District Minimum Day This Tuesday
May 11, 2012
We will be on a special schedule this Tuesday, May 15th and next Monday May 21st. Students will be released to from class at 11:00am to go home. All bus riders, and students desiring lunch will be released at 11:30am. Both days are district in-service days for the entire district.
SVPC Carnival Today
May 5, 2012
The Sierra View carnival is scheduled for tomorrow night May 5th. It starts at 4pm and will conclude at 8pm. It promises to be a special night. We will have games, bounce houses, food, raffles, auctions, and much more. All proceeds from the event go towards our classrooms, and other student events at Sierra View. We would like to thank Jennifer Stemple and Hilary McPherson for chairing the event. Every year the Sierra View Carnival seems to get bigger and better.
April 27, 2012
STAR Incetives Program
Students will be reward for their hard work, and dedication during STAR Testing this week. We will be rewarding individual students with small pries each day for good behavior. Also, one lucky student’s name will be draw from a for a $50 VISA card from a list of students who exemplify good behavior throughout the week. We have scheduled a kickoff assembly each morning of testing to get the kids fired up for the day’s test. Students will be receiving a treat each day, and watching a motivational video. We will conclude the STAR testing on May 11th with a carnival with bounce houses, snow cones, music, popcorn, games, and much more. well.
April 20, 2012
Sierra View Stars in "Annie"
Sierra View top talent is staring in Annie this week at Liberty High School. The production stars multiple students from our site, and former Panthers as well. The productions are schedule for tonight 7pm , and tomorrow two production 2pm, and 7pm. Tickets are $5 for child , students, and seniors. Adult tickers our $7. Hope to see you there!
April 13, 2012
Sierra View Elementary Goes Solar
Golden Valley Unified and Sierra View Elementary are going solar this year and construction will begin shortly. Construction during the school year will not impact our school site. Cupertino Electric will be the general contractor for the job, and they will be doing 95% of the construction off campus. The solar units will be placed in the southern portion of the campus behind the soccer fields. All work on the Sierra View campus will be done outside of school hours to insure minimal impact on the daily instruction. All campus in GVUSD will receive solar.
March 30, 2012
Follow-Up with Coffee with Chris
We discussed numerous topic at the Coffee with Chris on Thursday, and would like to pass along some of those discussion points. We talked about different types of fundraiser, and we will be doing two different fundraisers next year. We will hold a Jog-A-Thon next fall for those families who prefer this type of fundraiser, which brings 100% of the money back to the site. We will continue the cookie dough fundraiser in the spring for those who would like something in return for their money.
March 23, 2012
Special Minimum Days Coming Soon
Golden Valley Unified School District has scheduled two minimum days with special schedule. On Tuesday, May 15th, and Monday, May 21st all Sierra View students will be released at 11:00am to go home. Our bus riders, and students desiring lunch will have an optional lunch in the cafeteria from 11:00am to 11:30pm. All bus riders will depart Sierra View at 11:30pm and follow the special bus schedule, which has been in the email. Tuesday, May 15th is a professional development day for staff and Monday, May 21st is a district wide meeting held at Liberty HS.
March 16, 2012
Cinderella One Night Only
On Thursday, March 22nd at 6:30pm will be the Sierra View annual dinner show and this year’s production is Cinderella. The play stars our top drama talent at Sierra View in grades 5 through 6. The production is open to our entire learning community to attend. Tickets for the production cost $7, which includes a tri-tip dinner. All proceeds from this event goes towards next year’s 6th grade science camp at Calvin Crest. All 5th grade parents please contact Mrs. Mayer in room 702 to find out how to help at this event.
March 9, 2012
New ELA Intervention Program
We started a new intervention program this week for all students at Sierra View in Language Arts. The program is aimed at reteaching specific standards that have not been mastered. Some students will be deployed to the reading lab to work on theses standards in a small group setting, and other students will receive large group instruction in their normal classroom. The program is design to make sure all students master the essential standards in ELA
March 2, 2012
Wild About Reading Kicks Off
Sierra View will be participating in the Fresno Grizzlies Wild About Reading program. The program is designed to motivate students to read on a regular basis. The program requires student to read twenty books within a 4 week period and if students make the goal they will receive two free tickets to a Fresno Grizzlies game in May. Parker the Fresno Grizzlies mascot will be here on Friday, March 9th to kick off the Wild About Reading program.
February 17, 2012
Spring Fundraiser Scheduled
We have scheduled our annual cookie dough fundraiser for February 24th through March 8th. This is a great opportunity to support your child’s school and receive something good to eat. We will have a kick off rally on Friday, February 24th to get everyone fired up about the event. All money raised from this event goes toward student activities such as PE equipment, incentives programs, and school activities. We will be holding a Jog-A-Thon in the Fall to help support these same great causes.
February 10, 2012
Happy Feet Club Is Rocking!
We have had an amazing start to the Happy Feet Club. The Sierra View student body has ran more than 675 miles during the past month. Students have the opportunity to run twice a week during lunch and in return they receive charms for a necklace that is provided by the district. The program is sponsored by a state grant. The following students are the top members per grade: (K) Matthew Prado, (1) Luke McFarland, (2) Lane Sheehan, (3) Julian Gomez, (4) Rocco Gerrish, (5) David Valdez, and (6) Shelby Ford.
February 2, 2012
Principal for the Day
We have a new way to recognize students doing the right thing everyday. Starting this month any student who does not pull a card in class and does not get sent the office will have their name put into a drawing to be the Principal for the Day. The Principal of the Day will be spend 1/2 a day with Mr. Imperatrice Friday afternoon. The student will also receive a special certificate and be recognized on the morning announcements. We have so many students doing that right thing everyday and this is just another way to recognize how Character Counts at Sierra View.
January 20, 2012
SVPC In Action
Sierra View Parent Club (SVPC) has donated new chairs for the staff lunch room and a brand new refrigerator as well. We are very fortunate to have such amazing support and dedicated parents that provide for our teachers and students year around. The SVPC raises money each year for numerous events at Sierra View that include grade level field trips, to purchases award certificates for trimester assemblies, and Family Fun Night.
January 13, 2012
Mr. Imperatrice will be Out Jan. 23rd - Jan26th
Mr. Imperatrice will be off campus January 23rd through January 26th for the birth of his third child, Mason. Mrs. Osborn and Mrs. Shepherd will be covering Mr. Imperatrice in his absence. Both of these teachers have their administrative credentials and have had previous experience covering the Sierra View site in Mr. Imperatrice’s absence. Mr. Imperatrice returns on Friday, Jan. 27th.
December 16, 2011
Sierra View Takes the NAEP Writing Exam
On Monday, January 23rd 4th graders at Sierra View will be taking part in a writing exam sponsored by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The assessment will take about 90 minutes and is intended to help the federal government get a true indicator on writing across the US. NAEP is the only nationwide assessment and the federal government relies on the NAEP to compare state to state educational growth.
December 12, 2011
Transitional Kindergarten
On December 6th, Golden Valley Unified School District Governing Board adopted the new course know as Transitional Kindergarten. The course will be open to all students who will be turning 5 years old from September to December. The state of California has created a four year timetable to reset the Kindergarten enrollment date to September 1st, so Transitional Kindergarten will be for those students who normally would have had the opportunity to enroll in Kindergarten. Below is a timeline for the new Kindergarten enrollment dates:
December 2, 2011
Sierra View Battles Webster
Sierra View and Webster competed today at Webster Elementary school in volleyball and flag football. All of our players completed with great character and Panther pride. Volleyball won their match and the football team fell short in their comeback 28-24. Our flag football team was coached by four students from Liberty High School who come to our site everyday to support the PE program.
November 18, 2011
Can Food Drive Is A Success
We held our annual ASB Food Drive for the past two weeks and Sierra View has set a new record. The Sierra View community raised 3,301 cans for the Madera County Food Back this year. Mrs. England’s class raised 357 cans and Mrs. Mayer’s class raised 419 cans and were the two top classes. Each class will be receive a pizza party and Mr. Imperatrice will be teach each class for a half day. Trenton Engleman, a second grade student spent $30 of his owe money to purchase cans. We were blown away with the generosity of our entire community.
November 10, 2011
Mileage Club/Happy Feet Club
Sierra View has introduced a new physical fitness program this winter called the Happy Feet/Mileage Club. The program will run throughout the remainder of the year. Students will have the opportunity to earn prizes for simply running or walking a 1/4 mile course during recess.
Golden Valley Unified School District received a physical fitness grant from the state of California and this program will be funded from this grant. This is the same grant that funds Ranchos Middle School’s PEP/tutorial program. We will be sending home additional information sometime next week.
Novemebr 4, 2011
Sierra View Anti-Bullying Program
Our top priority at Sierra View is to create a safe learning environment for all students. We have multiple prevention programs intergraded into our daily curriculum that teaches students how to treat each other with respect.
One program that we participate in is our award winning Character Counts Program where students are introduced to character traits daily that include, respect, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, fairness, and citizenship. Also, teachers present bimonthly Second Step lessons that use real life situations to teach students how to deal with difficult situations including how to deal with bullying.
We use a progressive discipline program for students who do not get the message in our prevention programs. Students who make poor choices will go through a very specific progression. We strongly suggest to all students to report bullying to the office or tell their parent if they aren’t comfortable with telling a teacher or site administration.
October 28, 2011
Coffee with Chris Follow-Up
We had Coffee with Chris on Thursday this week and had a great conversation about our academic goals for the 2011-2012 school year and how they are aligned with the state and federal goals for our site. We will be targeting schoolwide English Language Arts (ELA) and Hispanic ELA scores.
Another topic that came up from the parents at the meeting was the front parking lot. The upper parking by the MPR is for parking only and not a temporary drop off spot. This practice creates a huge safety hazard.
We discussed our site plan for students who are achieving at an advanced rate and need to be challenge with supplemental program. We will be discussing our GATE program and more at the next School Site Council meeting on Wednesday November 2nd.
October 21, 2011
State of the School Presentation
I would like to thank all the parents who came out to the State of the School Presentation. We discussed our status with Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) with the federal government and our Response To Intervention program.
Sierra View will need to improve in our English Language Arts (ELA) for the 2011-2012 school year. We had a 2% drop in our proficiencies from last year and will need to increase our ELA proficiency by 4% to make our Federal goal. Also, we will need to increase our Hispanic ELA proficiency by 3% to reach our Federal goal.
We discussed our Response To Intervention (RTI) model and the new additions to it this year, which included our ELA labs, Math Labs and Mastery Learning Program.
October 14, 2011
6th Grade Science Camp Rescheduled
We are very excited to announce that we have officially rescheduled sixth grade camp for December 6th through December 9th. The sixth grade science camp will be held at Calvin Crest and Webster will be attending the same week. They have gone through an extensive process to reassure all students and staff are safe. We are extremely excited about continuing this great program with Calvin Crest.
October 7, 2011
Update on SV Internet Connection
The initial attempt at installing the new system, the vendor was unable to establish a connection due to the tree height between Sierra View and Liberty High School. Liberty High School is the home of GVUSD server.
The new plan is to bring a 100' telescoping tower to Sierra View and test to make sure that tree line can be cleared. Once that test is complete, we will know how to proceed with a tower for the project. This was supposed to happen on Wednesday, October 5th however with the storm this was postponed to Thursday, October 6th. We were able to create a connection with the server at Liberty High School with 100% connectivity so the IT department for GVUSD feels we will have a great connection and speed as early as next week.
September 30, 2011
We will start a second day of English Learners (EL) Tutorial on Thurs., Oct. 13th. EL Tutorial will be offered on Wed. from 1:20pm -2:20pm and Thursday from 2:40 - 3:30pm. Ms. Juanita will teach both classes and grades 1-6 are welcome to attend this tutorial. We offer additional support with all subjects during this time. Please contact Mr. Imperatrice with any questions.
September 23, 2011
Book Fair
The Sierra View Book Fair is scheduled for October 4th through 6th. We will have a competition this year called “to dye-for” where we will dye Mr. Imperatrice’s hair green if we make our goal. The SVPC has set the goal of $4500.00 dollars this year for the book fair so if we meet this goal Mr. Imperatrice hair will be dyed green on October 7th. Also, SVPC is still looking for parents to volunteer to help with the book fair this year so please sign-up in the office.
September 16, 2011
Parking Lot Update
As we settle into the new year with our new parking lot I would like to remind parents to only drop off their students in the first lane closest to the sidewalk and use the second line only as a drive through lane. Also, please do not drop off student in the divided parking lot unless you are going to pull into one of the stalls. It is very dangerous for students to be walking in this area. If you have any questions please see Mr. Imperatrice
September 9, 2011
Box Tops Bring in Big Bucks
Box Tops for Education is a program that has been around for awhile, but the money available for schools has been untapped. Sierra View received $1000 last year from parents bringing in their Box Tops and did not advertise this program last year. Our student body leaders have created a root beer float party for the class with the largest total of Box Tops each week. Mrs. Osborn’s class won for the month of August with $170.00 worth of Box Tops. Each Box Top is worth ten cents. Below is the website for Box Tops and you will be surprised by how many companies participate. www.boxtops4education.com
September 2, 2011
New RTI Model at Sierra View
Response to Intervention Program (RTI) will have the addition of a new language arts lab. The lab will meet twice a week and each group will consist of 4 to 5 students working on specific deficiencies (i.e. comprehension, writing, vocabulary ). RTI is a program that helps our students close the academic gap through appropriate intervention. Sierra View’s RTI program includes our resource program, reading lab, math lab, ELA lab and Student Success Teams.
Letter From The Principal, August 10,2011
Dear Students, Parents and Community Members,
I would like to take the time to welcome you back to another exciting year at Sierra View Elementary. The 2011-2012 school year is going to be filled with meaningful academic events that address the whole child. Our site will be focusing on creating great communication with our community, continuing to develop a safe site for all students and sustaining academic rigor that challenges all students to achieve at their personal best.
Communication is essential to another successful year so I would like to take the time to outline a few ways we communicate home important information. The Sierra View website is updated every Friday with a two week calendar of events and you can find important documents like the Panther Express, Parent/Student Handbook, SARC report, staff emails, and much more. Please visit Sierra View’s website at http://www.gvusd.k12.ca.us/sierra_view_elem/Pages/sierra_view.aspx. The Panther Express is our weekly newsletter and is emailed out every Friday and a hard copy is available in the office. We are requesting you to give us your email address on the registration card because we will be sending out documents to parents via email. The use of email is a great way to guarantee documents make it to the parents. We will continue with our automated dialer to communicate home and the marquee sign is a great place to find upcoming events as well. Finally, we have attached a copy of this year’s events calendar. An online copy of this calendar is available and will be updated regularly.
Communication is high priority for me professionally. I am always available to you and your family with any issue that might be facing your child. You can email me cimperatrice@gvusd.k12.ca.us , call (559) 645-1122 or just come into the office and I will make myself available. The Sierra View community is an extension of my family so please feel free to approach me at anytime with questions or concerns.
Your child’s safety is my top priority at Sierra View and we have several programs and policies to assure your child is safe at all times at Sierra View. We have an award winning Character Counts program that teaches students how to treat each other with respect and live a life of good character. The Second Step Anti-Bullying curriculum is another program that our campus participates that takes the students through real life lesson. This program brings greater awareness of how to treat peers with respect. Rachel’s Challenge is a new district initiative that we will be participating in that aims at creating positive changes in your community. All of these programs are proactive and create an atmosphere where all students are safe and learn in a bully free environment.
The state of California has rigorous standards for school and we have set up multiple ways to guarantee your child’s success. We have an award winning Reading Lab that helps students close the gap in Language Arts. In mathematics, we will continue to have a math lab available to our students after school twice a week. Also, our English Language Learners will have a tutorial three times a week for additional support in all subject matter. These types of interventions are essential to your child’s success and are a key factor in Sierra View being the highest performing school in Madera County.
In closing, I am extremely excited about my first year as Sierra View’s principal and I know I am truly blessed to be part of this community. We have the best teachers, staff, parents and community around and I’m sure the 2011-2012 school year will be the best yet.
Go Panthers!
Chris Imperatrice