November 2010
Volume 6, Issue 1
Quote of the Month
"Learning is what most adults
will do for a living in the 21st
century."
-- Perelman
Del Vallejo’s Office Hours are:
7:00 am until 4:00 pm.
Dates to Remember
Late Start Days
November 4th and 18th School
starts at 9:35 am on these days.
No School
November 11th is Veteran’s Day
The week of November 22nd –
November, 26th is
Thanksgiving Holiday Week
Volleyball Schedule
11/2/10 vs. Golden Valley @ Curtis
11/3/10 vs. King @ Chavez
11/10/10 vs. Shandin Hills @ Chavez
11/16/10 vs. Curtis @ Curtis
11/30/10 vs. Richardson @ Chavez
12/2/10 vs. Serrano @ Chavez
Del Vallejo Administration
Charles McWilliams – Principal
Dr. Elizabeth Linn – AAIIAC
Joni Allen – Vice Principal
James Espinoza – Vice Principal
Home of the Jaguars
Del Vallejo Middle School
Message From the Principal: Welcome
Back to Del Vallejo Families and Friends.
I want to start by welcoming our new
families and welcoming back our
families from last year. Thank you for
allowing us to serve your family through
the continued education of your children.
As we have now begun the new school
year I want to share some of the changes
that are now in place. Del Vallejo will no
longer be on a year round calendar. We
are now using a Modified Traditional
Calendar. This will mean we will no
longer have off track time during the
year. School will be in session through
out the year.
Currently we are in one of the longer
stretches of school this year. We will
not have a break until the week of the
Thanksgiving holiday. Then we will be
off to one week from November 22nd
through November 26th. Our next break
will be the three-week Winter Break
around Christmas. We will be off from
December 16, 2010 through January 7,
2011. Additionally we will have two
weeks of Spring Break from March 21,
2011 through April 1, 2011.
We have continued the weekly late start
days so teachers have time each
Thursday morning to meet and receive
training to improve our instructional
program. We will no longer have the
monthly minimum days for track
changes. This year we will have a week
of minimum days at the end of the
school year.
As the year progresses we will be
inviting you to take a more active role in
your child’s educational experience here
at Del Vallejo. We will provide you
with opportunities for you to be a part of
our School Site Council (SSC), English
Learners Advisory Council ELAC), and
our African American Parent Advisory
Council (AAPAC). Your input in the
decisions made by the school is very
Counselors
Julie Quintana
Anita Scott
Filipa Tello
School Mission
Each Del Vallejo Student will
Learn at Higher Levels.
School Vision
We will maintain an effective
learning community that is
dedicated to meeting the
needs of each student and
committed to preparing them
for high school, college, and
life.
Continued on page 2.
SBCUSD Spelling Bee Winner!
The fourth annual SBCUSD Middle School
Spelling Bee was held October 27, 2010 at
Rodriguez Prep Academy. The top spellers
from each of the middle schools met to
compete in the district wide competition. It
was a tough competition and the participants
are deserving of praise.
The three students who represented Del
Vallejo were Axel Lopez-Campa, Stephanie
Norvell, and Ha Ly. We also want to thank
Mr. Espinoza, Ms. Batie, Ms. Lee and Ms.
Briseno for coming out and supporting the
team.
was Jeremy Koenig from Serrano Middle
School. Third place went to Myles Jones
from Rodriguez Preparatory Academy and
Karla Thomas from Richardson captured 2nd
place. We are proud to announce Del
Vallejo’s own Ha Ly won the competition by
successfully spelling the word “paradigm.”
Next, year the District winner will not just
receive a trophy. He or she will represent the
District at the National Spelling Bee in
Washington DC. The winner and one of his
or her parents will be provided transportation
and lodging for the event. We are already
excited about this opportunity to represent
The fifth place finisher was Javon Williams out school, our District, and our community.
from Arrowview Middle School. In fourth
How important is School attendance?
Del Vallejo
Middle School
1885 E. Lynwood Dr.
San Bernardino, CA
92404
Phone:
One of many things that makes America such a
great nation is we require all children to attend
school. At Del Vallejo Middle School we
believe that each child should be in each class
for the entire class period every day that school
is in session.
(909) 881-8280
Our Motto
Today’s Learners,
tomorrows Leaders,
Building a Community
of success
“High achievement always
takes place in the
framework of high
expectations.”
Jack Kinder
Jointly
Achieving
Goals
Understanding
And
Responsibility
Successfully
California compulsory education law requires
everyone between the ages of six and eighteen
years of age to attend school. Some students,
however, violate compulsory education laws
and have a pattern of unexcused absences.
Truancy and excessive absenteeism cause
costly, long-term problems for the students,
school, and the community. Though there are
disciplinary penalties attached to truancy and
tardiness to school, the greatest penalties for
this behavior is consistently absent students
miss opportunities to learn, which causes them
to fall behind their schoolmates.
The attendance rate is important because
students are more likely to succeed in
academics
when
they
attend
school
consistently. It's difficult for the teacher and the
class to build their skills and progress if a large
number of students are frequently absent.
Students do not just miss work when they are
absent they miss learning, which causes them to
fall behind.
Students with lots of absences and tardiness
don’t just fall behind themselves but they hold
others back. In addition to falling behind in
academics, students who are not in school on a
regular basis are more likely to get into trouble
at school and with the law and cause problems
in their families and their communities.
Principal’s Message: continued from page 1
important in helping us build an effective
program for our children. I want to urge you
to attend these meetings.
In September we sent out invitations to our
first School Site Council meeting of this year
to the families of every Del Vallejo student.
We held the meeting on September 14, 2010
in our library.
Our 2nd SSC meeting was held on Tuesday,
October 26. 2010. I would like to thank the
following for their support in the School Site
Council meetings: Stephanie Gonzalez,
Aaron Wright, Jeanette Martinez, Judith
Cardenas (Think Together), and again a
special Thank you for Peter Celano for doing
the minutes. We had four parents and six
students along with one community member.
A 2008 study conducted by the Rodel
Community Scholars at Arizona State
University that tracked students from
kindergarten through high school found that
dropout patterns were linked with poor
attendance, beginning in kindergarten. The
study noted that as early as kindergarten,
behavioral differences are apparent between
those who go on to graduate and those who
drop out, with dropouts missing an average of
124 days by eighth grade. This study reveals
something that most of us know which is there
is a strong correlation between school
attendance in early grades and dropping out of
high school.
School budgets also suffer when students don't
attend. State funding for Del Vallejo and all
other public schools in California is based on
the average daily attendance at a school.
Students that are enrolled at our school and fail
to consistently attend school, hurt our school
financially. Because of poor attendance our
school has less money to pay for essential
classroom needs and programs that might help
these kids be more successful.
Del Vallejo is trying to combat poor attendance
by offering incentives for students with perfect
attendance. We want kids to be here and on
time every day. We need your help to make
this happen. Families can help by having
clothing ready for school the night before
school. You can also help by setting limits for
how long your child can stay up, and by getting
them up early enough to be here on time. One
final reminder, the bell to go to class rings at
7:35 am. All students should be on campus at
that time.
Saturday Academy
On Saturday, October 16th we began
holding Saturday school to help students
who are in need of help in Math and
English.
This program will continue
through the first Saturday in December.
Parents if your child is in need of help in
these subjects, I want to encourage you to
contact Dr. Linn to sign him or her up to
get help on Saturday.
This program is specifically designed to
help those who received Fail or D grades in
these subjects. However we also offer a
program to assist 8th graders who are in
Algebra Foundations or Algebra classes
with additional help in these subjects. A
breakfast snack is provided for all students
in attendance.