Principal's Corner

Update July 6, 2022:

Congratulations to our 608 graduates who are now on their way to whatever is next in their lives. 89% will be attending college, university, military or other formal training. Others will be going directly into the workforce well prepared. This year's class included a record-setting 80 IB Diploma recipients, record-setting 160 Val Tech Diploma recipients and a record 50 Dual Val Tech/IB diploma winners. Our Nationally recognized AVID program celebrates 72 graduates this year including 2 AVID/IB and 11 AVID/Val Tech. Remarkable because AVID is a program that helps identify students who may be the first in their family’s history to go to college.

Looking ahead, we are currently deep cleaning the school and changing over the classroom technology from the old Promethean Smartboards to state-of-the-art interactive touch screen monitors to facilitate student engagement. Sports camps started up this week, and it's exciting to see football, basketball, soccer, track, cheer, aquatics and more diving into their preparations for competition in the Empire League.

Staff are re-charging their batteries and many are participating in additional training and planning this summer. At this point, we will have nine new teachers / counselors to take the place of those who have retired or moved on. I will introduce them in my August letter to the community.

August 20, 2021

Hello Valencia High School Students and Parents,

Here we go! We just completed our registration week including Link Crew Freshman Orientation and our New-to-VHS Parent Meeting I want to thank our incredible clerical and counseling team and our awesome PTSA parents for helping out as well as the army of ASB students and Link Crew Leader students. This is our first step each year to develop that positive, welcoming culture on campus, and with your help, I think we succeeded!

Pandemic Conditions 2021-22

Currently, we are set to return to school full time for all students with no cohorts or social distancing. As of now, the CA Department of Public Health is requiring that proper face coverings (masks) over nose and mouth must be worn by staff and students indoors, regardless of vaccination status. If a student requires a medical exemption, a doctors’ note will be required and the student will still need to wear a proper face shield. Expect to see a detailed email from the PYLUSD with more specific information early this week. We are so excited to have all students on campus full time!

Bell Schedule 2021-22 and Lunch

Late start will continue on Wednesdays! (instead of Mondays Pre-Pandemic). One thing we learned during the pandemic is that our professional growth time was used more effectively on Wednesdays than it was on Mondays. Moreover, this provides a midweek change of pace for students - which encourages teachers to provide time to catch up. Three Wednesdays (Sept 1, Nov 10 and Feb 23) will still follow the regular bell schedule to ensure that we meet the required minutes for the school year.

Split Lunch M, T, Th, F  In my last community update, I mentioned that we were planning to go to a single lunch period to provide better opportunities for students and staff to come together during lunch. We were not able to staff enough points of sale to ensure that it wouldn’t negatively affect students, and we decided against having all 2650 students eating lunch at the same time every day. We will return to a split lunch model. Click on this link for the bell schedule. Which lunch you have is determined by the location of your 4th period class.

Lunches will be free for all students, with their ID card. The State has continued the practice of covering all costs for student lunches as we recover from the pandemic. We don’t know how long this will be the case, but we anticipate at least for the first semester, if not the entire school year.

Off-campus lunch passes will still be available for seniors who are in good standing in attendance, academics and behavior. Lunch passes have to be signed by parent/guardian IN PERSON in front of office staff, due to the increased liability.

One more note about lunch. The office does not accept drop offs of any kind for lunch or snack. We will not accept deliveries for students from family members or delivery drivers. A student can arrange to meet a parent or family member at a supervised gate during lunch.

First Week of School

Tuesday August 31 - Regular bell schedule. Students pick up their actual schedules including teacher, period and room number before school (open at 7am) in the multi-purpose room. If a student already knows he/she has a 0 period, please attend it.  Remember to bring and wear your mask over nose/mouth indoors.

Wednesday, September 1 - Regular Bell Schedule (NOT late start Wednesday)

Thursday, September 2 - Regular Bell Schedule

Friday September 3 - No School for Students

Monday September 6 - No School - Labor Day Holiday

Schedule changes will only be allowed for errors and not for teacher preference, lunch preference or class period preference.

Back to School Night

Back to School Night is 6 PM on Wednesday Sept 22, 2021. Parents come to school in the evening and follow their student’s schedule to meet each teacher and learn about each class. As of now, this will be in person with no Zoom option.

New Staff:

Emily Abo - Sp Ed - Mod-Severe

Mauro Cardoza - ROP Digital and Trad Photography, and AP Studio Art

Cecilia Cummaudo - Spanish 2 and 3/3H

Bryan Cruz - College and Career Technician

Amy DeFriese - English: LA2 and 3

Jonathan Lee - Science: Chem and Physics

Catrina Lim - Japanese

Tony Martin - Social Studies: Government and AP Euro

Amanda Ortega - Library Assistant

Enrrique Ramires - Campus Supervisor

Kaitlyn Reuter - Social Studies: IB Econ HL and Econ

David Tong - Math: Alg 1 and 1A

New Position:

Paola Suchsland - VHS Attendance Director

Danny Ortega - Intervention Specialist

I am really excited to begin this new school year and to have this opportunity to reconnect with our students, families and staff. We are poised to do great things this year and build on the Pride, Tradition and Excellence that are the hallmarks of Valencia High School.

Sincerely,

Chris Herzfeld - Principal

July 15, 2021

Hello Valencia High School Students and Parents,

I hope you are all healthy and enjoying some family time this summer. Since it is midsummer, I thought you all might want an update on a variety of topics about the upcoming school year.

Pandemic Conditions 2021-22

Currently, the intention is to return to school full time, five days a week for all students with no cohorts or social distancing. As of now, the CA Department of Public Health is requiring that proper face coverings (masks) over nose and mouth must be worn by staff and students indoors, regardless of vaccination status. If a student requires a medical exemption, a doctors’ note will be required and the student will still need to wear a proper face shield. Either PYLUSD or VHS will send more specific information in a separate e-mail before we start the school year. We are so excited to have all students on campus five days a week!

Bell Schedule 2021-22 and Lunch

Late start will continue on Wednesdays! (instead of Mondays Pre-Pandemic). One thing we learned during the pandemic is that our professional growth time was used more effectively on Wednesdays than it was on Mondays. Moreover, this provides a midweek change of pace for students - which encourages teachers to provide time to catch up. Three Wednesdays (Sept 1, Nov 10 and Feb 23) will still follow the regular bell schedule to ensure that we meet the required minutes for the school year.

Single Lunch (pending). Over the past several years, we have split lunches into two different lunch periods, except on Mondays and Assembly days. One of the drawbacks to a split lunch is dividing the campus and decreasing opportunities for students and staff to meet together for clubs, sports, extra help or other needs. We want to build campus unity and maximize opportunities for students and staff (although staff are entitled to a 30 minute, duty-free lunch). We have been working with Nutrition Services to make sure we have enough points of sale to get all students through the lunch lines as quickly as we do during split lunch. As of now, we are still working out the details.

Lunches will be free for all students, with their ID card. The State has continued the practice of covering all costs for student lunches as we recover from the pandemic. We don’t know how long this will be the case, but we anticipate at least for the first semester, if not the entire school year.

Off-campus lunch passes will still be available for seniors who are in good standing in attendance, academics and behavior. Lunch passes have to be signed by parent/guardian IN PERSON in front of office staff, due to the increased liability.

One more note about lunch. The office does not accept drop offs of any kind for lunch or snack. We will not accept deliveries for students from family members or delivery drivers. A student can arrange to meet a parent or family member at a supervised gate during lunch.

Back to School Days

Data Confirmation through the Aeries Portal will open on Monday, July 19th. Please complete your Data Confirmation prior to Back to School Days: 

Seniors: August 16, 2021

Juniors: August 17, 2021

Sophomores: August 18, 2021

Freshmen: August 19, 2021

Make Up: August 20, 2021

Back to School Days information will be mailed home in August. For more information, please visit our webpage by clicking here. 

Back to School Night is 6 PM on Wednesday Sept 22, 2021. Parents come to school in the evening and follow their student’s schedule to meet each teacher and learn about each class. 

New Staff:

Emily Abo - Sp Ed - Mod-Severe

Amy DeFriese - English: LA1 and 2

Jonathan Lee - Science: Chem and Physics

Catrina Lim - Japanese

Tony Martin - Social Studies: Government and AP Euro

Amanda Ortega - Library Assistant

Enrique Ramirez - Campus Supervisor

Kaitlyn Reuter - Social Studies: IB Econ HL and Econ

David Tong - Math: Alg 1 and 1A

New Position:

Paola Suchsland - VHS Attendance Director

Danny Ortega - Intervention Specialist

I will send another update and more specific information at the beginning of August. Be well!

Sincerely,

Chris Herzfeld - Principal

Valencia High School Seniors and Parents:

This is a follow up to my e-mail of May 2 2021 regarding in-person graduation.

Well, we did it! We got into the Yellow tier in Orange County. As long as we stay in in yellow we will be able to offer each graduate five (5) tickets each to give to family or friends to attend in person as spectators.

While five tickets is a whole lot better than the two-ticket limit we would have had to enforce in the Orange tier, we realize that even five tickets presents some difficult choices for families as to who will get the tickets to attend the ceremony in person. The PYLUSD has spared no expense in making sure that the graduations are broadcast for free in a very high quality format for family and friends who want to watch and cheer, but cannot be allowed into the stadium.

For those who do not feel safe in a stadium environment, the PYLUSD and VHS are offering a drive through (or walk up) ceremony held at the PYLUSD office.

A few weeks ago, you were sent a survey to choose between the stadium graduation and the drive up/walk up ceremony. Click here for the survey. So far, 400 of our 630 potential graduates have responded. Please respond if you haven't already.

Here is the Bradford Stadium capacity numbers by Tier:

Normal (100%) - Home Side: 3,080; Visitor Side: 2121; Total: 5201
Yellow Tier (67%) - Home: 2064; Visitor: 1421; Total: 3483
Orange Tier (33%) - Home: 1016; Visitor: 700; Total: 1716

As you can see, with our anticipated 630 graduates, we can accommodate 5 tickets per graduate in the Yellow Tier.

Regardless of Tier, we will still be requesting appropriate distance from those not living in the same household, and we will still require masks for students, staff and guests at the event. Students will be able to remove masks for their official photos.

Thank you for all you have done to help us all stay safe and be able to re-open responsibly. I feel so fortunate that we are able to responsibly host a live, in-person graduation with a reasonable amount of family in attendance. That's a long way from where we were a few short months ago.