Mark your calendars for Sylvandale’s Orientation on August 15th from 5pm-6:30pm. Seventh grade families will have a chance to meet the Administrators; learn how to use Infinite Campus to check schedules, attendance, behavior and email teachers; fill out their lunch forms; sign up for after school programming; learn about sports seasons, among other things. Eighth grade families will be able to do the same as seventh grade families but will also hear about the eighth grade promotion ceremony.

Sylvandale's Leadership students lead the way in making Teacher Appreciation Week a very special event. Everyday of the week teachers received personalized gifts and goodies. They distributed uplifting notes of appreciation, decorative containers with teacher supplies, delicious personalized cookies and candy bars. And, for the Grand Finale on Friday, they provided freshly cooked, hot and fluffy pancakes for teachers and staff to enjoy. Their thoughtful notes and gestures of kindness expressed their appreciation and gratitude for the teachers who have taught them so much this school year. Teachers and staff alike were moved by their thoughtfulness and creativity in making this year so very special for us all.

On Saturday, May 4, Sylvandale Middle School discovered the power behind a community of volunteers. Comcast and NBC Bay Area partnered up together and provided a Comcast Cares Day with around 300 volunteers, ages 5 to 60. They focused on various campus beautification projects. Both the gym and the library were cleaned from top to bottom. The garden was raked clear of debris and weeds, the beds prepared for planting, and we even received brand new tools we can now use to maintain that project. All volunteers received T-shirts and a free breakfast and lunch. It’s truly awesome that a one-day event like this can literally renew the appearance of a school like Sylvandale. The students and staff at Sylvandale are deeply grateful.

Schahl Labs worked their magic again as retired teachers regaled our students with all sorts of interesting details about earthquakes. Students in the Coral program attended this after-school lab orchestrated by Ms. Dahl to help engineer and construct a three-story 'building' that could withstand a 7.0 earthquake. We learned that the triangle is the most stable configuration and attempted to make our buildings to incorporate that shape. Each 'building' was placed on a frame that could be shaken with great vigor. Some withstood the trauma, most did not. And no, we didn't eat the marshmallows!

Sylvandale has always been the place that encourages students to step out of their comfort zone and try new things. The girls soccer team is an example of this. Many of the players the come out are first year players. Students that have always wanted to try to play, but have never actually gone out and played. They work hard, learn new skills, make new friends, all the while keeping their grades up and taking care of their responsibilities at home. The girls are a statement of what a student athletes is and showed that by working hard they can win games and have a good time doing it!

Sylvandale Middle School students were trained in the Incident Command System, which is a system that outlines the roles, procedures, and chain of command setup that first responders use when responding to emergencies.

Sylvandale Middle School students and the staff participated in a full-scale exercise in mass casualty response.

Sylvandale Middle School is proud to announce that we have received a grant from East Side Union High School District to continue to support our Career Academy Pathway. This new grant helped pay for computers for our STEAM lab (also a grant from ESUHSD), as well as, a new iMac lab with the Adobe Creative Suite.

As part of a three month long season of giving, our leadership students planned and hosted the first Sylvandale Community Dinner in the school history. The dinner served over 250 people from the Sylvandale Community. Guests were treated to food from bay area Chef Chacon.

The Sylvandale Culinary Program consists of two years of increasingly technical curriculum that is aligned to Culinary Industry Standards. Students in the second year program practice knife handling, sharpening and cutting skills. They master culinary cuts such as brunoise, batonnet, julienne, and dicing as well as experimenting with more aesthetic garnishing ideas.