We are so excited to have our students back tomorrow, August 16th, for our first day of school for the 2021-2022 school year! We are looking forward to a great year with our students as we seek to develop independent, self-directed, self-motivated, and adventurous, risk-taking, experiential learners armed with the skills and knowledge they need to go out and be successful in today’s society!
We’ve already had a great start to the school year with a number of impressive events taking place last week. On Monday, we had our 6th-grade orientation, coordinated by Ashlee Welsh. Ashlee did a great job of putting together a morning full of fun activities that helped our new middle schoolers feel comfortable about starting this next chapter in their lives. The 8th-grade
WEB leaders hosted the event which included a school tour and some team bonding activities.
On Tuesday, August 10th, we welcomed our newest Vikings to the team at our new staff orientation. We will be featuring our new staff members on our District Home Page in our Spotlight section, so make sure you take a look to see all of our amazing new staff members. We are thrilled to have each of them joining our Viking family. Some of them are familiar faces in new positions, and others are new to our district. Welcome!
Tuesday was also our CHAMP and registration day. Wendy Murillo, our awesome district nurse, did a fantastic job putting this event together.
We had at least 19 community and local organizations on-site providing support and services to our students and families. It was a one-stop experience. Students could get registered for school, get a variety of health screenings and services, sign up for different opportunities and supports, get school supplies, and even get a healthy snack. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to make the day a success. I received a number of compliments from families and other districts who had heard about our registration and CHAMP day.
Wednesday, we had our all-staff welcome back. Our mantra for this year is Stay the Course. We will continue to live out our four core beliefs and follow the improvement strategies laid out in our District Action Plan. We will continue the work that has been started and honor the work that has been done. Staff had some fun with a scavenger hunt. Once again the Methodist church treated us to a wonderful lunch and provided school supplies to our staff. We are blessed to have the love and support from our Center community.
Staff members rotated through four different sessions and received training and overviews on our homeless population from McKinney Vento coordinator, Susan Banning, mandatory reporting from Katrina Ruggles, safety and crisis procedures from Safety Steve Martinez, and our health/pandemic protocols from Wendy Murillo. Dr. Stephanie Hensley, our Director of Instruction, also reviewed our instructional expectations for the year, along with resources available to support instruction and PD areas of focus.
Our seniors have already put in some hard work with a fundraiser and got busy washing cars on Thursday! Way to go seniors!
Here's to a great year Vikings! Let's make it the best one yet! #VikingStrong #Burn the Ships #Stay the Course!