Morongo Unified School District - Our students. Our community. Our future.

Smelly pens, scratch-off art, Paw Patrol adventures and more — the Scholastic Book Fair has been rolling through different school sites throughout the district. What was your students favorite book fair find?

It's National School Counseling Week! We at the Morongo USD want to give a big shout-out to our school counselors who provide academic, career, college readiness and social-emotional support to students. Thank you counselors for all that you do to support the students of the MUSD! Sophia Rodriguez – TPJHS Erin Hilliard – TPHS Robert Conway – TPHS Michelle Maclean – LCMS Mike Goddard – LCMS Tom Hovey – LCMS Julie Karchuc – YVHS William Gauthier – YVHS Sharon Gerber – YVHS Michelle Seymoure – ACCE Mike Toro - BRHS

Oasis Elementary School families had an amazing opportunity last night to participate in a special night sky viewing event. This event was put on by Joshua Tree Residential Education Experience as part of a larger grant-funded effort to provide outdoor education to the Bobcats. The event shuttled families from the school to the local Sky's the Limit Observatory for a special program about our beautiful night skies. Thank you Joshua Tree Residential Education Experience for providing this opportunity for our families!

The Arts at the Riverside County Office of Education hosted an art contest last fall for Día De Los Muertos; “The Return of the Souls.” Three La Contenta Middle School Lions entered the contest and were awarded for their amazing pieces! Shiloh Downward earned a second-place plaque in the category of acrylic paint on canvas. Lilli Mata earned a second-place plaque in the digital art category and Audry Hassing earned an honorable mention certificate for her sketch. Well done and congratulations to our Lion artists!

Every other week, PLUS students have the opportunity to visit Cascade Trails in Joshua Tree for our new Cascade PLUS Unity program, a community collaboration project with the Cascade Trails Mustang Sanctuary and PLUS. While there, students are guided by the mustang sanctuary’s owners, Marissa and Chris, to interact with a variety of animals including chickens, roosters, goats, dogs and of course the horses. PLUS students strengthen their own social skills and empathy by learning to read the body language of the animals. The PLUS program is a program under Morongo SELPA for students with specific social, emotional and behavioral needs.

Friendly Hills Elementary School is celebrating this week with awards ceremonies recognizing student success in the first semester. Check out these tk/k students who were awarded for their math skills, writing skills, citizenship and more!

Students from Palm Vista Elementary School visited the Twentynine Palms Branch Library to learn more about books and the power of reading. Thank you for having us San Bernardino County Library.

The Morongo USD Board of Education recognized Behavioral Instructional Assistant Satore Mark at their regular board meeting last night for her outstanding work with students in the district. Satore works with students at her home site, PLUS, as well at students at Twentynine Palms Junior High School and Condor Elementary School. "Satore has been flexible and tireless in her daily support of her home site of PLUS, as well as her willingness to loan her behavioral expertise and daily physical presence at TPJHS and CES," said PLUS Principal Andrea Gordon. "Unbelievably, she has extra energy to spare for the Home Hospital program! Satore is one amazing employee!"

Today is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and we wanted to take a moment to highlight the amazing School Resource Officers that help keep our students safe! SRO’s are deputies with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department that are assigned to work on all matters related to the school district. School Resource Officers provide law-enforcement services to students, families and school faculty on and off campus. Their regular duties include patrols of school campus sites and surrounding neighborhoods, investigations of juvenile related crimes and working in collaboration with the school committee members as a resource for safety and security. Deputy Joshua Merrell serves as the SRO for the east-end of the Morongo Basin and Deputy Michael Lomboy serves as the SRO for the west-end. Deputy Merrell graduated from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department academy in 2019. He was assigned to West Valley Detention Center, and then transferred to Morongo Basin Station in 2020. Deputy Merrell successfully completed his field patrol training and has continued his training in numerous areas. Deputy Lomboy graduated from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s academy in 2017 and was assigned to the West Valley Detention Center for approximately seven months before being transferred to the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s station in June 2018. Deputy Lomboy completed his field training shortly after and began his career as a deputy sheriff on patrol. Deputy Lomboy was selected for the Narcotic Division’s Marijuana Team during the successful county-wide detail Operation Hammer Strike. Deputy Lomboy has continued his training and experience in numerous law-enforcement subjects over the past four years. Thank you Deputy Merrell and Deputy Lomboy for all that you do to protect our students!

Students in the PLUS program and staff from the SELPA office were invited to the Integratron last month to participate in a sound bath and learn about the powers of meditation. "At PLUS, students are taught to carry a 'Coping Skills Toolbox' that they may utilize when life gets stressful," said Andrea Gordon, the Principal of the PLUS Program. "This type of meditation will be an essential piece of the individual toolboxes." Thank you to everyone at The Integratron for providing this amazing opportunity for our students. #ProudtobeMUSD

Way to go MUSD readers! In 5 months our TK-3rd grade students have read over 6,000,000 words! Be on the lookout for a flyer that will go home announcing a Winter Break Reading Challenge for San Bernardino County. You could win some fabulous prizes for being the top readers in the County! Have a great Winter Break and keep reading!

Santa Claus brought some Christmas cheer to Twentynine Palms Elementary School this morning with some help from his friends at the Twentynine Palms Rotary Club. Thank you Santa and our local Rotarians for bringing books to our students.

The Town of Yucca Valley recognized the Trojan Football team at their council meeting earlier this week. Thank you for recognizing the outstanding efforts of our student athletes! Photo Courtesy of The Hi-Desert Star

Families at Palm Vista Elementary School had some fun during their Bingo for Books event last night. Students and family members all played bingo for the chance to win books. At the end of the event everyone got at least three new books to take home!

Students from our PLUS program's elementary classroom recently went on a field trip to the 29 Palms Creative Center. Thank you so much for having our students. They had a great time exploring their creative sides through pottery.

Twentynine Palms High School student Kieu Huynh was recognized by the MUSD Board of Education earlier this month for her admittance to the highly prestigious UCR Medical Leaders of Tomorrow Academy. Congratulations Kieu! We can't wait to see all the amazing things that you do as a future medical leader. #ProudtobeMUSD

The Trojans are headed to the CIF finals! Congratulations to the YVHS varsity football team on their amazing win last night against Santa Fe. Now only one more game stands between them and the championship title. Let’s go Trojans! 💛🖤#ProudtobeMUSD #WeAreYV

The Owls soared today at Joshua Tree Elementary School's November Leadership Assembly! This month students were recognized who "Put First Things First." That means they prioritized their important work before play.

Congratulations to all of the schools throughout the district who received recognition at the 8th Annual San Bernardino County Schools PBIS Showcase. This year, 15 schools within the Morongo Unified School District were recognized for their continued work creating positive school environments on campus for their students.

The Yucca Valley High School football team dominated at their home game against Buena Park on Friday, moving them into the Division 12 CIF Semi Finals! They'll be hosting Santa Fe High School this Friday on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. We're so proud of our amazing student athletes. #ProudtobeMUSD