Dear Bonita Vista Middle School Community,

Good morning! I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful weekend! This year, we are working very deliberately at ensuring that we really focus our 1st quarter (July - September) efforts on properly onboarding our students. In fact, one of our three initiatives states:

1. Clarify, Implement, and Support Common High Impact Instructional Expectations/Practices

2. Strengthen Onboarding Systems (for students and staff) beginning year, mid-year, and end of year (for incoming students and staff for following school year) and continued Social Emotional Support.

3. Strengthen Systems of Support for At-Risk Students

As part of our efforts to make sure that we are onboarding, our counselors this week will be visiting 8th grade students in their U.S. History classes. Please read below for more information.

Counselors Visit 8th Grade Classrooms: You Make a Difference

As we head into the 5th week of the semester, our counselors will be visiting all 8th Grade students during their U.S. History classes. Ms. Sandoval and our counseling team will be giving presentations to our 8th graders on how they, as the leaders of our school, can make a positive impact. This is not only a great opportunity for students to interact with our counselors, but it also includes valuable character development lessons that they can share with their peers and the staff at Bonita Vista Middle School. When your 8th grader comes home, please take a moment to ask them about what they learned about bullying and the importance of random acts of kindness. Thank you!

Changes in our PE Department Procedures:

Starting this week, we want to let you know that for all PE classes, students will need to go directly to their respective locker rooms to quickly change and then head to their designated numbers outside on the basketball courts (PE Supervisors will be both inside and outside of the locker rooms). In the past, we used to have students line up outside the locker rooms, before entering the locker rooms. After changing, they would sit down before being dismissed outside to their numbers. We found that this practice unintentionally led to more misbehavior both inside and outside the locker room. Last week, we worked on communicating these new procedures to our students. We kindly ask for your support in reinforcing these new PE procedures at home with your student. Additionally, please help us emphasize that any misbehavior, including "pantsing," will not be tolerated.

Dance Class Returns to BVM:

We are excited to share some great news with you! Thanks to the funding from Proposition 28, we are bringing back the Dance Exploration elective class, "Dance Exploration," for our students at BVM. We want to express our gratitude to our students and parents for your support and advocacy, as well as to the Sweetwater Union High School District Leadership for their commitment to arts education and supporting our community. We are thrilled to have Ms. Timmons back at Bonita Vista Middle School, and we're looking forward to seeing her 6th period Dance Students develop and eventually put on performances for our school community! Let's go BVM!!! Let's go SUHSD!!!

First School Site Council Meeting: Thursday, August 29, 2024

We will be hosting our first school site council this Thursday, August 29, 2024. The meeting will take place in our parent center from 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm. Remember although members are voted in, this is an open meeting to our community. We will meet monthly. Please see the agenda below for more details. Thank you!

Let's have an awesome week BVM Community!

Sincerely,
Dr. Salazar

BVM Families,

AS we have mentioned before, all enrolled, returning and incoming, students will receive FREE breakfast, lunch throughout the school year!

Meals will be available to all students at no cost, one breakfast one lunch, daily.
Families are not required but encouraged to submit a free and reduced-price meal application.

By submitting a meal application for free and reduced-price meals your student(s) and family may qualify for additional programs and resources. More importantly, BVM will receive additional funds if we meet the minimum number of required families that qualify for free/reduced lunch.

Complete your application online in the privacy of your home. The information submitted is confidential and will have no impact on your child receiving a free breakfast and free lunch daily.

Please disregard if you have submitted a meal application, thank you.
Here is the link: campusportal.sweetwaterschools.org/campus/portal/parents/sweetwater.jsp

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Bienvenidos!

Todos los estudiantes inscritos que regresan, y los de nuevo ingreso, recibiran el desayuno, almuerzo GRATIS!

No se requiere que las familias presenten una solicitud de comidas gratis o a precio reducido, pero se les recomienda completar una solicitud para las siguientes escuelas:
• Bonita Vista Middle
• Bonita Vista High School
• Eastlake Middle
• Eastlake High School
• Rancho Del Rey Middle
• Otay Ranch High School
• Olympian High School

Al completar la solicitud de comidas gratis o a precio reducido, su(s) estudiante(s) y sus familias pueden calificar para otros programas y descuentos adicionales.

Complete su solicitud en linea (por internet) en la privacidad de su hogar. La informacion que usted provea, es confidencial y no tendra ningun impacto en que su hijo/s reciban desayuno y almuerzo gratis todos los dias.

Si usted ya lleno la solicitud de almuerzos, favor de ignorer este mensaje

campusportal.sweetwaterschools.org/campus/portal/parents/sweetwater.jsp

Parents and guardians, to report a student absence, please make sure to fill out the following form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLJrFXTi9s9G9nIzEOJSMEn2NeMLbDqMYUseHAKr5YRwJmYQ/viewform.

For any absences extending to 5 or more school days, please contact Ana.Monge@sweetwaterschools.org, our Attendance Coordinator, to complete an short-term independence study contract.

Please contact Ms. Rubi.deleon@sweetwaterschools.org, our attendance technician, to report any attendance errors.

Please note that our Information Technology Technician, Bruno.Zamorano@sweetwaterschools.org, is available to all students in our school library for iPad support. Here are some links to provide further assistance with student iPads:

How to set-up your iPad at home: https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/post.jupitered.com/v3/p131557892/1/92657356/iPad_Setup_at_home_Instructions_2024-2025_updated.pdf

How to login to your student email account:

1. Your general password is your birthday written in the format below, followed by an exclamation mark, and two capital Z’s.

Example: If your birthday is September 12, 2012 then your password would be Sep122012!ZZ

2. Once you are logged in, look for the email with the subject titled: “Jupiter login instructions for new families” that was sent on 7/23/24. Clicking on the link in this email will prompt you to set a password for your Jupiter Grades account.

How to download the essential apps that students will need this year: Please open the attached PDF document below

Parents please make sure not to park in the parking lots of our local business or churches. We want to respect our neighbors and the spaces that they use for their employees.

Parents and guardians, to ensure a smooth flow of traffic during drop off and pick-up, please follow our traffic guidelines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h0yXoyV5YvLAWlj7qBZbbvb0RKGKkEYAoAGqUStI1Bg/edit.

Thank you!

The Acknowledgment Corner will be continued to be used to highlight and celebrate our students at any opportunity that we can! If you would like your student acknowledged for something we may not be aware of, please feel free to contact me (include a picture or video if possible).

Nominated by Ms. Kavouklis, Madison Quach! In 7th Grade we focus on the importance of language and how it impacts our interactions. Madison's writing reflects her truly caring about the intricacies of communication, and she does a wonderful job at it! #IBCandidateSchool #IBProfileCaring

Nominated by Mr. Smith, Violet Colon! Violet is an outstanding student and role model amongst her peers. She takes initiative in her academic work and demonstrates deep learning and critical thinking. Her kindness and caring nature motivates other students to participate in classwork and engage in collaboration. She's an All-Star! #IBPROFILECARING#IBCANDIDATESCHOOL

Above you can see the posters that our students enrolled in Dance Exploration made for our beloved counselors who worked quickly last week to change students' schedules to get them back into Dance!

We had the opportunity to host our friends from Japan last week. This past Friday, our visiting students from Japan had the opportunity to say their goodbyes to our ASB students. We will miss them and we wish them luck as they return to Japan!

Character building is embedded in an IB education. We want our students to learn and embody 10 Learner Profiles (See attachment below). Our first Learner Profile: Caring includes students who have made a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and the world around them. We know that during summer breaks, our students provide services to others to make our world a better place. We are asking families to send us pictures and stories that they can share of how their students made a world a better place over this past summer. We will feature these students in future newsletters and in morning announcements to promote the IB profiles and behaviors we want to see in all our students. You can email me directly pictures and stories of how your child provided a service to others this past summer: alexander.salazar-arbelaez@sweetwaterschools.org.

IB Learner Profile Caring: students who are caring show empathy, compassion, and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and the world around them.

We want to thank our ASB students for hosting and allowing our visiting students from China to shadow them all week and for making our guests feel welcomed at Bonita Vista Middle School. The Chinese Student Chaperones absolutely enjoyed their experience at our school this past week. Thank you to our ASB students and all other students who made our friends from China feel welcomed! Thank you again BVM!!!

Crusader of the Week

Students are nominated for Crusader of the Week in the following areas academic achievement, improvement in behavior, demonstrating kindness and so much more. After the 10-day balance period at the beginning of each semester, teachers may begin submitting their nominations. Each week one 7th and one 8th-grade student will be recognized. If more than one student in each grade level is nominated next in line will be recognized the following week. Students may only receive Crusader of the Week once in the school year. Those who earn Crusader of the Week will be mentioned in the Principal’s newsletter, and the morning announcements, and receive a certificate and a small treat in front of their peers.

Straight A Luncheon –

Students (7th & 8th) who earned Straight A’s in BOTH Scholarship and Citizenship on the Fall Semester Report Card are recognized with a luncheon at the end of January/beginning of February.

Outstanding 8th Grade Students (We select two per year)

8th-grade teachers and other school staff nominate two students who have been outstanding the entire school year in all subject areas and extracurriculars. Those nominated then go on a ballot and are then voted on by the admin, counseling team, and other school personnel for the award. Each member of the voting team gets 1 vote. This award is then presented at 8th grade awards night, each May.

For the month of July, our new psychologist, Ms. Mariscal-Huizar, was awarded as our certificated employee of the month. She is new to our site this year, but already is making significant contributions to our Special Education Department and to our overall BVM community! We are lucky to have Ms. Mariscal! Thank you for demonstrating so much care to our students and staff! Congratulations!

As we continue our efforts in welcoming our new cohort of awesome students for the 24-25 academic year, I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out and share some valuable resources with you, shedding light on the social and emotional challenges our students face during their middle school years. Middle school can be a transformative period, and it's crucial for us to work together as a community to provide our students with the support and empathy they need to thrive.

I've attached our Student Empathy Interviews (23-24), an article, and a video that I believe offer valuable insights into the middle school experience. My intention in sharing these materials is to foster understanding, empathy, and support from our parent community. It truly takes a village to ensure that all our students develop in a healthy and supportive environment, and your involvement is integral to this goal.

I encourage you to take a look at the Student Empathy Surveys from last year. These surveys not only provided our students with a platform to voice their thoughts and concerns, but also offered us invaluable feedback and insight into the middle school experience. The input from these surveys has played a significant role in informing our decisions for the upcoming academic school year.

I'm proud to share that we earned the designation of a NO PLACE FOR HATE SCHOOL last year, thanks to our intentional efforts to counter any form of hate or bullying within our school community. This year, we aim to be even more proactive in promoting a positive and inclusive environment while maintaining the same level of responsiveness that earned us this prestigious distinction a year ago.

I am grateful for your continued support and partnership in shaping the middle school experience for our students. Together, we can make a profound difference in their educational journey. Let's continue our ongoing dialogue

Reach out and communicate with us!

Email: alexander.salazar-arbelaez@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: http://bvm.sweetwaterschools.org/
Location: 650 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA, USA
Phone: 619-397-2200
Twitter: @BVM_Principal