March 5, 2016
 
Principal Benioff''s March Message
The Seventh Inning Stretch

Ah, Spring! As the weather warms, a great many rites and rituals are performed; removing the cover of the bar-b-que, to sharpening the lawnmower blades, or shopping for a new bathing suit. One of the great rites of spring is the opening of the new baseball season. Kids starting with T-ball and Little League, along with Major League players, head out to newly groomed fields to play. Baseball is part of a yearly renewal and optimism; even Charlie Brown feels in spring that his team will, this year, win a game.

Baseball itself is filled with ritual and tradition. One of them is the "Seventh Inning Stretch" that occurs in the middle of the seventh inning. Everyone stands stretches and sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", before settling in to watch the climax and conclusion of the game. Even during the most competitive or high stakes game, the stretch gives a moment of breath before the final intensity. Click here to read more...
 
Medea Finishes 1st at the County Math Counts Competition 

Congratulations to Mr. Large and his terrific Math Counts Team. On Saturday, February 27th Medea Creek traveled to Sycamore Canyon School in Newbury Park to compete in the annual Santa Barbara/Ventura County Math Counts Competition. Medea Creek placed 1st in the team competition, had one of our students place 3rd overall, and in the 
countdown round MCMS had students place 2nd, 3rd, and 4th out of twelve. It's not often when a school wins the team competition and also has so many of it's members finish so high in the individual rankings. All students participating in the competition should be proud of themselves, as it was their dedication and inquisitiveness that propelled them to such a fantastic result.

The team will travel to UC Irvine on Saturday, March 12th to compete in the Southern California State Competition. They'll be up against all the other Southern California Chapter winners...where the competition gets a bit stiffer. This win also means that MCMS will host the competition next year!

Team members: (travelling to UC Irvine)
Dhruv Aggarwal, Neel Roy, Justin Ho, and Akash Juwadi.

Team alternates: (not travelling, but with us in spirit)
Sahith Doddipalli, Kristyn Zhang, Kevin Ma, Nik Thalanki, Sharan Aravindh, and Aditya Ram.

The competition information, along with all the math counts material used this year, can be downloaded at: http://www.oakparkusd.org/Page/4704.
Odyssey of the Mind Brings in Big Wins for Medea
Medea Creek had five teams compete in the LA Basin regional tournament on Saturday the 27th at San Marino High School in Pasadena. Congratulations to all the teams and coaches. Best of luck at State! 

Problem # 1 No-Cycle Recycle
  • 1st place : Navya Batra, Krishna Thakur, Marcus Williams, MacLean Dickey, Ariel Avital, Natalie Almog, and Arpan Reddy (Going to state)
  • 5th place : Tejas Rao, Jacob Fingerman, Akhil Kalakota, Nikhil Kalakota, Rohan Bijukumar, and Benjamin Bankhead
Problem #2 Something Fishy
  • 2nd Place : Kyle Haggart, SaiSidharth Senthilnathan, Meghna Nair, Ashwika Murugan, Thomas Tesoro, Kayal-Vizhi Anand, Sandhya Sridhar (Going to state)
  • 3rd Place : Lucy Heine-Von Fossen, Elisha Tong, Ananda Kinkaid, Hana Chizzo,Rachel Driggs, Talia Parker, and Aidan Meek

Problem # 3 Aesop Gone Viral

  • 1st place : Kartik Gugnani, Srijan Gattem, Anshu Vorunganti, Sanjana Vintha, Jay Dugar, Erin Winston, and Alison Khordadi (Going to State)
Click here for photos of the teams....
Attention Parents! Save the Date! Mark your Calendars!  
MCMS Open House is Thursday, April 28th.
 
Festivities begin at 5:30 p.m.  D' Amore's Pizza and Uncle Chris' Italian Ice will be selling delicious food and dessert! There will also be a RAFFLE with great prizes!
 
From 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. everyone will view and celebrate student accomplishments from the year.  Classrooms will be open and teachers on hand throughout campus to view student work. 
 
* Please note: we are looking for individuals and/or local businesses to support the MCMS PFA by donating to the Open House raffle.If you or anyone you know would like to make a monetary or in-kind donation, please contact: 
Ginger at theperinis@msn.com or Denise at denisehelfstein@me.com .
Save the Date for the First Annual Oak Park Music Festival 
Sunday, April 10th from 12pm-4pm at Medea Creek Middle School.
This fun-filled family event will feature all the students of the Oak Park USD music programs. Bring a blanket or a chair to spread out and enjoy an afternoon of fabulous music. There will be two stages of revolving talent.

Admission is only $5.00 and all proceeds support the Oak Park USD music programs
  • Eat from one of the yummy food trucks or bring your own picnic lunch. 
  • Bid on one of the exciting silent auction items including Disneyland park hopper tickets, Six Flags Magic Mountain tickets, Burberry Perfume, The Barkley Pet Hotel, Bath and body baskets and so much more.
  • Browse our business booths for great finds at West Pac Designs, Jeanette Airen Performing Arts Studio, Journey On Travel, Winck Links Jewelry, Gourmet Blends, Light Lines, Pocahanto Swim, Arbonne, Cee Cee Coastal Clothing, Silpada and more.
  • Buy a sweet from our delicious bake sale.
A Letter to 8th Grade Students Regarding the Culmination Trip 

Recently, a letter was sent home to 8th grade students regarding the change to the 8th grade culmination trip.Students and parents were rightfully surprised and disappointed by a change from the traditional trip to Disneyland. I really do understand.  We were/are frustrated with the situation as well, it was not something we wanted to change. We tried to explain the situation in the letter home, but the issue may not have been clear on how and why a decision was made. 

 

We have to reserve the buses for these trips around October because every school has graduation or end of the year trips all at the same time.  We do not purchase the park tickets at this time because we don't send out the culmination packets and collect donations this time of year.  When we looked at the dates back in October, Disneyland had the day open to single-day tickets.  Sometime in the last couple months, they blocked it out to only selling multiple-day tickets.  The reason is that they sell Senior Trip tickets for high schools and this is one of the weeks they blocked off for that. We would be asking for double the price - and the kids would be with almost all senior high school students.  We never used to conflict with this week because we ended our year in June.  Click here to read more....
Save the Dates
  • 3/10               -   5th Grade Parent Information Night 6:00 pm
  • 3/12               -   STEM Conference at Cal Lutheran. Details here
  • 3/25-4/1         -   No School - Spring Break
  • 4/8                 -   International Festival 
  • 4/10               -   Oak Park's Music Festival
  • 4/18-4/21       -   8th Grade CAASPP and Science STAR Testing 
  • 4/25-4/28       -   7th Grade CAASPP Testing 
  • 5/1                 -   Big Sunday Day of Service - Click here to Register
  • 5/2-5/5           -   6th Grade CAASPP Testing
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