PACIFIC BEACH ELEMENTARY
Pacific Beach Elementary held its new student orientation on Friday, Aug. 26 in the outdoor shaded lunch arbor. Principal Jennifer Grondek welcomed parents and students to the 2022-2023 school year. PBES anticipates approximately 50 new transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students, bringing the total school enrollment to about 340 pupils. After lunch, families were escorted on a tour of the campus by fourth and fifth-grade student council members. Ashley Erickson, upper-grade teacher, and student council advisor said that a total of 14 student council members participated in planning and hosting the small group tours as part of the orientation.
PACIFIC BEACH MIDDLE
On Tuesday morning, Aug. 23, excited and nervous new students and parents streamed into the auditorium for their end-of-summer orientation for the new school year. At 9 a.m., Ashley Hensen, IB coordinator for PBMS, welcomed the new students and parents onto campus and started the morning off with “cheers and the wave.”
By 9:15 a.m., after brief remarks by Principal Kimberly Meng and Associate Principal Jordan Sobel, the new students were organized into orientation groups led by ASB students. The new students toured the campus, picked up Chromebooks, their new class schedule, and their student planners, and participated in fun activities including lunch. These ASB-sponsored activities were all designed for students to meet new classmates, learn the layout of their new campus, and calm any jittery nerves before school started on Monday, Aug. 29.
Parents remained in the auditorium for health and safety protocols presentations, the primary school supplies needed, the middle school dress code, and PE clothes. Parents discovered that many clubs are offered for students at the school. Meng emphasized to parents the communication tools in place to keep parents informed. The PBMS website, the PBMS Family Bulletin, and Power School are three key ways parents, teachers, and school staff can stay in touch. The day’s orientation ended at 12:30 p.m. when parents returned to campus. The students then shared their class schedules and gave tours of the campus to their parents.
MISSION BAY HIGH
On Thursday, Aug. 18 at 7:30 a.m. at Mission Bay High, parents and freshman students gathered in small groups outside the gym, some standing alone, others in small clusters with friends, some nervous, some excited, all waiting for their high school orientation to begin. At 7:55 a.m. Lindsey Littlefield, ASB teacher, steps out of the gym and welcomes the new ninth-grade students. She promises the parents their students will be well cared for and sends them off to their parent orientation at a different location on campus.
Inside the gym, ASB officers, orientation committee members, athletes, school club members, and cheerleaders are ready to welcome the new ninth-grade classmates for the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. At 8 a.m. the gym doors open and the nervous freshman are greeted with a gauntlet of cheering, smiling, waving upper classmates. The message is clear: Welcome to Mission Bay High School. “We want you here! You belong here! You are part of us! Go Bucs!”
The new students received name tags and are placed into small groups of 8-10 students. Led by two upper-class members, freshmen toured the school, and participated in group activities in various classrooms designed for freshmen to meet other students, and learn the ropes and guidelines of the school. Jorge Palacios, athletic director and MC for the orientation experience said, “Our goal is for every freshman to know 6-7 other students when they walk on campus the first day of school.”
