Dear PVMS Families,

I hope that you had a healthy and relaxing holiday break with your families. We certainly had a nice surprise with a snow day to extend the holiday break! With the winter season upon us now there has certainly been quite the rise in illnesses among our students. At one point before our break there were over one hundred students out mainly due to being sick. We will continue to do our best to remind our students to wash their hands, cover their mouths while coughing, and to stay home if they are not feeling well. It is our hope that most have recovered and we look forward to a healthy January 2026.

The new year always brings hope of new opportunities and goal setting. It also allows the chance to reflect on the prior year and to learn and grow from past experiences. We have a great deal to be thankful for and one of our greatest accomplishments of 2025 was becoming authorized as an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program School. This continues to be our focus with our ten learner profile attributes, approaches to learning, and focusing on the process and journey of learning. My hope for our children and families is a year of good health, to enjoy the process of learning, and to continue to approach challenges in a positive way. We are very lucky to live in such a kind and forward thinking community that values our children and families first and foremost.

Our winter band and chorus concerts were extremely successful. Thank you to our music department and all of the preparation it took to get the entire band and chorus groups together to perform. I wanted to take time to recognize our department’s collaborative efforts through this holiday season and beyond. This has been an extremely difficult season with the flu and other illnesses running rampant through our schools, yet our teachers have been able to stay healthy and find students and adults to fill those missing pieces while hosting extremely well performed concerts. Ms. Kraus had a wonderful idea of including community members for the closing act of the 5th and 6th grade band concert. Our entire music department exemplifies what it means to be risk takers while reflecting on past performances.

Our modified winter sports are in full swing. Games and events will be starting this month and some will take place on our campus. Please note that should a student spectator want to attend a game or match at our school, they must have adult supervision. Many events start after 4:00PM so students must go home and come back to the event. This is imperative as we do not have supervision and students should be supervised at all times.

School will be closed on January 19th in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. day. This is a nice time to discuss the sacrifice that Martin Luther King Jr. made regarding equality and a vision of hope for all humanity.

No Name Calling Week will take place January 19th – 23rd. The middle school years are a time where we work hard to remind students of making good choices and to be thoughtful of the words that they use. This week is a nice reminder as our student support team works very hard in creating activities for students. Ms. Malagiero and Ms. Ortiz have been busy going over scenarios and speaking to students about how to appropriately interact with one another in their 5th and 6th grade SEL classes. Please expect more communication regarding the events taking place over the course of No Name Calling week.

The end of our second quarter is quickly approaching and will be Friday, January 30th. Please review PowerSchool and partner with us to contact teachers should your child have difficulty in a subject area. There are opportunities such as our H.W. Booster Lab to help support students in getting them back on track academically, should they fall behind.

Quarter 3 and the second semester of the school year begin on Monday, February 2nd. This is a great time to clean out binders and keep all items in safe storage until the end of the year.

Please mark your calendar to check PowerSchool on Friday, February 6th for Quarter 2 report card grades and comments and be sure to reach out to teachers regarding any academic, behavioral, or social concerns. You may also receive a paper copy of the Quarter 2 report card in the mail if you decide to opt in (opt in emails will be sent this month).

Our students are more advanced than ever with regard to technology and the ways that they communicate with one another. Please join us in teaching that words matter and we should all be thoughtful of the impact that words have on others. More often than not, we are finding that our students echo what they see on social media or the world around them. Please continue to work with us in educating our children that words matter. We all work together to help guide our children and to let them know that they are supported and cared for and that the middle years are a time for growth and reflection. This is our mission as educators!

May this year be one full of good health, happiness and opportunities to make good choices!

Sincerely,

Travis W. McCarty
Principal