Dear Dragon Family:

Thank you for helping us kick off this school year right with such positive energy and community this first six weeks of school! We have so many amazing things happening on our campus and we are excited to see the positive vibes and energy continue throughout the year. Our pool is getting so close to being ready to open and we have this great video to share filmed by our Video Arts teacher Peter Hansen - we can’t wait to see some of our PE classes and sports teams take advantage of this new facility. Additionally, we want to celebrate one of our Seniors, Grant Boydell, who has been named a Commended Student in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. About 34,000 students in the nation are being recognized as Commended Students for their academic promise. Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).  Congratulations Grant - we are proud of you!

We would like to also ask for your support with reviewing some of our expectations with your student as we go into the second grading period. Every teacher is implementing our cell phone protocol which involves asking students to turn in their cell phone at the start of class via their method of collecting phones - many teachers have wall pockets or containers. The goal is that students’ phones are off and away during class and not presenting a distraction. We have noticed that some students have more than one cell phone and so they’ll place their broken or non-usable device in the pocket, and they’ll then be seen taking long bathroom breaks walking around campus texting on their cell phone. If we see students with cell phones out at times other than before school, break, lunch, or after school we will ask them for their device and it will be held in the office in a locked box until the end of the school day. If cell phone issues become regular issues (3 or more times), we may ask a parent to come and retrieve the device. Our goal is to have a distraction-free educational environment for our students so anything you can do to help us reinforce this message and expectation with your student is appreciated.

Thank you to all of our Dragon Families for all your support and involvement so far this school year, stronger together!

Ms. Kiss, Ms. Dowdy, Mr. Schloesser, & Mr. Snow

Student of the Week - Team Mauna Kea :

• Lainy Dayao for academic excellence, outstanding behavior and tremendous work habits.

Student of the week - Team Fuji:

• Kristy Martinez for her incredible leadership skills, positive attitude, and for being prepared and ready to learn every day.

The PSAT will be Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 8am it is an optional 4-hour PSAT administration for Juniors. Juniors may want to take the PSAT if they are interested in qualifying for National Merit Scholarship, or are preparing to take the SAT for a particular private or out-of-state-college that requires it (CSUs and UCs are no longer looking at SAT scores). If you are a junior interested in signing up to take the PSAT we have 140 tests available. Sign up by: Wednesday, October 5, 2022. Cost is $20. Visit the Student Activities Window to sign up (cash or check accepted, checks should be made out to SVHS-PSAT) or pay online through the Student Webstore. If you’d like to learn more please visit the PSAT/NMSQT website.

Please check your email for the message with the dates and times of your Senior Portraits. This is the INFORMATION for packages and prices of portraits provided by Prestige Photography. The dates for the photo sessions are: Nov. 4th, 8th and 10th in the CCC and Nov. 7th and 9th in Golton Hall.

For information, eligibility and registration requirements for sports, please visit our SVHS Athletics web page. 

Go Fan Digital Ticketing - To purchase tickets, go to https://gofan.co/app/school/CA23061. Digital Tickets are sent to your email electronically after purchase or can be accessed through the GoFan mobile app. Tickets will be redeemed directly from your phone upon entry into an event. No paper tickets - Your phone is your ticket.

VVAL Athlete of the Week - Hudson Giarritta, Sophomore, WR was named VVAL Football Athlete of the Week for his performance on September 16. He finished with 320 All-purpose yards; 3 Totals TD; 8 catches for 143 yards 2 TD; 3 rushes for 49 yards 1 TD; and 4 Kick Returns for 128 yards in a 27-26 Varsity win over Kelseyville. 

The SVHS Girls Volleyball teams will host our first ever Spike Out Cancer Event versus the Justin Siena teams on Wednesday 9/28. The money our teams raise together helps the American Cancer Society in so many ways. It's helping fund innovative research. It's providing free information for people dealing with the disease. It's providing rides to treatment and places to stay for people who have to seek treatment far from home. In short, our money is helping save lives.

In partnership with the American Cancer Society we have created a SVHS Girls Volleyball team website for collecting donations.  To "join our team" click on the following link and then follow the steps I have listed below. It's easy!

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/sonomavalleyvolleyball

1. Click on "join our team". You will then be brought to a log-in page. As you do not have an account yet, you will need to create one.

2. Next, you can set your individual fundraising goal and choose to donate or not at this time

3. Then you will fill out your personal contact information. If you are not a cancer survivor or caregiver, you can check the box that says something like "I want to help make an impact in the fight against cancer".

4. Following the personal contact information, there will be 2 questions.  For the question  of "how many players will participate?" Enter 0

For the question "which type of game"  please select "General"

• Then, when you click "complete registration" you will be brought to your own individual landing page, which you can customize to include a picture of your girls volleyball team or players can individually make their own pages by following the above instructions.  You can send out the URL that is created to families, friends and the community and start raising funds. 

These fundraising efforts are part of a larger ongoing effort in 2022 by the American Cancer Society. 

College visits for the week of September 26-30, 2022

All visits are in the College & Career Center. Please pick up a pass to attend.

Have you recently started a job?  Don't forget, you need a work permit!  Come to the CCC to pick up a work permit application!  Are you looking for a part-time job?  Check out the "Job Opportunities" link on the CCC webpage!  If you currently have a work permit issued this year, don't forget the 1st grading period ends this week!  All work permit holders' grades will be checked to make sure you have a 2.0 or better GPA and no Fs, otherwise you might lose your work permit!

Teen Services' "Ready to Work" 5-week after-school job-readiness program starts September 28th!  If you want to participate in this free program, click here for more information and registration.