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About our School

Front View of Main Office

Mission Statement: 

The Vista Heights School Community aims to develop a culture of inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring students who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

Vision Statement: 

We are dedicated to helping each student maximize his/her academic, emotional, and positive social growth in order to become lifelong global learners.

Our goal is to prepare our students to be college and career ready upon completion of high school.

PRIDE

Here at Vista Heights we cannot hide our Wildcat PRIDE. PRIDE is our PBIS acrostic and stands for:

P = Positive

R = Respectful

I = Inquirers

D = Dedicated to

E = Excellence

In addition to being part of our PBIS Acrostic, being an Inquirer is one of the IB Learner Profile traits.

Showing PRIDE

When our Wildcats demonstrate PRIDE they are given PRIDE Tickets they can use to purchase items from our student store. 

 

ABOUT OUR SCHOOL

Vista Heights Middle School opened in 1988. It has always been a school that maintained rigorous expectations for students while also supporting students to meet those rigorous expectations. Vista Heights Middle School was authorized as an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP) School in June of 2019. These are schools that share a common philosophy - a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Vista Heights Middle School believes is important for
our students.  

All students at Vista Heights Middle School are included in the IB Middle Years Program. "The aim of all IB programs is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more powerful peaceful world." Students will develop the IB learner profile attributes: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. They will participate in eight types of curricular classes: Language and Literature (Language Arts), Mathematics, Science, Individuals and Societies (Social Studies), Physical and Health Education, Language Acquisition (World Language), Arts (Visual and Performing Arts, including art, instrumental music, vocal music, and digital photography), and Design (computers, STEAM, AVID, yearbook publication, ASB).

Teachers at Vista Heights engage in interdisciplinary collaboration. State standards, state frameworks, and state adopted texts are used to provide a strong base for our instructional program. Supplementary resources from assemblies, field trips, and staff development in-services assist the teacher in maximizing the potential of each of our students. At sixth grade, the goal is for students to be taught by one teacher for language arts and social studies, and one for math and science. Several programs focus on providing services for students in order to create and maintain a positive learning  environment, and to improve academic achievement on standardized tests and other assessments. Special education programs serve students with exceptional needs. Programs such as Rosetta Stone and Achieve 3000 assist students in developing proficiency in English as rapidly and effectively as possible. Gifted and Talented programs provide services to students identified as intellectually or academically gifted or talented. Students are encouraged to enroll in the site's AVID program in order to prepare for and succeed in higher education. AVID college trained tutors offer their support to students.

Parents are involved in Vista Heights through their participation in School Site Council (SSC), English Language Advisory Committee (ELAC), AAPAC (African American Parent Advisory Committee), and school site activities. Because of our dedication toward student success and each child finding their passion, we have been honored as a California Gold Ribbon School and a "Schools To Watch" middle school from the California League of Middle Schools.

 

 

Who We Serve

Vista Heights serves approximately 1,400 students in grades 6-8.

Student Group Number Percentage
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged 1,174 86.9%
Emerging Bilinguals
(English Learners)
190 14.1%
Students with Disabilities 171 12.7%
Students in Foster Care 11 0.1%%

*These numbers reflect the 2021-2022 report on Dataquest. DataQuest is the California Department of Education’s web-based data reporting system for publicly reporting information about California students, teachers, and schools. 

Ethnicity Number Percentage
African American 197 14.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native 1 0.1%
Asian 13 1.0%
Filipino 11 0.8%
Hispanic or Latino 959 71.0%
Pacific Islander 5 0.4%
White 104 7.7%
Two or More Races 54 4.0%
Not Reported 7 0.5%

*These numbers reflect the 2021-2022 report on Dataquest. DataQuest is the California Department of Education’s web-based data reporting system for publicly reporting information about California students, teachers, and schools.

Vista Heights Middle School is an IB World School authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme. IB World Schools share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Vista Heights Middle School believes is important for our students. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org , or please contact Jill Dayton, jdayton@mvusd.net for information about the program at Vista Heights.