End-of-the-Week News A weekly sampling of the many great things

happening at your MVUSD schools – April 14,

2017

District

graduation

rate climbs

almost 22%

since 2010! Continuing a steady

six-year trend,

MVUSD’s

graduation rate has

increased yet again,

climbing another

1.4% to 87.6%.

The increase keeps

the district’s

graduation rate well

ahead of both the

state and national

rate of 83.2%. The

new state results

show a 21.9%

increase in

MVUSD’s graduation rate since 2010. “Our mission statement commits us to seeing

that all students graduate ready for college and/or career, and we’re making tremendous

progress toward that goal,” said Superintendent Dr. Martinrex Kedziora. “And we’re

closing the achievement gap in the process.” The biggest graduation-rate gain at MVUSD

this year (3.1%) was made by Valley View High School, bringing their grad rate up to

93.8%. The state data also shows our drop-out rate declining another 0.8%. At just

7.1%, MVUSD’s drop-out rate is significantly lower than the state average of 9.8%.

Hundreds more

students now proficient

in English! You can tell how important a student-

recognition event is to parents based

on how many cell phones get held up

for photos. By that standard, this

week’s two events recognizing newly

English-proficient students were pretty

darned important for the hundreds of

proud parents. And rightly so, as becoming proficient in academic English now opens the

door to more challenging coursework and greater opportunity for academic success. All

the nearly 700 students honored this week for becoming bilingual are still in elementary

school, and most are third-graders or younger! Here, School Board Vice President

Gary E. Baugh congratulates a student. Thanks to Vista del Lago for hosting the two

events. (We had to have two events because we had so many newly English-proficient

students!) Here’s a brief video look at the ceremony!

Have good

grades at

MVMS?

Welcome

to the luau! Mountain View

Middle School

students who can

boast a 3.0 or

higher grade-point

average (GPA)

were rewarded for their dedication this week with “lunch and a show” – but not just any

lunch, and not just any show. Nutrition Services cooked up a luau (that still managed

to meet nutrition standards, of course!) and the school brought in a troupe of Polynesian

dancers to really give things that island feel. Here’s a fun video look at the Mountain

View luau.

TownGate hosts

teachers visiting

to learn about

elementary AVID You know you must be

doing something right when

teachers from other school

districts come to see it first-

hand. Such was the case

this week as teachers from

several other school

districts spent the morning

at TownGate Elementary

to learn more about using AVID at the elementary level. AVID, which stands for

Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a college-prep class at the middle- and

high-school levels designed for students in the academic middle who show promise of

success at college. But at elementary, the AVID way of doing things, like being very

organized and taking three-column notes, is interwoven into the entire school day for all

students. Here, a first-grade teacher from San Bernardino City Unified School District

learns from TownGate students how AVID is helping them succeed at school.

Vista del Lago

students get wet,

learn much at

Seattle journalism

conference Springtime is just another

portion of the Pacific

Northwest’s year-long rainy

season. That was just one of

the things 10 students from

Vista del Lago learned while

attending the National High

School Journalism Convention at Seattle. They also learned how to improve their online

student newspaper content and look, through tighter writing and better photography. The

conference also offered a yearbook competition component in which Vista junior Tammy

Almazan-Lorenzo earned Honorable Mention in the First Year Photo category! Here’s

the team staying comfortably out of the Puget Sound rain! You can read the online

Raven’s Call student paper here.

Palm Middle School

ASB honored with

statewide awards For its exemplary record of

leadership, service and activities

that serve to improve the school

and community, Palm Middle

School ASB has earned a 2017

National Gold Council of

Excellence Award from the

National Association of Student

Councils (NASC) – their second! –

and the 2017 Outstanding

Leadership Program Award from

the California Association of

Student Leaders (CASL). Twenty

student-leader delegates from

Palm traveled to San Jose to

attend the CASL Middle School

State Conference, and four students served as presenters during the “Meet the Pros”

session. Palm was one of just 14 middle schools to be awarded the Outstanding

Leadership Program Award from CASL.

Canyon Springs wrestler one of

the best in America! Congratulations to Canyon Springs wrestler Aaron

Diaz for his eighth-place finish at Nationals, earning

him the title of All-American! Aaron went 3-2 in his

matches at Nationals in Virginia. He comes out of

an outstanding wrestling program at CSHS. Led by

Coach Jason Lowe, the Cougars this year claimed

their 8th CONSECUTIVE UNDEFEATED league

title! It was also their 22nd overall league crown.

Way to take it to the mat, Cougs!

VLHS choir

hits the

high note

with

competition

win! The sweetness of

their collective

voice masks the

strong competitive

streak of the Vista

del Lago Madrigal

Choir, who recently

came away with a Superior rating and the highest score of all at the Southern California

Vocal Association (SCVA) Festival held at Rosemead High School. Congratulations to

these talented and hard-working students and their choir director, Tyler Bettge!

Valley View

honors

scholarship-

winning

athletes Congratulations to the

student/athletes at

Valley View who were

honored this week for

scoring big athletic

scholarships. In total,

these outstanding

student/athletes have

been offered about $500,000! Playing collegiate soccer will be Serina Arevalo (Doane

Univ., Nebraska) and Sabrina Enciso (Univ. of Arizona). And recruited to play softball

are Abigail Bates (Univ. of Rhode Island); Eileen Perez (St. Mary's College of

California); Martha Epenesa (Brigham Young Univ.); Melanee Terry (Univ. of Maine at

Presque Isle); and Alyssa Guzman (Bethany College, Kansas).

Sunnymead Middle

students learn about

relationships, self-

defense Sunnymead Middle School

counselors hosted a Girls

Empowerment workshop, teaching

students about healthy

relationships, and about safety

while walking home from school,

which is important, as many SMS

students walk to and from school.

Girls were taught self-defense by an instructor from Rape Crisis Center of Riverside.

They learned how to defend themselves against an aggressive person, including to yell

“NO!” or “STOP!” Seems like common sense, but, in reality, most of us don’t yell out even

in an emergency because we’ve been trained to keep our voices down and not draw

attention to ourselves.

Students of

the Month Outstanding seniors

from MVUSD and

our neighbors at Val

Verde Unified were

honored this week

at the Student of the

Month Luncheon

held at the MVUSD

Board Room. They

are Adolfo

Paredes (CSHS);

Dayana Espinoza

(CHHS); Jacob

Pipich (MMHS); Zoe Wilson (Middle College High School, MVC/VVHS); Evelyn De

La Cruz (MVHS); Lorena Magadan (RVHS); Quinn Haine (Val Verde Academy);

Pedro Dominguez (Val Verde HS); Lizeth Galvan (VVHS); and Andrea Juarez

(VLHS). Student of the Month is sponsored by the Moreno Valley Chamber of

Commerce.

Rainbow Springs

team is top fundraiser

for Autism Society

Hero Walk A couple weeks ago we told you

about the staff at Rainbow Springs

Early Intervention banding together

to raise money for autism research

by taking part in the Autism Society

Hero Walk at Fontana. Turns out the

Rainbow Springs team was the top fundraising group for the whole event, surpassing

their goal of $1,700 by more than $500. All funds will go to pay for resources for children

diagnosed with spectrum disorder and for autism training for medical and law-

enforcement professionals. The Rainbow Springs team thanks all those who contributed

to the cause, including staff from other schools and the district office. They were also

sponsored by Shakey’s, Horace Mann, Rubio’s, Chili’s, Jose’s Mexican Restaurant

and the Canyon Springs High School ACT program.

Vista del Lago alum

performs his stand-

up act on Conan Vista del Lago is well-known for

its strong performing-arts

program. You may recall we

told you about Vista alumna

Tristan Mays, who now plays the

character “Riley Davis” on the

TV show, MacGyver. Now add

Ian Abramson (VLHS ’07) to

the list of Ravens making it big in showbiz. You may have seen him doing his stand-up

act on Conan this past Monday. Ian also hosts a regular stand-up show every Tuesday

night at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre in LA. Go here for a look at Ian’s schtick on Conan!

MVUSD Board of Education Cleveland Johnson, President

Gary E. Baugh, Ed.S., Vice President

Susan Smith, Clerk

Jesús M. Holguín

Evan Morgan