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BVMS Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 8/12/19

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On August 12th, 2019, the Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education officially inaugurated the first consolidated Middle School in BHUSD's 82-year-old history. Speakers: Superintendent, Dr. Michael Bregy Board President, Noah Margo, Principal, Kevin Allen, PTA President Tina Wiener

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Good morning. My name is Michael Bregy and I'm the proud superintendent here in Beverly Hills Unified School District, and I'd like to welcome all of you to our celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony this morning. We have a lot of special guests here today and we're very appreciative that they can join us. So at this time if you would just please stand when I call your name. Board of Education Board President Mr. Noah Margo, Vice President Isabel Hacker, Board Member Mel Spitz, Board Member Rachelle Marcus, and Board Member Tristen Walker Shuman. Also from the City, Vice Mayor Friedman, Councilmember Lili Bosse, Councilmember Bob Wunderlich, Councilmember Dr. Julian Gold, Chief Sandra Spagnoli in the back, Assistant Chief of Police Marc Coopwood, City Manager George Chavez, Assistant City Manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey, and I believe I saw Keith Sterling with Communications for the City right there. At this time to kick us off an alumna from Beverly Vista, Lili Bosse is going to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm very honored and excited to be here. Ready, begin. Reconfiguring our district was not done in isolation. The road was prepared by many people before us, and I have come to realize through the dedication and hard work of every single person in our community. I'd like to thank each person for their contribution and with your help we are able to offer 38 elective choices, this is an additional 26 opportunities for learning and exploring than we had last year. The environment at the middle school is a very unique experience and this is achieved by having a cohort of students that will develop and solidify friendships prior to 9th grade and transition more seamlessly from both the academic and social emotional perspective. But this structure and change in the way that we deliver instruction was not an easy mountain to move. We had an educational programming path, a financial path, and we also had a facilities path. And in the best of both worlds you'd have all of those paths coming together. And for decades it was difficult to get those paths to come together. It was a back-and-forth challenge to respect the culture of our community and tradition when it was quite clear that Beverly Hills students were ready for more at an earlier age. One of the most difficult questions for me as the superintendent was how much change is too much change for the community. And when you take out the word "change" and place "opportunity" it wasn't long before we all realized that our students would be able to get more at an earlier age. Middle school is unique, and so are middle school students. Our young adolescents are between the ages of 11 and 14-15, and they undergo rapid and profound changes at this age more so than any other time in their lives. So middle school is an age of students when they are naturally growing and evolving to better understand their identity and their sense of place in the world. Middle school students, you'll soon hear them behind me as they're changing classes. They're naturally looking for ways to connect and belong. Now these student will have the opportunities to seek out new relationships and interests sooner then they would have in the past configuration. Most importantly it allows the district to enhance and enrich our services to students. And you might be thinking, wow, that's a pretty big middle school. Well over the course of their middle school experience most students will not know and interact with everyone. And on the flip side and a really important point is that most students will have an opportunity to meet groups of students that they wouldn't otherwise have a chance of meeting. And maybe a peer that is not in their peer group that they didn't have a chance to meet before high school. So those three paths I was talking about earlier, the educational programming path, the financial path, the facilities path.  Those have now converged together, and is one clear path and the Beverly Vista Middle School campus plan best meets our district's educational, financial and educational, financial and facility goals. I can tell you this was a labor of love. It was the right plan and is the right plan and with the right people, with our Board of Education, our district office staff, our site administration team led by Mr. Kevin Allen Mr. Waters, Ms. McCrea, Mr. Stern and our counselors, teachers and support staff here at Beverly Vista. All of this at the right time. Because of all of you that were involved in the past reconfiguration work and the present work, that makes today a reality, and thank you. Here's to new experiences, opportunities and new beginnings. At this time I would like to introduce the president of our Board of Education Mr. Noah Margo. Just last fall the idea of a middle school was a hotly debated topic. The board was divided and I was getting angry, I was getting passionate phone calls from both sides, as I was still on the fence. And after months of research and studies sessions I became the deciding vote. And here you go, last November 1st New Beverly Vista campus to open August 12 Yup, we did it! (applause) So, now we are here almost a year later and like a good day on Wall Street I'd say we beat expectations. How did we do this? We went ALL IN! Right off the bat, the Margo family is ALL IN. Come next June, all 5 of us will be Beverly Vista graduates. Our custodial department went ALL IN and delivered immaculately clean buildings, Our facilities department was ALL IN and moved mountains with almost every classroom in the district. They formulated a traffic plan and worked with the City staff to see it through. Both the police and the fire departments were critical in finalizing logistics, and there were A LOT of logistics. Food Services went ALL IN and is now bringing the students fresher foods, more selections and even breakfast. The District staff has been tirelessly running our schools and at the same working extra hours to make all of this possible. The PTA leaders are obviously ALL IN, and have practically given up their summers to ensure that our schools would open up successfully. The incredible team here at BV went ALL IN to such a degree, that in the words of my 8th grader, "I can't", "I just can't." I mean they opened a middle school. My colleagues and I went ALL IN over the last year holding an excessive amount of meetings to approve personnel and allocate millions of dollars to keep all of this going, and finally the teachers who are ALL IN as we speak, seeing it to our students receive the highest quality education. So merely to thank everyone who made this monumental undertaking a reality would not do them justice. But thank them, we shall. And I implore every stakeholder to remember that this was all done with one goal in mind. So as the hardest work of reconfiguration ends, the even harder work of successfully educating our students begins.  Let's get to it. (applause) Thank you. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the members the members of our school Board, our city government and District officials to this historic occasion. My name is Kevin Allen and I am truly honored to be the principal of Beverly Vista Middle School. Before I go any further, I have to pause and recognize some of the most hard-working, dedicated, and competent team of Educators with whom I've ever had the privilege of working. Mr. Waters, Mr. Stern, and Ms. McCrea. Can you come up here and just be recognized. Can you come a little closer so we can all see you guys. (Applause) Unbelievable I gotta tell you I am a lucky guy. They are awesome and I want you guys to stay right here so I can keep on looking at you. Alright, there you go. So in addition, I want to send out a huge thank you to the members of our maintenance, operation and construction facilities crews for their tireless work to prepare our school over such a short summer break. You have moved mountains and this school looks beautiful! Please stand and be recognized. (applause) You guys are awesome! (applause) Three weeks ago I was shaking in my size 8 shoes and these guys amazing, really. A wise person once observed, man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. Our community is to be commended on its tremendous courage to embark on this great voyage that will deliver new levels of excellence and growth in the middle school students in Beverly Hills. For the first time ever, we have a school that is entirely dedicated to the unique needs of adolescents in grades 6, 7, and 8. As a school, our team will focus on their needs as learners and young adults,  preparing them to ascern their roles as leaders in the school, in this community, in their state, in this country, and yes in the world, as we know that Beverly Hills produces world leaders every single day. I want to commend our school board and Dr. Bregy for their courage to commit to a vision that looks beyond the shores of what we have known for the last 83 years in Beverly Hills. And to set sail toward opportunities for our students. I believe firmly that this is your legacy. On behalf of the entire BVMS School Community, we are thrilled, get ready for the Bulldog analogy... we are thrilled to unleash a new era of outstanding education focused exclusively on the middle school students of Beverly Hills. Thank you. And I look forward to seeing many many great days with our students. this year. I have been a parent here in Beverly Hills School District for 13 years and throughout that time we have struggled to achieve parity among our four K-8 schools. We tried to find ways to make sure that all of our Middle School students have access to similar opportunities at each site, and today with the opening of Beverly Vista Middle School, we have achieved that goal.  By combining forces and bringing our middle school educators, administrators, families, and students together at one site, we are stronger and more unified than ever. We can now celebrate the fact that each Middle School student in BHUSD in BHUSD will have similar access to robust educational programming, and all of those quality electives that we learned about, along with our after school athletics program which we are all very excited to be kicking off. very excited to be kicking off. This is the first for our district and a winning scenario for our kids. It's an exciting time to be representing the PTA at Beverly Vista Middle School. As a newly-formed parent community we already find that we are learning from each other and taking best practices from each of our former sites to create enriching educational opportunities for our kids. Together we are stronger and I feel so grateful for this team of parents who have come together and are each bringing just such special qualities and skills to this.  So thank you again because those orientation days were fantastic. The energy we felt from the middle school families during the first 3 days of orientation was electric and I think we're feeling it again today too as we're watching the kids in the passing periods. Everyone is so positive. With the continued enthusiasm and the backing we have from our parents, teachers and administrators the educational possibilities are endless. As a PTA, we are ALL IN to support Beverly Vista Middle School and too unleash all the new opportunities ahead. Thank you. (applause) (applause)

Uploaded by Romi Azevedo.

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BVMS Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 8/12/19

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