Panther Update

Board Meeting Dates 2022

SDCOE Educational Equity

VUSD Vision and Strategic Planning Process

Secondary Teacher Resources

HR Newsletter

ED TECH Newsletter

PSST World Report anything worrisome without fear!

Community Update

Wavecrest Cafe Nutrition Newsletter

Salary Compensation Update

February is Black History Month. The histories, stories, and voices of Black people should be centered, honored, and uplifted in school curricula every day.

Equity Blueprint for Action

For curricular resources regarding secondary schools click HERE.

Staff Resources Folder 2021-2022

SmartFindExpress - Enter Absences

PeopleSoft Self-Service (ESS) - Paystubs

How to Upload Vaccine Card to PeopleSoft

Digital Schools - Sick and Vacation Time Balances

PPT Feb. 11th

The custodians are not planning to be on campus over the four day weekend. This means the alarms will be ON. If you come in please use your alarm code, then secure the campus when leaving. And the last person out needs to lock all gates, including the front parking lot gates.

Enjoy your time off!!!

Mark Taylor

Just a reminder that now March 9 is a Professional Development day for staff, and will be a NON-STUDENT day. There will be another PD day added to the calendar as well, that date is To Be Determined, but will be in April or May.

David graduated from Vista High School and he never really left! He began as a Site Sub, was a Special Education teacher, and currently teaches Social Science as well as leading the entire Character Leaders program. David became the Character Leaders education facilitator 17 years ago. The program focuses on the Six Pillars of Character and focuses heavily on service learning. He loves animals and the arts and has been a vegetarian since high school. Visit him in room V31!

Our VHS PTSA is looking to use some of their funds to support our students involved in clubs, athletics or other groups on campus! For information please email Marleen Reyes at vistaptsapresident@gmail.com.

Hi wonderful VHS staff!

As you may know, we are always reviewing and refining our campus security policies to make our campus the best environment it can be for learning. We have had some great discussions with cabinet, ILT, DMC, and our attendance committee about how we can best support students in achieving the VHS Promises through good attendance and engagement in school.

We are working on a digital pass system so that we can collect data and do lots of other cool things. For now:

• Please continue to use our current pink pass system. We are putting passes in all the sub folders too. (A permanent pass, like a laminated pass on a lanyard, will work if you're great with monitoring its use.) When our campus assistants check on them in the hallways, they have no way of knowing if they signed out of your class unless they have something to show.
• Use the white Panther Time passes to request students to come see you during Panther Time at a future date. (also a great time for touching base with a student after a quarantine!)
• Please monitor the amount of time students are out of class. Try not to give a student carte blanche to "walk around" for an unspecified amount of time. If they are done with their work, help them find more appropriate and educational uses for their time. (Keeping in mind some students have specific needs on their IEPs regarding structured breaks.)
• Please be diligent about taking attendance and marking students tardy when they are late. We are tracking this information and using it to find students who need support.

A few notes for those that may be new to us:

* Students are not allowed in the V portables area during lunch, so if you want a student to come visit you at that time, please give them a pass.

* Students are not allowed to leave class before the bell rings (at the end of the day or at breaks), so please hold them in your class all the way to the bell.

* If you need more pink passes we have plenty more in the office for you.

* We are not allowed to sell food during lunch out of our classrooms because it competes with CNS services.

* Please limit the number of students out of your classroom to one at a time. There are only seven Campus Assistants vs. 2300 students. :)

What if a student goes missing or I need support?

Call the front office. We have the ability to respond quickly with targeted Campus Assistant and Admin support.

In many classrooms there is a panic button for real emergencies - that button rings directly to the front desk and we can speak to you over your intercom.

In case you're wondering, attendance, tardiness, security, and student support services are areas of continued focus for our administration. Here is a great visual that shows how teachers can be involved in encouraging students to be in class (see tiers 1 & 2 for some great ideas). We are actively engaged in refining our systems - this is a real time conversation about a very current issue.

Thank you!

Megan Ratliff

Adriana Lopez Corrales (Marisol) - Art 1

Ceramics student Jessica Garcia

Is there a staff member that you wish to recognize for having a great attitude, going above and beyond or just being all around amazing? We want to know about it!! Please submit a short write up about that staff member. We will read a select few at the monthly staff meetings and include the write ups in the weekly newsletters.

Panther Spirit Nomination Form

Also, Check out

December's Panther Spirit Award Winners

January/February Panther Spirit Award Winners

Group Testing for the ELPAC assessment (Listening, Reading, Writing) will be March 1-4. All English learners will test over two block days in their ELD, ALL, or Study Skills classes. Please remind students to bring their own charged chromebook to school each day.

VHS ELPAC Parent Notification - English

VHS ELPAC Parent Notification - Spanish

The Lacrosse teams are having a fundraiser at the San Diego Seals game on March 19th. Tickets are $20, and we get $10 from each ticket sold. See the attached flyer for details and purchasing tickets.

Here's a link to the newest version of the K12 Decision Tree.

This is your weekly notification that there were cases of known exposure to Covid-19 in the last week. All individuals are isolated and close contacts are notified according to the most current K-12 decision tree. If your classroom was affected, you have been notified. Otherwise, this notice is only a courtesy. Free testing continues to be available from 7:30 am - 2:00 pm each day in the ASB office in the B building.

There has been talk about mask guidance since the state mask mandate has expired as of Feb 15th. Please be advised that school mask requirements remain in place. Here are the words from our superintendent's Community Update on the subject:

2/15/2022

Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Mark Ghaly of the California Health and Human Services Agency hosted a press briefing on COVID-19. During this briefing, Dr. Ghaly provided an overview of COVID-19 case rates and addressed the mask mandate for general public settings, which is set to expire today for vaccinated individuals.

Dr. Ghaly stated that the mask mandate for school settings will remain in place. Dr. Ghaly’s slides included that while, “based on our data, it is reasonable that we’re getting close to a point where state masking requirements can be relaxed,” there is no change to the state’s school masking requirement at this time. The state will reassess the data and conditions (factors such as case rate, test positivity, hospitalizations, and vaccine rates) and on February 28th may announce a date when the mask requirement will move to a strong recommendation.

According to Dr. Ghaly, no specific thresholds or targets have been established for relaxing the mandate. Acknowledging the frustration of some parents and the fears of others, Dr. Ghaly suggested that the next two weeks are a chance for school communities to prepare for changes in future guidance, “so when the decision is made at the state level, people will be well prepared.”

The Vista Unified School District Board Policy No. 0470 is aligned to federal, state, and local health requirements. As a result, Vista Unified will continue to follow the CDPH mask requirements for all indoor school settings.

This is a fluid situation that continues to evolve. We will share additional information as it becomes available.

Sincerely,

Matt Doyle, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Vista Unified School District

If you are interested in getting a vaccination or a booster shot, and have not been able to make it to our site clinics, our district is providing them every day at the Vista Innovation Center!

See flyer below!

We had an 89% voter turnout [102] and all three waivers passed.

• 95.1% WANT BLOCK SCHEDULE
• 89.2 WANT SSR/PANTHER TIME IN SCHEDULE
• 77.5% START TIME 8:30 EVERY DAY

These waivers need to be presented to, and approved, by 1) VTA E-Board, 2) Human Relations, 3) VUSD School Board.

Your VTA reps will proceed with presenting the waivers. If all waivers are approved by all three entities, the schedule for 22/23 will be as pictured below.

—Your VHS VTA reps

Denise, Tammie, Kristin, Laura, Janet, Lance & Shannon

Our WASC visit will take place next school year on Oct. 17 and 18, 2022. For further information please see our WASC gurus Vickie Curtis and Paul Zendejas.

Hello VHS,

Here is an updated list for our school's financial aid senior Non-Completers. Once again, if possible, please take a look at the spreadsheet to see which one of your students have not completed their application. I've also included some additional resources for students below. Thank you again for your collaborative effort in helping our students.

As the semester gears up and students who may have missed several classes work to get caught up, remember that Panthers After Hours is a great place for them to get the help they need. Please remind (and maybe incentivize?) students to make use of the library after school where they can work with classmates and/or tutors to start the semester off right. Please check out www.panthersafterhours.com to see what we have on offer for students everyday.

Wellness Update

Our Wellness teachers are McKenzie Campbell, Tamara Marks, Matt McClure, Jo Renison, Becky Romney, Michelle Snyder and Rick Worthington.

XQ Mini-Grant Funding - One more chance!!!

After the first round of proposals for the VHS Mini-grants and after further discussions with our XQ partners, a small amount of funding has been made available for another round of mini-grants.

Any Vista High School staff member may apply for a mini-grant, including those staff members who have already had a successfully funded first round proposal.

To learn more, please examine the guidelines and expectations in this document.

• All proposals must have clear and explicit connections with the Vista Promises shared at the Jan 10th PD
• Each mini-grant proposal can be awarded up to $2,000 / staff member for the purchase of equipment listed in the proposal. The total amount (including tax, shipping/handling, and other fees) may not exceed the $2,000 total per person. Proposals submitted by teacher teams can be awarded up to $2,000 / each staff member.
  

Please use this Google Form to apply for a mini-grant.

Please use this Google Spreadsheet to detail the items that would need to be purchased based on your proposal.

• All Mini-Grant proposals will be reviewed on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis until the available funding is completely disbursed.

If you have any questions as you are working on your proposal, P2P Coaches are available to support you.

--

Craig Gastauer

DMC Update

Your committee members for the 2021-2022 school year are: Melissa Cotter, Victoria Curtis, Victoria Ingoldt, David Jaffe, Janet Malauulu, Tamara Marks, Lance Parrow, Jo Renison, Michelle Snyder.

The DMC plays a vital role in the decision making process at our school and your support is genuinely appreciated. Please reach out to any of your committee members with questions. Do you have any concerns you would like to share? Please use this LINK to voice those!

Please check out the Staff Info and Forms for DMC agendas and Staff Concerns link

MTSS Update

Michelle Snyder is your MTSS Representative. Find her in room C13!

Email: teachername@vistausd.org
Website: http://vhs.vistausd.org
Location: 1 Panther Way, Vista, CA, USA
Phone: (760) 726-5611
Twitter: @VHSPanthers