The Wallace Middle School Band performed a holiday medley at the start of the December 6 Board of Education meeting setting a festive mood! Thank you to the students and Wallace band director Julia Galdi for the wonderful performance.
This week, the Vineland High School Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter reinstated a time-honored tradition by recreating a group photo in front of the Landis Administrative Offices, the former Landis School. Landis School served as the original Vineland High School until the opening of the VHS South building in 1963, coincidentally marking the concluding year of the VHS FFA program until its reestablishment this year.
In an homage to history, the current FFA members, accompanied by their agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, Annaliese Castellini, visited Landis on Tuesday to replicate the customary group photograph that had served as an emblem of the FFA legacy. The district's archives house FFA chapter photographs tracing back to 1932, offering a visual narrative of the organization's history.
A slideshow featuring those photographs can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/3NeIVko
Superintendent Alfonso Llano welcomed Vineland High School students and families to the first Community Conversation meeting, held on Monday at VHS South. The meeting provided families with a chance to hear from district and school administration on different aspects of the high school experience. Families were then given the opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue with the administration. Approximately 40 families, school staff, and Board of Education members were in attendance. The district plans to hold meetings for all school levels as the year progresses. Dates will be announced following the new year.
To view the presentation, please click here: https://bit.ly/3TdIpH9
The fifth-grade class at D'Ippolito Elementary School made reservations at the Cozy Christmas Cafe on Tuesday, December 5th. The two-course meal included informational text, narrative nonfiction, fantasy, & realistic fiction. The diners chopped and chatted. They had to identify the genre and support their answers with evidence. At the end of their meal, they chatted about their answers and responses. Pajamas were welcomed. Be on the lookout for their restaurant reviews! 🎄
Students in Mrs. Haley's 8th Grade Accelerated classes worked with Sally Goode (Veterans Memorial Media Specialist) to create luminaries using the school's Glowforge machine.
Students began by using a website The Righteous Among the Nations to research an individual who risked their own life in order to save Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The students completed a research document answering a few questions in order to personally connect with their individual:
Which country is this person's story from?
What topic is this individual associated with?
What is the individual's name?
What did this person do to earn them the title of one of The Righteous Among the Nations?
What makes you personally connect to this individual?
If you could choose one symbol to represent this person, what would it be and why?
Sally Goode spent many hours generating a template compatible with the Glowforge machine. Students designed their own luminary using this template and were able to watch how their designs came to life, all with Ms. Goode's gentle guidance.
These students were able to comprehend how important it is to have empathy and compassion and that even they have the chance to "be a light in someone's life."
We not only remember those individuals lost during this tragic event in history but also those who fought for what was right. It is because of them that our students have the knowledge to "light the way" in the future.
We will be streaming the December 6 Board of Education Combined Meeting live on our YouTube channel at 5pm: https://youtube.com/live/v8Reg0zp-EQ?feature=share
Agenda: https://bit.ly/47OFo4v
Congratulations to Rossi Elementary School's Gold Badge Winner for the month of December, Isabella Marciano! Isabella has been a huge help down at car riders in the afternoon and is an indispensable part of our dismissal procedures. She is kind and courteous to all. Great job, Isabella!
Join us in celebrating the legacy of Mr. Ed Harvard, former VHS administrator and coach, as we honor him by naming the VHS South Gym after him on Friday, Dec. 15. The event kicks off at 5:30 pm, followed by an exciting boys basketball matchup against Bridgeton HS at 6:30 pm.
275 Mennies Elementary School students celebrated earning Magnet Club Status for the 1st marking period on Thursday, November 30. Students had a glow dance party in the cafeteria with Cole and Mr. Hannah as the DJs. In order to achieve this status, students had to have no discipline referrals, excellent attendance, earn A’s, B’s, or C’s on their report card, and earn G’s or E’s in the categories of Work Habits and Conduct. The Mennies Magnet Club Committee is made up of several teachers, the school counselor, social worker, and administration. Students will also get treats/rewards throughout the marking period. The Magnet Club Committee is hoping to see even more students earn this achievement in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th marking periods.
Durand 4th graders from Mrs. Fiocchi's class understand the meaning of gratitude! They hand-delivered their gratitude projects to the person they chose who has had the biggest impact on them at Durand School. This project is loved by the teachers, students, and all of Durand staff equally. Students did a fantastic job at naming all of the wonderful staff at Durand and reflecting on how they’ve made an impact on their lives.
Helpful tips for this cold & flu season! Parents may contact their school nurse for further information.
For the month of November, Wallace Middle School Safety Patrol Advisor Jamie Ecret tasked the Safety Patrol members with giving thanks to the staff at Wallace School to show them they are appreciated. The students were to write a message of thanks and/or encouragement. Upon delivery of their message of thanks, the students took a selfie with the staff member they chose to recognize. The students were very excited to take part in this project and we are glad we could give a little something back to the staff at Wallace Middle School!
8th graders in Ms. Espinosa and Mr. Leon’s Science classes at Wallace Middle School have been learning about forces. They worked in groups to observe various devices and investigate what forces are acting on them. They also recorded what components influence the movement of the devices. They observed a flying balloon, floating magnets, an air-powered car, and a magnetic cannon.
Damaris Lopez Colon, Jaqueline Cruz Perez, and Eylin Atilano Cuevas are the Vineland High School November Dancers of the Month! These three dancers work hard and put forth great effort in their daily dance class and deserve this recognition.
This past week in AFJROTC, cadets marched in the Vineland Christmas parade down Landis Ave. 52 cadets, including the. Color Guard and the Saber Team, marched down the Ave singing cadence.
In class, cadets learned to make parachute cord survival bracelets in groups. ALPHA Flight leaders are learning how to brief administrators weekly on past events of the week and future events. This week they briefed the VHS Vice Principal Craig on AFJROTC's upcoming events and talked about a community service event they participated in this week. We had guest speakers SA Ryan Ulerick, SA Sean Geary, and Petty Officer Dial from the United States Coast Guard came in to share experiences, opportunities, and information on the Coast Guard. They came back on Friday to lead PT with the Flights. Everyone enjoyed the workouts. We want to wish SA Ryan Ulerick and SA Sean Geary best wishes as they are reporting to their stations after just graduating from boot camp training down at the Cape May Coast Guard Training base. We thank them for coming in and sharing their experience with us.
While discussing force, students in Ms. Pilla and Ms. Bronson's third-grade science class at Petway Elementary School collaborated within groups to create a maze made from magnatiles. Then they used straws and cotton balls to use the force of air to move the cotton ball through the maze. Students then wrote a reflection of their findings in their science notebooks.
The 8th grade students from Wallace Middle School made a domino in Mrs. Ramirez's bilingual mathematics course with the topic related to rational and irrational numbers.
Reminder about our schedule this week!
Please check your school calendar for parent-teacher conference times. School hours can be found on our website here: https://bit.ly/3lwrm1c
Despite the cold weather, approximately 70 parents and family members came out for the Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee meeting held at Sabater on Tuesday, November 28. In addition, for the first time, an ESL-Only Parent Advisory Meeting was held at Winslow on Wednesday, November 29, with around 20 parents and family members in attendance. The meetings provided the same information, but the meeting at Sabater was conducted in Spanish, and the meeting at Winslow was in English with Ukrainian and Haitian Creole interpreters. VHS ESL and Bilingual students also assisted at the meetings, providing child care and interpreting services. 50 parents obtained access to the Parent Portal at these events. Sabater's Jonathan Salazar devised an efficient system for getting parents into their new accounts quickly, and a team of administrative assistants from Sabater and Landis was able to get the parents navigating the program on their phones. Teachers Jessica Mercado and Mari Cortes then gave demonstrations of how to find information within the Portal, and stressed the ease and importance of keeping contact information up to date. They also talked about the different uses of the Portal, Google Classroom, and other communication apps such as ClassDojo, Talking Points, or Remind that are commonly used by teachers. Parents were reminded to bring a fully-charged phone to their conference in case they needed to download or register for one of these apps. Finally, Sabater Teacher Sugeil Colón-Torres talked to parents about how to prepare for a productive parent teacher conference, and provided some helpful hints about things parents can do to foster productive relationships with school staff and help their children succeed in school.
The Vineland High School Academic Team completed its first match of the year against Millville on November 29th. The Vineland-Millville Brain Brawl is held annually and was hosted this year by Millville at Millville High School. After two rounds of challenging questions about science, history, math, literature, current events, and local trivia, Millville prevailed, but Vineland demonstrated great team spirit and good sportsmanship.
The VHS team included Christian Alvarado and Denise Gonzalez, who served as captains of their rounds with Casey Russoman, Jezabelle Wilson, Michaela Giuliani, Kaelin Zheng, Iris Giocondo, and Valentino Chanza; alternates included Jillian Schultz, Brandon Nieves, Desunny Gonzalez, and Christopher Gagnon. Supporting team members pictured include Kendra Chestnut, Juliana Panco, and Alexica Perez. The illustrious Daniel Kuzma served as our school judge, and the coach of the team is Vanessa Rasmussen.
