October 2024 Updates at Valley Charter: Academic Progress, Family Events, and Community Highlights

Valley charter schools executive director update header

Dear VCS Community,

We are one quarter of the way into the school year and we have already had so many academic experiences aligned to the VCS mission and vision, as well as many shared experiences designed to have and to build community at each school.

Read below for important information, updates, and highlights of our collective work.

VCS highlights and reminders

Below are some activities we have engaged in as a whole community to advance our VCS-wide organizational goals.

iReady baseline assessments and analysis: in service of our VCS-wide goal regarding advancing student progress and achievement, students in grades K-8 have completed iReady baseline assessments and teachers have analyzed the data and used it to inform instruction and identify students of focus for progress monitoring.
Anti-bias collective (ABC) professional learning: in service of our VCS-wide goal of advancing our anti-bias work and fostering a sense of belonging for all of our students, on October 17th, our ABC team, which consists of teachers at both schools (Mary Allen, Cassandra Brink, Krysta Henriquez, Melanie Ramirez, and Lauren Schauer) designed and facilitated an engaging experience for their colleagues that focused on the social justice anchor standards.
Launch of fall giving campaigns: in service of our VCS-wide goal of promoting fiscal sustainability, we are launching our fall giving campaigns to support enrichment opportunities for students as well as important classroom supports. To meet our goal, we ask all families to participate in fundraising, so that we can continue to provide these essential resources for every student. Click here to give to the VCES Annual Giving Campaign, or the VCMS Viper Fund.

Upcoming! VCS Board of Directors’ Meet and Greet: Thursday, October 24th! Join us from 5pm-6pm at our 6th grade site (14646 Sherman Way in Van Nuys). We have several new, talented board members this year: Jonathan Tiongco, Rachel Hazlehurst, Rohit Sharma, and a new board chair, Joni Angel.
- This is a great opportunity for our family members to meet board members and to mingle with one another as well! Light refreshments will be served.
- Please RSVP so we know how many participants to plan for.
Upcoming! Fall Conference Week: There will be minimum days on Monday October 28th through Thursday, October 31st, as well as no school on November 1st, to carve out important time for families to meet with teachers to understand student progress and discuss next steps.

VCES highlights and reminders

During our September whole school assemblies, we reminded students about PAWS. PAWS is the acronym for our school wide behavior expectations: Persevere Positively, Act Respectfully, Work Hard, and Support Others. To do this, we read books from the Spot Of series, worked hard on mazes, and problem solved different situations that might come up.
Students have started attending field trips to learn more about the social studies and science standards. Some examples include: first grade recently went to the Moorpark Zoo to learn about animal adaptations and third grade went to the Chumash Museum.
Stay and Plays, Community Coffees, and Principal’s Coffee have begun. Each of these are great ways to build community and meet other VCES families. In our September community coffee, we talked about the components of balanced literacy at VCES, including instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension.

Reminders

October 26th- Trunk or Treat
October 31st- VCES dress up day- Costumes welcome! Masks (this includes inflatables that cover your face), face paint, and weapons are not allowed. Students still need to be able to participate in class in their costumes.
November 7th- VCES pajama day (please note the date change) and make-up picture day
November 8th- Whole school field trip to the Soraya Performing Arts Center
November 11th- No school in honor of Veterans Day
November 15th- Principal’s Coffee

VCMS highlights and reminders

Act Like You Matter Presentation: On September 16th all VCMS students participated in the “Act Like You Matter: Anti-Bullying” special community meeting. The Theatre of Peace acted out different scenarios where students were confronted with various middle school issues, including bullying. Each scenario posed a problem and acted out a solution from the viewpoint of a teen and pre-teen with an emphasis to help support students in how to navigate bullying scenarios and how to become an upstander.
Museum of Tolerance: On September 25th, our 7th graders visited this museum and experienced a customized program that educates about the dynamics of hate, anti-Semitism and personal responsibility in historical and contemporary contexts.
Meet the High Schools Night: On October 17th, we had over 50 community members join us at our Van Nuys Blvd campus to learn about various high school options.
VCMS Student Honoree Awards: On October 21st, we held our student honoree awards for the first quarter. This is where we gather as a community to recognize and honor students who are achieving at high levels, students who are working hard to make progress, and students who are embodying VCMS core values everyday at school.
Red Ribbon Week and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD): VCMS continues to partner with NCADD for weekly student activities at lunch to help prevent substance abuse. This year, NCADD will host a special lunch event at each site in support of Red Ribbon week. Students will be taking the red ribbon drug free life pledge and learning how to maintain a drug-free lifestyle.

Reminders

Fall Conferences: October 28th-November 1st are fall student led conferences. Mon-Thurs will be minimum days (1:20pm dismissal for 7/8th graders at Van Nuys site and 1:25 pm dismissal for 6th graders at Sherman Way site) and November 1st there is no school. Parents should only sign up here for ONE student-led conference time with your child’s advisory teacher.
- Fall Spirit Week will take place during conference week! Please note that VCMS does not allow costumes on Halloween. VCMS dress code applies on all days: Monday, 10/28 – Pajama Day (Pajamas must align with dress code requirements, outdoor shoes are required. )
- Tuesday, 10/29 – College Day
- Wednesday, 10/30 – Fancy Dress Up Day
- Thursday, 10/31 – Sports Day
- Friday – No School – All Day Student-Led Conferences
VCMS Math Night: Join us on Thursday, November 7th, from 5:00 to 6:30 PM at the Van Nuys Blvd campus for an exciting evening of math and art! This event is coordinated by our 7th and 8th grade math teacher, Mr. Coleman.
Revolutionary War Field Trip: 8th grade students will be heading to Oak Glen on Tuesday, October 22 for a Revolutionary War Tour, in alignment with 8th grade history standards. This trip is being hosted by our 8th grade history teacher, Mr. Gomez.
Veterans Day: There will be no school on November 11th.

Upcoming LAUSD Board Elections

Election day is November 5th and the LAUSD board seat for District 3 – where our elementary school is located and where many of our families and staff members reside – is up for election.

There is much at stake for public school children in this upcoming election and we urge all of our Valley Charter families to get out and vote!

While as a non-profit, VCS does not endorse specific candidates, here is a link to the District 3 non-partisan candidate information guide compiled by the California Charter School Association (CCSA). In this guide, candidates were offered the opportunity to respond to a set of questions posed by CCSA which provide a useful picture of each candidate’s stances on the important educational issues that are unique to the Los Angeles educational landscape. You can use this guide to inform your voting decisions.

Attendance reminder

As I shared at the beginning of the year, strong student attendance is essential to both your child’s progress and our funding. When your child is absent, the school does not receive funding for that day. Collectively, each absence has a great impact on our school budgets, close to $100,000 a year between our two schools. Simply put, if we increase attendance, we increase opportunities for all our students and are able to maintain all of the amazing work described above.

With this in mind and because daily attendance is crucial to your child’s success in school, we want each family to be aware of the following:

Please avoid scheduling family vacations or excursions during school days.
If you need to schedule a doctor or dentist appointment, please try to schedule it in the morning or afternoon so that your child does not miss the entire day.
We want your child to be in school if they are healthy. Please continue to keep your child home if they are ill or recovering from illness (e.g., you must wait 24 hours after your child has had a fever or vomited and must follow any additional guidelines for illnesses such as COVID-19).
Please note that if a student is absent from school, they cannot attend a school-sponsored event on that given day.