My name is Melanie Carmona and I am thrilled to serve as principal of Valencia Park Elementary. Serving alongside me is Soraya Ramos, our assistant principal. 

Our theme this year is We are the Pride! A family of lions is called a pride. Belonging is such an important aspect of schools and one of our strengths at Valencia Park is the feeling that each student, staff member, parent, guardian, and community member feels like a member of the pride. We hope to deepen this commitment to our Valencia Park family and ensure that our new students and families feel that belonging instantly. 

In order to make sure everyone feels that they belong in the VP Pride, we love to communicate with our families via a weekly newsletter, The Pride, sent by email and through our school’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. Teachers communicate frequently via weekly newsletters, email, online services such as Remind, Google Classroom and Seesaw, and phone. Please also check your child’s homework folder and backpack for hard copy communications each week. Please consider joining our fabulous PTA to be kept informed of the many activities our PTA organizes for Valencia Park throughout each year. Joining PTA does not require any volunteer hours. 

Along with our first priority of keeping students physically safe, we ensure that our school is an emotionally safe and positive environment through our PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) system, the Valencia Park Way, in which our students pledge to be a LION: Lead Responsibly, Interact Respectfully, be Overly Ready, and Navigate Safely. We teach students our behavior expectations at the beginning of the year and reinforce their learning by rewarding them with Pride Cards, that can be used to “buy” exciting experiences and goods from our Student Store or enter the prize drawings, each offered every other week. Please help us encourage good behavior at home. 

In teaching and learning news, our teachers returned over a week early to attend professional development this summer in IMSE (Institute for Multi-Sensory Education), a curriculum addressing all Tiers of learners, meeting each student where they are to more effectively increase reading proficiency. 

Please use our website as a resource throughout the year and let us know if there is anything you appreciate or would like to see improved on our Feedback Form. This is also a link at the top of every Valencia Park Weekly newsletter called The Pride.