Monthly Archives: May 2015

Flying Hills Students Featured on KUSI

Flying Hills Elementary School students were recently featured on KUSI during the America on Main Street Celebration! At the event, our students to sang, danced, and played their instruments in front of a large crowd during the annual El Cajon Celebration. This opportunity was made possible thanks to the great leadership and dedication of Mr. Dyke and Mrs. Barnes, two fabulous FAME teachers at Flying Hills!

CVUSD Middle Schools & NFL Play 60


On Tuesday, May 19, two dozen students students from Cajon Valley Middle School joined students from the other CVUSD middle schools in a closing event for NFL Play 60. Professional NFL players from the San Diego Chargers, as well as volunteers from local law enforcement agencies and students from El Capitan High School, participated in various drills at Greenfield Middle School. It was a great day that celebrated student participation in the NFL Play 60 program. Thanks to the NFL and the San Diego Chargers for organizing such a great event for our students.

Steve Bailey Wins Top Award From Classroom of the Future Foundation

Innovative Principal Award
Steve Bailey, Principal
Emerald STEAM Magnet Middle School
EmSTEAM Academy

Innovative Principal Award winner Steve Bailey is principal of Emerald STEAM Magnet Middle School. He has helped develop innovative learning programs that emphasize exploration and design thinking to help students develop their STEAM skills. In only his first year as a site principal, Steve demonstrated “Rookie of the Year” qualities. The staff at Emerald is top notch! There’s a true “Emerald” in the Valley!

Let the Games Begin!

The Greenfield Physical Education staff would like to invite you to our annual middle school track meet held May, 26th Tuesday at Granite Hills High School. The events begin at 1:30 pm and ends around 4:30 pm. All Cajon Valley Middle schools and Joan McQueen Middle will be attending. This event is one of the After School Program highlights of the year for the athletes, coaches, and parents. This meet would not take place if it were not for the Granite Hills track team volunteers, the After School program and Greenfield Middle School as the host. This event gives these students a window into the sport of track and field, and many go on to run in high school and college.

If you have time in your schedule and can attend, I know you will be thrilled with the competitiveness, sportsmanship, and unity this event brings.

Thank you for making this all possible.

Candace Francel
Patrik Gunnarsson
Dan Herman
Tammy Olivieri

Minecraft/Microsoft visit Cajon Valley

A couple of weeks ago The University of San Diego, Code to the Future, our Governing Board, and District Staff hosted Vu Bui, COO of Mojang, the creators of Minecraft. The success of Emerald’s “Saturday Code School”, which both allows students to make up absences and the district to recover ADA money, gave us glimpse of what a powerful teaching tool Minecraft can be. With a lack of Common Core Instructional Materials in ELA and Next Generation Science, Minecraft has the potential to fill a curriculum gap. Attached are some of the media captured during the event.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/may/01/el-cajon-school-playing-video-games-and-students-a/

http://www.760kfmb.com/story/28955214/schools-using-minecraft-to-teach-real-life-lessons

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/may/01/Cajon-Valley-Schools-use-minecraft/

CBS News 8 – San Diego, CA News Station – KFMB Channel 8

Hillsdale Musicians Tour “Music in the Parks” and “UCLA”

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Hillsdale musicians toured Music in the Parks Music Festival and UCLA last weekend. It was an amazing trip. We started the trip with a stop at UCLA where we had a one on one Q and A session with the Director of Band Dr. Travis Cross and two current music students of his program. One of the students happens to be a former Hillsdale Student. Her story on how she got into UCLA was a great one. She applied three years ago and was placed on the waiting list. She found on the Marching Band website a link that allowed her to apply directly to the Marching Band. She submitted a video of her playing flute (her audition piece for National Honor band) and the band director saw the video and went to UCLA admin and walked her application through like a star football player. She is currently a cognative science degree and still plays in the Marching band. The one poignant comment the director made was that colleges are not looking for a checklist of activities but more of a commitment to something. He said 4 years of band on a transcript will have more weight than a star at at a variety of activities. We then proceeded to have tours of the campus by the Music Service fraternities and Sororities (Kappa Kappa Psi, Tao Beta sigma, and Phi Mu Alpha). We then competed that night at local schools in Valencia. There was over 40 schools from all over the west including Arizona and Las Vegas. The next day we went to Magic Mountain for the awards ceremony. Downtown Jazz took 4th place, Choir 4th place, Symphonic Band 3rd place (2nd highest score in the History of Hillsdale) Orchestra 2nd place and Concert Band took 1st place. Out of 1000 students they awarded one instrumental solo award to our very own Keith Dobson on Guitar. Our Music Department as a whole was awarded the coveted and largest trophy. Esprit De Corps award. This was based on our behavior and character. Here is the email from the festival host “you should know that your students were talked about Friday evening by my staff . They were very polite and represented a great community . At the awards, they continually outdid themselves when they stood and applauded for each ensemble. I was impressed by their professionalism. ”

Spencer Caldwell
Hillsdale Middle School

Blossom Valley Art Show 2015

As Blossom Valley celebrates our twentieth anniversary, we continue to honor the history and traditions that makes our campus unique. Blossom Valley has a long standing tradition of recognizing our students’ work in the arts through performances and showcases. Our annual art show is one of those important traditions. Every year, our Multipurpose Room is transformed into a beautiful art gallery thanks to the generous time and support given by our PTA. The amazing art work that our students create, under the guidance of our art docent volunteers, is placed on display in this gallery setting. The excitement and feelings of pride cannot be contained when our students see their work hanging in our gallery like the masters. A special thank you goes out to Allison McMillin, her team of art docents, our teachers and a team of volunteers for making this annual event so special for our students.

Dr. Stephen Mahoney, Asst. Superintendent of the Year (ACSA Region 18)

We are so proud of Dr. Stephen Mahoney, who was honored last month by the Association of California School Administrators for his outstanding service and professional achievements. Below are some pictures from the event. Congratulations Steve! This is so well deserved.

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