Author: McMillin

I want to thank all parents for being patient in our implementation of the new traffic procedures. Today had positives and negatives that we hope to learn from.

 

Some of the negatives were:

• Ensuring all students learn the new pick-up area (unfortunately one class forgot to remind the students)
• Things can be a little tight when making the right hand turn into the playground
• Our speed bump is a little high, causing some cars to possibly scrape the underside
• Some kids were picked up outside the pick-up area
• You have to be a bit more patient, but kids will eventually make it to you
• Need more volunteers

Our positives:

• All kids were picked up by 2:58 pm
• Once kids arrived traffic flowed well
• The backup on Santa Cora Ave was all but eliminated (at least today)

So overall, today was a good day! As mentioned there was no backup on Santa Cora (at least not at 2:50 pm) which greatly improves street traffic and improves safety for those students walking home. We hope our procedure will improve even more as we all get used to the new routine, but thank you all for your patience and support.

If you have any suggestions and or comments please let me know.

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weekend. We’re looking forward to a great week, starting off with Monday Nov. 10 where we’ll celebrate and honor our veterans and military families. Please join us for the following events:

Military Family Picnic
All of our active military & veterans are invited to eat on the lawn in the quad area with their child at their regular lunch time.  This includes spouses of deployed members!   Please bring a blanket, your lunches, and you may want to bring a little shade, it should be a sunny day.  PTA will be providing water bottles & dessert.

“Doors of Honor” Tour
Feel free to walk around the campus with your kid(s) to see all of the decorated doors!

School Holiday
There will be no school on Tuesday Nov. 11 in celebration of Veterans Day.

Traffic
As announced last week, starting Monday we will try a new after school pick-up routine, in hopes of improving traffic congestion. Unfortunately, no volunteers have come forward to help put out traffic cones and keep traffic moving, but there’s still time if you’re interested. If you’re available, stop by around 2:30 pm for more information. Thank you. For a map of the new pick-up location click NEW TRAFFIC ROUTINE.

Military Coffee
On Wednesday Nov 12 at 8:15 am we will host our next Military Coffee. This is a great chance to meet other military families as well as learn about resources you may be interested in taking advantage of.

LCFF
Recently California changed the way it provides funding for public schools. On Monday, Nov. 17 at the CVESD Education Center located at 84 E. J St. members of our District office will host an informational meeting to explain different components of the new plan that you may find interesting. Please click Advisory Comm. Parent Mtg 2014 Flyer for more information. En Español Advisory Comm Parent Mtg 2014 Flyer_ES-MX

NEW TRAFFIC ROUTINE

Hi Everyone, I’d like to begin by thanking all of the parents that were able to attend our Coffee with the Principal to discuss a change to our pick-up routines in an effort to improve traffic congestion. There were great comments and thoughtful suggestions. As a result, starting Nov. 10 we will change our afternoon pick up routine for all 1st-6th grade students. ALL 1st  thru 6th grade students will now be picked-up in our new pick-up area on our playground blacktop. Take a look at the map below for a visual on the new traffic flow. Any students not picked up by 3 pm will walk to the front of the school (original pick-up area) for pick-up.

I don’t expect this new routine to solve all the traffic congestion, but it will automatically allow us to fit another 30 or so cars, minimizing the backup on Santa Cora Ave. I urge you to continue to follow all traffic rules and please exhibit common courtesy at all times. All cars must move as far forward as possible to keep the traffic flowing. Do not stop in the middle of the flow and call your child over to you. Rather have them wait for you at the pick-up area and quickly enter the car, then continue driving.
Finally, we need volunteers to help us keep traffic flowing, put out and pick up traffic cones and to guide students to the appropriate areas. If you are able to contribute 20 minutes of your time after school please let me know. If everyone does a little a lot can be accomplished.

YOUTH SPORTS
Once again we need volunteer coaches for our youth sports leagues. If you are able to help please contact me at Jorge.mora@cvesd.org or stop by the school for more information.

Have a great week!

 

Happy Monday Everyone! 🙂 We’re looking forward to another fun week of events with our kids and we hope you can join us as well.

This Tuesday students will be participating in our Mix It Up lunch day. This event promotes our involvement in the No Place For Hate campaign. Throughout the year our students participate in anti-bully events and our Mix It Up lunch day allows students to meet other students they may not normally meet during lunch. Typically students are assigned a table to sit at during lunch, but on Tuesday students can sit wherever they’d like in hopes of making new friends.

On Thursday 10/30 at 8:15 am I will be hosting my quarterly Coffee with the Principal in our auditorium. This meeting will focus on introducing our plans to improve our afternoon traffic congestion. If you’ve ever been stuck in that traffic, frustrated and wondering why nobody was doing anything to “fix” it please come to our meeting and help be part of the solution. I need your input and support to make the difference.

Friday 10/31 will bring our annual Literature Parade to McMillin. Please click link for more information. Literature Parade We encourage all parents to come out and take plenty of pictures and if you’re up for it feel free to wear a costume as well 🙂

 

I want to personally thank everyone that helped to contribute to what I understand was another great Fall Festival. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as I was attending the California Reading Association conference out of town. However, those of you that were there may have noticed I was still able to bid on my favorite golf basket via phone and thanks to Mrs. Diaz she ensured I had the highest bid! 🙂 I would be remiss if I didn’t give an extra special thank you to Dawn Mendoza and our FANTASTIC PTA! They are a shining example of how a motivated, involved group of parents can really have an impact in the culture of a school. Thank you-thank you-thank you!

In addition to the great turnout for our Fall Festival, we also had a lot of parent support during our APEX Fun Run fundraiser. This great event goes well beyond just raising money. APEX members came out and provided our kids with tons of motivation and a weeks worth of mini lessons on character building. After a week of building their minds and spirits, student’s then had the chance to build their bodies by running. Its always amazing to me how much fun they have by just running. Thanks to all of our volunteers, we truly appreciate it.

Finally, I wanted to also thank the few parents that came out for our first Military Coffee. Not being as familiar with military life myself, I was immediately struck by how powerful the stories were. It was during this meeting that I realized what a great opportunity McMillin Elementary had for becoming a hub of support for our military families. Liaison’s from our military branches came out and shared the different resources available and they promised to come out again, continuing the support. Most importantly families were able to meet other families, widening the support network needed. With nearly 20% of our families being in the military, I encourage you to attend our next meeting on Nov. 12 immediately after school begins.

Coming up on Friday Oct. 24 I invite you to join us on our playground for our Red Ribbon assemblies. Rumor has it we may even have a helicopter landing on our field!

Here’s hoping everyone has a great week!

Sent on Behalf of the Superintendent:

Dear Parents/Guardians and Staff:

As you may have heard, in the name of excessive caution, Southwestern College responded to a possible health scare at its campus today. This touched off a number of rumors and misinformation disseminated in traditional media and social media. As it turned out, the student who was reportedly ill at Southwestern College did not exhibit any flu-like symptoms. The college’s nurse thoroughly examined the student and there IS NO EXPECTATION OF EBOLA (college’s emphasis) in this case.

We want to take this opportunity to educate our community about the facts about Ebola. The transmission (spreading) of Ebola occurs with:

• Direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with a person who has Ebola.
• Contact with blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with Ebola.
• Exposure to objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus.
• Exposure to infected animals.

It is important to know that Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food. Best practices for protecting yourself from Ebola are similar to those recommend for staying safe from many illnesses, including the seasonal flu:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Deputy Public Health Officer for the County of San Diego, Dr. Eric McDonald, has been very reassuring that at present we have nothing to worry about in the way of Ebola in San Diego.  We will continue to work with our County of San Diego Public Health officials and take measures as needed to protect our students, staff members, and families.

For more information about Ebola you may visit the CDC website at www.cdc.gov.

 

Sincerely,

Francisco Escobedo, Ed.D.

Superintendent

As always I’ll start with the important stuff Go Chargers, great tough win! Raider fans, well keep trying I’m sure you’ll win at least one game this year 🙂

So now for McMillin business. This week our students will continue to learn important character lessons from the APEX Fun Run Crew, culminating in the Fun Run on Thursday Oct. 16th. Remember parents we need lots of volunteers to help us on Thursday during the Fun Run, so if you are available please come by.

On Tuesday our ELAC meeting will take place starting at 8:30 am. If you’d like to learn about issues related to our English Learners please stop by.

On Wednesday, Oct. 15 we will have our first Military Coffee Reception. The reception will start at 8:30 am in our auditorium. This special event will bring a number of support resources for our military families. See you there!

School Site Council Meeting Oct. 15

Friday Oct. 17th is our annual Fall Festival. This is a great event for the entire family. There will be food, games, music and an amazing silent auction where you can get great deals on everything from games for the kids to golf outings and much much more. The fun starts at 5 pm.

 

Dear Parents/Guardians:

At McMillin Elementary, school safety is of the utmost importance.  I want to inform you about an incident that occurred today (Oct. 9, 2014) near our school. Two parents from our school community witnessed an adult male engaged in inappropriate behavior in public view near our school marquee. The incident took place around 8:30 am after students began school and to our knowledge no students witnessed this behavior. Police were summoned, and the individual was taken into custody. If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact the Chula Vista Police Department at 619-691-5151.

Because of the proximity to our campus, I want to take a moment to encourage all families to discuss personal safety issues with their children.  This is an opportunity to reinforce safety skills. Safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Remember, when you speak to children, do so in a calm, reassuring manner.  Children do not need to be frightened to get the point across.  Explain to your children that you want to discuss safety rules so they will know what to do if they are ever confronted with a difficult situation.

• Children should always check first with you or another trusted adult before going anywhere, accepting anything, or getting into a vehicle with anyone. This applies to older children as well.
• Children as much as possible should take a friend with them when they go places or play outside.
• Children need to know they have the right to be safe.  And when in need of help, children should keep asking until they get the assistance they need.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Jorge Mora
Principal

I want to personally thank each one of you for all your support during this First Quarter! We’ve had a fantastic start and just in case you didn’t know here are some of our highlights:

 

• We opened the school year with over close to 900 students. All classrooms are being used and are mostly full.
• We said goodbye to a couple of our fabulous teachers (Mrs. Cruz and Mrs. Whelihan), but welcomed a few great new teachers (Miss Lopez, Mrs. Elbel, Mrs. Cardenas, Miss Oliveri)
• The new Common Core Standards are being fully implemented for the first time.
• McMillin is now a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) school. Please talk to your teacher about the guidelines regarding students bringing iPads, laptops, Kindles, etc.
• 409 out of 880 students with perfect attendance in the 1st quarter

FAMILY FUN
Parents often ask how they can support their children during vacation, below are some great suggestions thanks to one of our fabulous teachers (Ms. Guthrie):

Tuesday, Sept. 23rd​
Fourth Tuesday

• San Diego Air & Space Museum (Not valid for special exhibitions)
• San Diego Automotive Museum (Last admission 3:45pm)
• San Diego Hall of Champions
• SELECT House of Pacific Relations International Cottages
• The Timken Museum of Art is always free.

Tuesday, Sept. 30th – No free museums except Timken is always free.

Tuesday, Oct. 7th
First Tuesday

• Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
• Centro Cultural de la Raza
• San Diego Model Railroad Museum
• San Diego Natural History Museum (Not valid for 3-D films)
• The Timken Museum of Art is always free.

​If you were unaware of Free Tuesdays, here’s the link: http://www.balboapark.org/visit/tuesdays

Here’s their calendar of events: http://www.balboapark.org/calendar​

I noticed there are Great White Shark and Mummies movies playing; a “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” at the Air and Space; the Mingei International Museum has a Mask display (may be some scary ones to some kids); Science Museum has “ILLUSION: Nothing Is As It Seems” display; and the San Diego Railroad Museum has “Tinxten: A Century of Tinplate Trains

UPCOMING OCTOBER EVENTS

• APEX Fun Run Pep Rally Oct. 7th
• Military Families Meeting Oct 15
• APEX Fun Run Oct 16
• Fall Festival Oct 17
• Ability Awareness Day Oct 21
• Coffee with the Principal Oct 30
• Literature Parade Oct 31

CHARGERS WIN!!! Sorry just had to start with that one 🙂

Well hard to believe , but this is the final week of our 1st quarter. As a reminder, we will continue to be on a minimum day schedule all week due to Parent-Teacher Conferences.  We anticipate this final week being extremely hot and will take the necessary steps to keep the kids comfortable. Likely, any day reaching temperatures over 90 degrees will result in a lunch recess schedule where students will either be supervised in the auditorium or in their classrooms. As a point of interest all of our students and staff are fortunate they will be working in air conditioned facilities. I heard on the news today, that some schools in the San Diego Unified District would be dismissing early since some of their schools do not have air conditioning! Make sure to let your kids know how lucky they are, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it…haha 🙂

Achievement Assembly will be on Thursday
This special assembly gives us a chance to recognize the hard work of many of our students. Students receive this award for either academics, citizenship, or a combination of both. We invite all parents and family members to join us in celebrating the students efforts. Below is the schedule for our assembly on Thursday:

8:30-9:00 AM:               TK & Kinder Classes
9:15-10:05 AM:              Fifth and Sixth Grade Classes
10:40-11:30 AM:            Third and Fourth Grade Classes
12:00-12:50 PM:            First and Second Grade Classes

Attendance Assembly on Friday
It’s been a great 1st quarter, with 409 students having perfect attendance! Wow, impressive!! Keep up the great work parents and thank you for making school a priority. Below is the schedule for our assembly on Friday:

8:30-9:00 AM:               AM  TK & Kinder Classes
9:15-10:15 AM:              Fifth and Sixth Grade Classes
10:40-11:35 AM:            Third and Fourth Grade Classes
12:00-1:00 PM:              PM TK, First and Second Grade Classes