A MEssage from Our Principal

Happy October, Families! 

We are already in the month of October! Everything is progressing beautifully, and we have much for which to be thankful. I am reminded daily, through interactions with our students, families, and staff, how truly lucky Altar Valley Middle School is to have a positive and supportive school community focused on high expectations, growth, and kindness. Not only do our staff and students work hard during the day, but they also choose to extend the school day by devoting their time and energy into their after school programs. 

Our Drama Club has already begun studying their scripts and rehearsing their lines as they prepare for their November 21 fall presentation of Ransom of Red Chief. The students and staff involved in each production spend countless hours utilizing cross-curricular learning as they incorporate art, math, and physics as they plan, design, and create the props that set the scene for the stage. The students then utilize their expertise in their language arts studies as they analyze the development of the plot and memorize their lines to ensure that their performance is of the highest caliber. Every second spent with the Drama Club is a culmination of all of the learning that occurs during school hours and is showcased in a new and exciting production. At AVMS, we are so thankful for the support of the entire community for allowing these students to have such a powerful and meaningful opportunity.

Our students also exhibit their physical prowess and mental fortitude as they tackle new challenges by playing sports. The football and volleyball teams have been dedicating their focus and strength to improving their skills, increasing their endurance, and becoming masterful at their sports. Both teams have started the season with some great success on the field and the court! This strength, determination, focus, and confidence not only builds a stronger athlete, but it builds a stronger student. In the classroom, our student athletes bring with them the confidence, work ethic, and commitment that they learned on the field or court. These student athletes have also learned that they have the support of the fans in the stands, and they carry that support into the classroom as they face new content, challenges, and tests. With all of that support, they rise to the challenge and achieve success both academically and athletically. Bring on the playoffs and come out to support our Eagles!

With all of that support and with the extracurricular and cross-curricular activities, our students have shown some exciting growth. Just one of the numerous areas that we have seen that growth is on the Arizona standardized test, AzM2, in which the seventh grade students achieved awesome results and showed significant growth. We attribute this growth to our amazing students, fabulous teachers, and our Houghton Mifflin Harcourt curriculum. This new curriculum has helped to ensure that the content we are teaching is of the highest quality, that it is current, and that it is relevant. Our teachers have worked tirelessly reading, preparing, and analyzing this curriculum and then utilizing it to provide the highest level of instruction for our students and it is paying off.

At AVMS, we are educating the entire student each and every time they set foot on the campus, whether before school, during school, or after school. We strive to help our students become well-rounded individuals, members of the community and society, and help them achieve success in all aspects of their lives. We couldn’t do that without the support of our community and the families of AVMS. We thank you wholeheartedly for supporting AVMS because our students truly are ALL-STARS.