Hello Pershing Families,

Congratulations! After the first month of school Pershing's average daily attendance rate is 96%! This is an improvement over last year's attendance rate for the first month and a significant jump when compared to the attendance rate two years ago! We know things come up and there will be times that students have to be absent but we appreciate you making your child's education a priority and making sure they are coming to school every day. Believe it or not having fewer than 2 absences per month is one of the strongest predictors of academic success in middle school and high school.

For our sixth grade families we have a 6th Grade Camp Information Meeting coming up on October 5th we wanted to make sure you were aware of. The meeting which will be at 6:00 PM can be attended in-person in our library or on zoom. In order to help us plan effectively for camp we are looking to get a sense of how many families are planning on having their children attend camp. Please take a few moments to complete this 6th Grade Camp Interest Form (the settings have been adjusted and everyone should now be able to open the link, my apologies for the technical difficulties accessing the link last week).

Sincerely,

Melanie Kray

Ally Action Student Leaders present to sixth graders in Ms. Olson's class about ways to be an ally rather than a bystander if they witness bullying.

First, thank you to the 200 families who have already so generously made their Panther Pledge. Throught your efforts we have raised nearly $30,000 in this first month of school. You are amazing!

The reality, however, is it costs the Pershing Foundation nearly $50,000 to fund all the activities they support during the school year including 6th Grade Camp scholarships, 8th Grade End of the Year Activities, teacher stipends for enrichment activities in the classroom, and newly added 7th Grade Experience! We will likely need to do another fundraiser this school year in order to ensure the Foundation is adequately funded to support all these great activities. The problem is most fundraising companies take a significant percentage of the money earned, whereas the money raised through the Panther Pledge all goes directly to support our students.

That is why we have extended the Panther Pledge through the month of September with the added incentive of a grade level competition to see if we can possibly raise enough money to make this our one and only fundraiser of the school year. The grade level that earns the most Panther Pledges will be released early for lunch for two weeks during the month of October. So like we keep saying, "Every little bit helps!" Our goal is to have every family make a Panther Pledge. So please make your Panther Pledge today and shared the donation link with loved ones who may be willing to support our students!

DONATION LINKS:

PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=CXCJYPUVVQ4D2

Please include your panther’s name when prompted!

VENMO: https://www.venmo.com/u/PershingMiddleSchoolFdn

Please put “Panther Pledge for “ and your panther’s name in the notes!

A reminder that the Panther Pledge is a suggest $75 donation. Money raised through the Panther Pledge goes directly to students and pays for the following activities this school year:

• 6th Grade Camp Scholarships so we can continue to be one of the few middle schools in SDUSD who send our 6th graders to camp
• 7th Grade Enrichment Experience
• 8th Grade Promotion and End of Year Activities
• Field trips, guest speakers, teacher stipends to support enrichment activities in the classroom (ex. science teachers used their stipend last year to create a garden to give students hands on experience with botany).

REMIND STUDENTS TO BRING FULLY CHARGED CHROMEBOOKS TO SCHOOL

As a 1-to-1 device school is is imperative that students bring their chromebooks with them to school every day fully charged. In the past week we have noticed an increase, particularly among our sixth graders, in the number of students leaving chromebooks at home or not bringing them to school charged. We are asking that you double-check with your child to make sure they are charging their chromebook nightly and ensuring the chromebook is packed with their school supplies in the morning. This is a great opportunity to discuss the Panther PRIDE characteristic of Responsibility with them.

SAVE THE DATE: 6TH GRADE CAMP PARENT MEETING OCT 5

Sixth grade families we will be hosting a 6th Grade Camp Parent Meeting on Thursday, Oct 5 at 6:00 PM both in person and via zoom. In order to better help the school and Pershing Foundation plan for this event please CLICK HERE and complete the sixth grade camp interest form.

LOTE EXAM ON OCT 11TH

San Diego Unified School District students are required to demonstrate proficiency in English and a language other than English (also known as LOTE or world language) in order to satisfy our high school graduation requirements. Pershing will be giving the LOTE Exam on Oct 11th to students that we believe are likely to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. If you have any questions about the LOTE Exam or are interested in having your child take the exam plesae contact Mr. Conrado Castro ccastro2@sandi.net.

UPDATE ON THE SCHOOL PLAY

A big thank you to community volunteer Tracy Carson for taking once again taking on the producer for your Pershing's School Play. This year's play will be Shrek Jr. and Ms. jessica Caputo will be back as our productions director. Auditions for the school play will take place in November. As the audition date gets closer more details will follow.

DID YOU MISS FALL PICTURE DAY?

If your child was absent or unable to get their picture taken on Fall Picture Day, the make day has been scheduled for October 10.

STUDENT EXCEL CARDS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED FIRST WEEK IN OCTOBER

San Diego Unified School District has embarked on an exciting new partnership with San Diego Public Library to ensure all students have access to materials and services necessary for their educational success. Starting this school year, the Library and School District will begin automatically registering students for a San Diego Public Library Student EXCEL Library Card. Once the students receive their card, they will need to bring their San Diego Unified School Student IDnumber and their EXCEL card to any of the 36 San Diego Public Library locations to activate. The EXCEL card will provide students with instant access to the following free library resources:

• Books and audiobooks
• Access to online homework help tutors
• In-library computer usage, with access to Word Processing and the Internet
• Online access to newspapers, magazines, and other digital resources

For more information please see the attached PDF below

The Boys' Basketball team built on their wins from the previous week with two more victories against Lewis (24-14) and iMiddle (37-23). Our Girls' Basketball team also played well defeating a tough Roosvelt team 12-9 and proving tough competitors against a strong Montgomery team.

Our Boys' and Girls Track and Field teams also competed well this weekend. Congrats to the following athletes

Girls 4x100 M - 1st Place - Edyn Doan, Zoie Hakim, Khloe Jamerson, Katherine Schaefer

Girls 100 M 6th Grade - 1st Place - Zoie Hakim

Boys 100 M 6th Grade - 1st Place - Carter Shelley

Boys 100 M 6th Grade - 3rd Place - Miles Schmidt

Girls 800 M 6th Grade - 1st Place - Isabella McCormick

GIrls 800 M 6th Grade - 2nd Place - Vanessa Perez

Boys 800 M 6th Grade - 2nd Place - Joshua Desiere

We are fortunate to have a very active parent community and an engaged foundation that works tirelessly to ensure our school has the funds it needs to allow our students to have enriching academic experiences beyond the typical program.

Please consider joining and supporting the Pershing Foundation. Their first meeting is Wednesday, September 13 @6:30 PM in the library. For your convenience the meeting will also be accessible on zoom so families who cannot attend in person will be able to participate (zoom link will be shared in later newsletters).

Email: pershingfoundation@outlook.com

Website: https://pershingmiddleschoolfoundation.org/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/pershingpanthers

Sept 19: SSC Meeting @3:00 PM in the Library

Sept 20: Coffee with the Principal via zoom

Sept 29: P1 Grading Period Ends

Oct 5: 6th Grade Camp Parent Meeting @6:00 PM on zoom

Oct 6: NO SCHOOL (Non-Instructional Day)

Oct 10: SSC Meeting @3:00 PM in the library

Oct 11: Pershing Foundation Meeting

Nov 9: P2 Grading Period Ends

Nov 10: Veteran's Day (NO SCHOOL)

Follow Pershing Middle on Instagram & Threads

@Pershing_sdusd

Interested in volunteering on campus?

Contact our Community Assistant Ms. Johana Moreno at jmorenoperez@sandi.net

Email: mkray@sandi.net
Website: https://pershing.sandiegounified.org/
Location: 8204 San Carlos Drive, San Diego, CA, USA
Phone: (619) 352-3550
Twitter: @melanie_kray