Feb 25-Mar 1

Lets Celebrate Dr. Seuss

This week our school will be celebrating  Read Across America Day all week! Thanks to our PTA we have some fun events planned throughout the week. We encourage all students to celebrate their spirit by dressing up on the following days:

  • Monday Feb 25 is Twins Day. Find a friend or two and match your outfits
  • Tuesday Feb 26 Dress like the Cat in the Hat. Wear red, white and black
  • Wed Feb 27 Wacky Wednesday dress as crazy as possible!
  • Thu Feb 28  Wear your hair like a Dr. Seuss Character
  • Fri March 1 Pajama Day. This is also the day where volunteers from our McMillin community will be in the classroom reading to students. If you’re interested in volunteering to be a ready please contact Karina McIntyre at mcintyrekarina@live.com

Attendance

As everyone knows school attendance is extremely important:

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. Gregory Hickman, director of the Rodel Community Scholars program and former director of the Arizona Dropout Initiative, notes they discovered 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.

McMillin has always had excellent attendance rates thanks to the efforts of our students and parents. As a result we have also had excellent achievement. For those that have been at McMillin over the years, you know we celebrate these efforts by have  quarterly Attendance Awards. Students with PERFECT attendance are given a certificate along with a special reward acquired by Mrs. Huezo, our awsome Attendance Health Clerk. Please remember that we dont want students to come to school when they are legitamitly sick. If they have a fever please keep them home. Also, the only EXCUSED absence will be for illness or a death in the immediate family. Early dismissals also count as an absence. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me at jorge.mora@cvesd.org

We Need Your Feedback
Please click on the appropriate link below and answer the questions on the survey. Your feedback is very important to us and will help us make our school better for your children. Thank you

Parent survey:

I hope everyone has a great week!

Feb 19-22

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I hope you all had a chance to spend the long holiday weekend with those you love in a fun relaxing way! This weeks blog is dedicated to thanking our School Site Council (SSC). This committee comprised of 6 parents and 6 staff members oversees the school budget, as well as helps to determine school goals. Through their support and planning we were able to acquire new computers for the classrooms. This upgrade has been a long time coming. What made it even tougher, is due to budget cuts we had to make the difficult decision decision to eliminate our tech support person this year. Old, slow hardware coupled with limited or no tech support made for a real rough start. However, thanks to some frugal planning and the vision of a progressive future, the SSC was able to allocate funding to purchase 150 computers. Through the help of some tech savy 6th graders we have been able to install almost all of the computers and the impact has been great! As an FYI, SSC members serve a 2 year term and elections are held each year to replace those whose term is up. I encourage you all to put yourself on the ballot which will come out as we come to the end of this year.

Hanover Survey

Each year our District sends out a survey to all staff, students and parents to ensure we’re doing the best job possible. All 4th through 6th grade students completed to the survey in school, but we need parents to complete it as well. If you have not taken the survey yet please spend some time answering the questions. This information helps to provide us the information we need to continue to improve.

Please click this link to take you to the survey in English http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1146939/2013-Parent-Questionnaire-Chula-Vista-ESD
Spanish version of survey http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1146946/2013-Cuestionario-para-los-padres-de-familia-Chula-Vista-ESD
Taglog version http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1146945/2013-Pagtatanong-sa-Magulang-Chula-Vista-ESD

Update

  • Thanks to everyone who took the quick survey on next years proposed McMillin at the Ballpark Kickoff. If you havent answered the 4 short questions please click on this link and answer them now: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NKQBTGX
  • Our Chess Tournament has been delayed to March 7

 

Feb 11-15

Kindness has taken over McMillin!

Beginning on Feb 1st our students have been participating in the Great Kindness Challenge (http://www.greatkindnesschallenge.org/School/event.html). Through the efforts of our fantastic staff and PTA, kids have had the chance to get involved with activities like creating kindess bookmarks, writing notes of appreciation to faculty or family members, or just being creative to make something kind for someone. We believe constant efforts such as the Kindness Challenge, helps to reinforce important characteristics all people should have to be contributing members of our society. Please help us reinforce these concepts at home and maybe even consider taking on the challenge in your home! 🙂

Chess Club

Did you know we have a Chess Club at McMillin. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Robles, one of our active parent volunteers we now give 4th thru 6th grade students the opportunity to learn and play chess against other students. Our kids have been playing for a couple months now and on Feb 28th some of them will play in our first annual Chess Tournament where our Grandmaster will be crowned! If your child is interested please encourage them to come to the auditorium every Thursday at lunch.

 

McMillin Kickoff at the Ballpark

We’re planning our kickoff for next year and we’re hoping to host it at Petco Park, but before we decide we need your input. On August 18th at 1:10 pm, the Padres will be playing against the NY Mets and we’d like to have our kickoff to the 2013-2014 school year at the game. The Padres have agreed to section off a private tailgate area just for McMillin school. In addition, I am looking for donations of hot dogs and burgers from local businesses i.e. Vons, Walmart, Costco, etc. so we can include a free lunch with the purchase of each ticket. As an incentive to sell as many tix as possible, the Padres have agreed to raffle off the opportunity for one of our students to visit the announcers booth and scream out the ceremonial “Play Ball” to begin the game! Please click the survey below to help us in our planning.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NKQBTGX

Dont forget President’s Holiday will be Friday Feb 15-Monday Feb 18. Students return on Feb 19!