Portola Middle School Brochure
ACADEMIC PROGRAM:
- Portola is a 6-8 grade middle school with a highly gifted magnet. Portola houses a culturally diverse student population in a positive and safe learning environment.
- Portola Middle School fosters an academically rigorous, challenging, and comprehensive curriculum. The strong emphasis on student achievement and academic competence are supported by a highly qualified teaching and paraprofessional staff.
- Portola consistently demonstrates high CST Test Scores. All groups surpassed the State Percent Proficient Target Rate Criteria, AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) for English Language Arts, which is 24.4%, and for Mathematics, which is 26.5%. Portola Middle School's API (Academic Performance Index) is 776. Portola rates among the top 10% of Local District One middle schools.
TUTORING, HOMEWORK CLUB, INTERVENTION:
- Students who need additional assistance in English Language Arts and Math are invited to attend one of the following: after school tutoring, homework club or the district provided Extended Learning Program.
PARENT INVOVLEMENT:
- Parent involvement includes PTSA, Magnet Booster Club, English Language Advisory Council, School Site Council and Local School Leadership Council.
ELECTIVES:
- Students are offered a variety of academic electives which include Spanish, journalism, yearbook, computer technology, video production, media production, and applied technology.
- Students are offered a variety of performing art electives which include choir, band, orchestra, music lab, jazz band, drill team, drama, advanced drama, and art.
- Portola has an award winning music program. Students can participate in choir, band, and orchestra. In addition, students can audition for the advanced music groups, which include the Portola Singers, Jazz Combo Band, and Music Labs. The advanced music groups "Music in the Park", competitions are held in San Diego, Anaheim and Burbank, and "Magic Music Days" competition is held at Disneyland. They have won several "Judges Trophies" and "Esprit de Corps." To increase students' knowledge and musical abilities, students participate in workshops at Disneyland, for one day, which are taught by professional musicians. Portola MS is proud to have a traveling choir and band that perform for branches of the military.
- Portola has an award winning Drill Team which consists of several teams: a small, medium and large Military Team, a Flag Team and a Pom-PomTeam. Their competitions include Magic Mountain, Burbank, Saugus and LAUSD, bringing home 1st Place Trophies for all entries.
- Portola has an award winning drama program. The drama department has worked with the "Character Counts Program" to write an original play entitled TAKING A STAND. This project was funded by the Josephson Institute. A DVD of the play written by the Portola drama students is currently posted on their web site, which includes the script and lesson plans. The Daily News has featured our drama department in four separate articles praising original plays written by the students. The drama students performed an original play entitled KIDS w\ KIDS in the Universal Hilton's Main Ballroom, sponsored by the California Family Health Council. The drama students performed this play at three schools in Ventura County.
- Portola's award winning visual arts program is dedicated to the belief that a culture thrives on its ability to be productive, inventive and creative. Our visual art students benefit from a variety of art experiences to see the world with heightened sensitivity. Art students collaborate with students in other subject areas. One example is their participation in a pilot program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, to providing our campus and Local District 1 Offices with outstanding examples of creative works of art, Portola art students have honored our school by winning 1st Place Awards in community programs, such as poster design contests for the Annual California Library Association and the West Valley Concerts in the Park.
ACTIVITIES:
- Students can participate in intramural sports during lunch. The Portola physical education department sponsors the HITS program (Helping to Ignite Tomorrows Stars), which gives homerooms an opportunity to compete with each other in basketball.
- The Beyond the Bell after school playground/program is offered to students daily, until 5:30 pm.
- Career Day - students attend career workshops where professionals discuss their careers and job opportunities. A question and answer session is provided for students after the presentations.
LIBRARY:
- Our middle school library houses a 16,000 plus collection of print and audio-visual items as well as an extensive online digital library. Contests, poetry readings, and reader's theaters are a few of the activities that take place in our beautiful library.
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