Hello BVM Community,

Good morning! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and enjoying the amazing weather. We are thrilled to announce the start of our intervention programs this week. These programs, Shadow Parent Days and Mandatory After-School Tutoring, are designed to strengthen our community partnership and significantly boost our students' academic performance. Both programs will kick off this Monday, October 21, 2024. For our mandatory tutoring program, we will assign a small number of students to begin with before expanding the program. Moreover, this point in our semester is crucial for our students' academic progress, so we encourage you to take time at home to review your student's Jupiter Grades regularly and discuss their progress with them. It's important to note that 8th-grade students must pass all their classes to participate in the promotion ceremony at the end of the school year and receive their promotion certificate.

Pumpkin Decorating Contest, Halloween Dance, Red Ribbon Week Kick-Off:

We also have some thrilling events lined up for our students! The Builders Club will host a fun and educational Pumpkin Decorating Class Competition for all Advisory Periods, providing students with the opportunity to showcase their creativity and learn new skills. Our 8th grade students will have a Halloween Movie Theme while 7th grade students will have an open theme when decorating their pumpkins. The winning advisory period in 7th and 8th grade will be rewarded with a Pizza Party! Additionally, this Friday (10/25), our ASB students are organizing a Halloween Costume Dance from 5 pm - 7 pm. Students can visit our ASB to get their permission slips and purchase their tickets. Tickets to the dance will be $6. Please note that students must be in good academic and behavioral standing to attend the dance. Lastly, as we promote anti-tobacco use, we will be asking all students to wear red this Wednesday, October 23rd to kick off Red-Ribbon Week! More information about Red-Ribbon Week can be found below.

Turkey Trot: Thursday, November 21, 2024

We are deeply grateful for the support we have received for our upcoming Turkey Trot on 11/21. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to the parents who have generously donated to our Turkey Trot this year (over $200 already). We are just $200 away from reaching our goal, and your continued support is greatly appreciated. If you would like to contribute to this year's Turkey Trot (tax-deductible), please write a check to BVM ASB (memo: Turkey Trot). Once you donate, our district will send you a thank you letter will other relevant information for your taxes. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Again, as we look forward to this week, we are genuinely excited about helping our students with academic and behavioral improvement. Our goal is to ensure that our 8th-graders are working toward promotion and that our 7th-graders are building strong academic habits for future success. Let's have an awesome week, Crusaders!

Sincerely,

Alex Salazar

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.

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 Dr. Meza, Gregory Montgomery. Gregory is very caring and empathetic student that is open to helping others in need. For example, a few weeks ago a classmate was having a hard time with his math assignment, and he was really struggling to understand. Gregory was willing to help him by tutoring him in math; Gregory shared his knowledge with the student. Thank you, Gregory, you have a heart of gold!!! Let's go BVM!!!

Nominated by Ms. Leonhardt, Hiram Sanchez. I would like to nominate Hiram Sanchez for his outstanding performance in academics and his role as a positive role model in our class. Hiram consistently demonstrates commitment to his studies. He not only completes his work on time but goes above and beyond by asking insightful questions. His dedication to learning is reflected in his work and the willingness to help others. I believe Hiram embodies the qualities of Crusader of the Week! Let's go BVM!!!

Students in Dr. Meza's class enjoyed the opportunity to present their "My Favorite Cultural Dish" assignments during class. Students had to prepare one of their favorite dishes and deliver a presentation on what ingredients their favorite dish contained and how to make the dish. Students also had the opportunity to bring student samples for the entire class. I had the opportunity to visit one of our class and I have never seen students so engaged and so proud to present their work! Great job Spanish for Spanish Speakers 5-6 and great job Dr. Meza!!! Let's go BVM!!! #FutureSpanishAPStudents

Our Bonita Vista Middle School Chess Tournament (Day 1 of 5) was a huge success!!! Thank you to all students who are participating and best of luck the rest of the way in this tournament! We cannot wait to crown a champion! Great to see our students involved in positive activities during lunctime and advisory! Thank you to Mr. Claudio for carrying on the tradition establish last year by Mr. Brickley (now an assistant principal at Launch Academy).

Although our 7th grade students played a very competitive game on Friday, October 18th, our 8th graders led by Mykel Gray and Ahrion Broadway proved to be too much! Still, the future is bright with so many talented 7th grade basketball players. In fact, Coach Curry, Bonita Vista High School Varsity Coach, decided to stop by BVM and catch the game! Thank you for your support coach and thank you to all our participants. It was also great to see everyone out there watching the basketball game!

Students, during our lunchtime, often choose to play catch, play touch football, play basketball, kick the soccer ball around, play handball, or practice volleyball. More and more of our students are choosing to spend their time being active and participating in sports! Great to see our Crusaders at play!!!

Our softball team had a great outing this past Saturday with their 4-0 defeat over Eastlake Middle School. Our softball team will begin playoffs next Saturday! Great job ladies and great way to represent our school!

Although we did not get the out come we were looking for this past Saturday, we are still very much proud of our BVM boys baseball team and the way they competed this past Saturday! Let's go BVM! Thank you also to all of the supportive parents that we have who always show up to support our baseball team! Let's go BVM!!!

Cross Country netting positive results during their meets! They had another 1st place finish at our last Cross Country Meet for our 7th grade girls! Great job Coach Diaz and BVM Cross Country!

We had 86 total scholars this past Saturday at BVM! Students were either making up their Math Credit, making up tardies, making up absences, or receiving tutoring. Thank you to Ms. Higadera, our assistant principal, who conducted and facilitated this past Saturday Scholar session!

We will be having another Saturday Scholar session this upcoming Saturday: October 26 from 8 am - 12 pm.

We would like to bring back our annual Turkey Trot tradition where we have students, per grade level and gender, race each other during their PE periods. In the past we have been able to give BVM Turkey Trot T-Shirts to the following groups (40 Total T-Shirts like the ones you see above):

Top 10 7th Grade Girls

Top 10 8th Grade Girls

Top 10 7th Grade Boys

Top 10 8th Grade Girls

10 T-Shirts for Teachers who partake in the Turkey Trot

We also give Turkeys to the Top finishers in the four categories above and the 2nd and 3rd place finishers receive pumpkin pies/apple pies (4 Pumpkin Pies and 4 Apple Pies)! This year, we are asking for donations and sponsorships to support this longtime BVM tradition.

Therefore, if you are interested in donating money toward the medals or pies, or would like to sponsor 40 T-Shirts, please contact me at alexander.salazar-arbelaez@sweetwaterschools.org.

Again, please contact me directly if you would like to help us support this event this year or write out a check to: BVM ASB (memo: Turkey Trot) and we will send home a donation form for you to fill out. Our goal is to raise $500 (Cost of our T-Shirts).

Thank you!

Character building is embedded in an IB education. We want our students to learn and embody 10 Learner Profiles (See attachment below). Our Third Learner Profile: Communicators means that we express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups.

You can email me pictures and stories of how your student has exemplified being an Effective Communicator if you'd like your student to be featured in our weekly newsletter: alexander.salazar-arbelaez@sweetwaterschools.org.

IB Learner Profile Communicator: We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups.

Let's celebrate Ms. Veronica Sandoval for her outstanding leadership in our counseling department at Bonita Vista Middle School. As our head counselor, she has played a pivotal role in introducing Social Emotional Lessons on Anti-Bullying, Empathy, and Acts of Kindness to all our students. Ms. Sandoval's hard work and dedication have made her one of the strongest pillars of our leadership team, and we are grateful for her unwavering support for both our students and staff. Let's keep shining, BVM!

WishWell presents Family Circles at Bonita Vista Middle School—an innovative series of workshops designed to enhance trust, connection, and communication between parents and children. This fun and engaging workshop, filled with guided experiences and games led by the WishWell team, offers an enjoyable and meaningful way for both parents & children to learn about each other and form stronger bonds.

We have our first Wokshop coming up this week on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 in our school cafeteria from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm. Our topic that evening will be: BUILDING BRIDGES: Learn simple ways to create a strong, trusting relationship with your child. Light Dinner will be provided! We will see you there! Make sure to sign up by clicking on the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxH9o6MjcwKWycIqOGf5i-BntHnGL_q2MNzR2ZKuJbHYdgng/viewform.

This past Thursday, October 17, we had the unique pleasure of hosting some of our local feeder elementary school principals: Ms. Roman (Valley Vista), Mr. Devore, (Clearview), Mr. Magnon (Chula Vista Hills), Ms. Lopez (Allen), and Ms. Arancibia (Sunnyisde). We discussed the ways that we can improve the tansition process for students from 6th to 7th grade. We know that this is a difficult transition for our students and we want to continue working as a greater Bonita Community to best serve our students.

For our next steps, 6th grade teams from the aforementioned feeder schools will be attending a learning walk in February where they will have an opportunity to sit, meet, and observe our 7th grade team (Science, Social Science, Math, English) in action!

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is in October. Beware of hackers and keep your personal information safe. Be cautious of what you do online and use strong passwords for your accounts. It's easy to stay safe online.

Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation and the second largest ethnic group in California. The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, when Luzones Indios, native Filipino sailors conscripted into the Spanish navy as labor during the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed at what is now Morro Bay, California, on Oct. 18, 1587. After years of advocacy by individuals and organizations, in 2009 the United States Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month. Various states, counties, and cities in the U.S. have established proclamations and resolutions declaring observance of Filipino American History Month.

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