tour from San Francisco to Santa Cruz from June 21-25. If you are interested, please fill out a 2024 Summer Break Bike Tour Interest Form and a 2024 Summer Break Waiver/Liability Form. Please note that in addition to the trip, there will be an info session and three mandatory training rides:
- Info Session: Wednesday, May 29 from 2:30pm -3:30pm
- Mandatory Training Ride: Tuesday, June 4 from 10am - 12pm
- Mandatory Training Ride: Tuesday, June 11 from 10am - 2pm
- Mandatory Training Ride: Tuesday, June 18 from 10am - 2pm
Project Ignite
In Project Ignite, students would create their own small chapter in their community with friends. As a chapter, students would work towards solving a community issue, whether that is through teaching younger students, hosting events/workshops/competitions, volunteering to do community work (e.g. picking up trash) as a group, starting a positive campaign (e.g. no drug campaign), etc... Students will be guided by experienced leaders in Bloom Institute to start their mini passion project.
This program will last over the summer break! There is no set start and end date, but we recommend starting in early/mid-June until early-August.
Chapter application deadline: May 31st, 2024
Link: bit.ly/bloom-ignite
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Bloom Institute is a student-run nonprofit organization that fosters curiosity and encourages students to explore a wide variety of specialized subjects. So far, we have successfully hosted 30+ unique courses and events for 1K+ students worldwide.
Chrysalis Girls Adventures: Outdoor Expeditions for Rising 4th-9th Graders!
Chrysalis Girls Adventures offers hiking and camping expeditions for girls entering 4th-9th grades. We embrace the outdoor environment as a medium for empowering girls to build healthy relationships with one another, recognize and celebrate their strengths, and connect with the natural world. Students live and travel outdoors, while learning technical skills and engaging in curriculum centered around community building, leadership development, diversity and allyship, self-awareness, positive body image, and healthy living. We celebrate our unique identities as bold & brave girls, while enjoying the breathtaking forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, seashores, and rock formations of the San Francisco Bay Area! This summer, we're offering four 3-day courses. Luna Girls (4th-6th) features rock-climbing and Redwood Divas (7th-9th) features self-defense! Visit our website for more information: chrysalisgirls.org. We'd love to have you on course with us!
Outdoor Adventure Camps in Sonoma for Rising 6 - 9th Graders
Summer at Sonoma Academy: Our fun and educational week-long camps for rising 6th - 9th graders explore a huge raange of topics to suit all sorts of interests. Each camp includes a full day of fun and learning, plus a healthy and freshly cooked hot lunch.
Back to Earth - Summer backpacking opportunity for Oakland teens
My name is Eli Marienthal and I'm the director of a non-profit wilderness guiding and outdoor education organization based in Berkeley called Back to Earth.
We take teens on backpacking adventures in the summer that boost teens' confidence, teach them real world leadership skills, and give them opportunities to connect deeply with peers, mentors, and the natural world.
Click here to watch our video.
Our organization is committed to promoting equity and belonging in the outdoors, and increasing diversity and representation in wilderness education in particular. Our trips are tuition-based, but we are committed to making sure no teen is ever turned away for financial reasons.
We're currently enrolling for our summer program - Wilderness Immersion & Leadership Development (W.I.L.D.) - and have openings on our 7-day Intro trips for rising 8th and 9th graders, as well as 10-day trips for rising 10th graders and older.
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Eli Marienthal (he/him)
Director Back to Earth
(510) 684-3497
FREE Summer Programs for Middle School and High School Students
Check out a variety of free summer programs here: Summer Programs for MS & HS Students
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Montera Middle School
eBulletin is produced on a weekly basis by the Montera Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) except on holidays. It sometimes contains ads from our sponsors and/or services from the community. These advertisements do not imply endorsement of any product or service by OUSD or Montera Middle School.
If you have news you'd like to include, please send it to communications@monterapto.com by 5pm on Friday. Submissions may be edited for spelling, grammar, brevity and clarity. In addition, while we strive for accuracy, being human sometimes gets in the way. If you spot something so off the mark we should hang our heads in embarrassment, please bring it to our attention. Thanks!
We Are Montera. We Are One.
Email: communications@monterapto.com
Website: https://www.ousd.org/montera
Location: 5555 Ascot Drive, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: (510) 531-6070
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monterapto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monteratoros/