Congratulations to our 7th Girls Basketball Team!
The team finished their season undefeated against Price. This has earned them the right to be called CHAMPIONS of the 2018 season!
Wrestling season is in the finals with RHMS wrestlers placing at the Varsity Tournament, then at Sectionals, and two wrestlers headed to Counties!
Congratulations to our RHMS Athletes!
Our second trimester is up and running. Eighth graders are deeper into their Exhibition projects. Those on “the wheel” are in new exploratory classes experiencing art, STEAM, technology, Spanish, AVID, and chorus. Additional students are demonstrating proficiency in English and are being exited from ELD coursework. The Dodgeball Tournament is well underway, as is our Holiday Toy Drive, and a December Spirit Week is being coordinated by our ASB. The CIA Turkey Trot raised over $1200 in anonymous gift cards for families in need. The school musical was a success, and the bands are gearing up for their Winter Concert. While wrestling and girls’ basketball wind down, boys’ basketball will have tryouts. Our Math Club participated in its first nationwide exam, and our site Spelling Bee has its finalists prepared. There is a lot of hustle and bustle all around learning and providing students a well-rounded experience. I am thankful for so much support of our students from the RHMS staff and community.
Professional Development Day
While students’ last day of the calendar year is Wednesday, December 19th, teachers will be at Rolling Hills working hard… discussing essential standards, engagement strategies, and lesson design on December 20th. Much like a classroom setting, we will gather as a whole teaching staff to discuss the initial three months of school, and then break into departments to discuss our next steps that are unique to each department. This valuable time will help solidify instruction for our 1050 students as we enter 2019.
Thought Exchange
Please look for an email from our district office that leads you to Thought Exchange. The email should have arrived after 5:00pm on Wednesday, December 5th and will also have a link on our RHMS website. Thought Exchange is an online forum that allows students, parents, and staff the opportunity to share thoughts:
Once enough thoughts are generated, we ask that you return to the site in a few days and assess what others have shared. By adding value (stars) to thoughts, the district and RHMS can help determine direction, benefit, and funding aimed at meeting student needs.
Student Safety
As a reminder, we encourage you to be cognizant of traffic patterns around school. With inclement weather here, there is greater likelihood of accidents caused by rain and fog. Additionally, we highly encourage our students to travel in pairs or groups as they walk and bike to and from school. With it becoming darker earlier, we want to make certain our students and greater community are physically safe.
CLMS Teacher of the Year
We are proud to announce that Rolling Hills’ own Mrs. Jennifer Bell was chosen from a group of stellar educators to be the California League of Middle School Region 5 Educator of the Year. The CLMS Award is bestowed upon California middle school teachers who exemplify educational excellence and who have made significant efforts to implement elements of educational reform. Mrs. Bell was recognized for her dedicated and innovative work with our students at Rolling Hills and for her leadership when working at the district level. She has worked to implement proven instructional techniques, including learning targets and writing strategies that benefit all learners. Mrs. Bell will now move on to the state level where she and ten other regional winners will compete for CLMS State Educator of the Year. Congratulations, Mrs. Bell! Your colleagues and students are proud.
We are proud to announce that Rolling Hills’ own Mrs. Jennifer Bell was chosen from a group of stellar educators to be the California League of Middle School Region 5 Educator of the Year.
The CLMS Award is bestowed upon California middle school teachers who exemplify educational excellence and who have made significant efforts to implement elements of educational reform. Mrs. Bell was recognized for her dedicated and innovative work with our students at Rolling Hills and for her leadership when working at the district level. She has worked to implement proven instructional techniques, including learning targets and writing strategies that benefit all learners. Mrs. Bell will now move on to the statelevel where she and ten other regional winners will compete for CLMS State Educator of the Year. Congratulations, Mrs. Bell! Your colleagues and students are proud.
Principal’s Message
Our first trimester will soon come to a successful close. It has been terrific visiting classrooms and seeing students engage in dialogue, play roles in historical simulations, create infographics, write with a purpose, participate in mathematical simulations, learn pickleball, play music, and be confident, empathetic citizens here at RHMS. It is equally exciting witnessing the growth mindset of staff. Teachers are using new instructional techniques and are attending professional development in Writing with Design, UDL, Project Based Learning, and Google Classroom. With the support of our Equity Coach, teachers are visiting colleagues to observe lessons and then discuss pertinent components. There is much to celebrate here at RHMS, and I am proud of our site’s collective efforts.
Air Quality
We are saddened that our Northern and Southern California neighbors have experienced such devastation and are seeing the effects of the fires here locally. In an effort to support health, we have taken steps to support our students. We have limited physical education classes to a number of indoor spaces, we have not distributed playground equipment during break and lunch, and a number of teachers have opened their classrooms during break and lunch. We have a list of students whose parents and guardians have informed us on registration packets of respiratory issues, and will continue to monitor our air quality and our students’ health.
TIPS
CUSD has had its TIPS hotline available since last school year. On our RHMS website, there is a link under “contact us,” for students and the community to anonymously contact us of concerns. While we encourage the community to contact law enforcement of an immediate concern, the CUSD TIPS hotline is another avenue.
Busy Time of Year
With so much occurring in the waning weeks of 2018, we want to be cognizant of these influences and provide a safe and supportive environment for our students. We will continue to be proactive and provide the consistency and routines that allow students to be engaged and successful. On behalf of our administration and office staff, I wish you a restful and peaceful Thanksgiving Week.
Fly away to Neverland with Peter and the Darling children in Rolling Hills live production of Disney’s beloved animated film.
RHMS Spirit Gear sale ends this Friday, November 16.
Order you RHMS swag directly at
Principal’s Message
With the weather clearly turning crisp, fall is in the air. We hope October has been successful for you and your family. As we move into what is typically a busier time of year, it is important to keep consistency and routines in place. We look forward to supporting our students during the coming months.
Fall Conferences
We were excited to see so many parents and students attending our Fall Conferences. Moving our upper grades to the gym appeared to be successful, as greater than 50% of our families took advantage of this opportunity. We always appreciate hearing what’s working and understand that families enjoyed having a window of time to attend, as well as all teachers present in a single location. Always seeking improvement, we will consider further ways to make the Fall Conferences successful for all families next year. While our CUSD calendar has specific weeks for conferences, you are always always welcome to communicate with teachers as you see fit.
iReady
During Fall Conferences, teachers distributed iReady data. This is a district assessment that is one measure of a student’s achievement in reading and math. It should be noted that iReady does not assess a student’s ability to express him or herself nor necessarily the soft skills associated with our district’s Profiles of a Graduate. These are assessed in other ways, including collaborative group work, presentations, and written performance. These may be tracked on Power School and discussed with individual teachers.
PLC Activity
During today’s shortened Wednesday, we met as an entire teaching staff to highlight professional development in which nearly two dozen teachers are actively involved. Aimed at engaging and empowering all students, these include Writing with Design, Universal Design for Learning, School Re-Tooled, and Math & the ELD Student. Teachers from across nearly all content areas presented to colleagues a summary of what they are currently learning and implementing in their classrooms. Coupled with the elective team’s focus on the Profiles of a Graduate, our afternoon together was incredibly positive. Witnessing examples of student work, analyzing lessons, and considering ways to implement what is successful in a neighboring classroom is inspiring.
IXL
Families, we are proud to announce that our PTA recently supported funding the online math program IXL for our 7th and 8th graders. It is most relevant to these grades, as it is at this point where math becomes more theoretical, namely working with expressions and equations and working with linear functions. Should you have any questions, please contact your child’s 7th or 8th grade math teacher. A follow up email with further details will soon be pushed out to families with 7th and 8th graders.
On behalf of teachers and students, I’d like to thank the Rolling Hills PTA and the generosity of our parent community.
Spirit Week
ASB has been busy planning a week of activities that starts on Monday, October 29th. Of particular mention are: Breast Cancer Awareness Day, Halloween, Movember, and a 7th and 8th grade dance. ASB has been spreading the word to all classrooms, and a summary of the week will be soon be online. We are eager to be active participants in what they’ve planned.
Student Safety
There are many students who funnel out of our site within a ten to fifteen window of time. Local law enforcement continues to monitor traffic and student safety. Deputies from the Santa Clara County Sheriff Department and officers from Campbell PD have been very visible on Pollard recently. We appreciate their support and your attention to rules of the road.
The shopping center that is located off Pollard with such business as Safeway and Round Table Pizza continues to be an area of concern. While businesses have asked us to communicate that the parking lot is meant for their patrons, we and they also understand that reality of the situation. Please communicate with your child that safety includes crossing streets and walking through parking lots. To reduce traffic, we encourage carpooling and a rendezvous point potentially a little further from school.
Thank You
We want to thank you for taking the time to be involved in your child’s progress, both academically and socially. Should you have information to share, please know that staff is here to support.
PARENTS / GUARDIANS / GRANDPARENTS
We're fortunate to have KidPower present a workshop on Monday, October 29.
Please RSVP here if you plan to join us
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJK7zZ2j6Wk9PvCj91oaIssQg_5SJtWA9qvikNv4IOJr3zxw/viewform?usp=sf_link
