Pioneer Junior High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Pioneer Junior High School
native_name =

motto =
established =
city = Upland
state = CA
province =
country = USA
campus =
type = Public Middle School
affiliation =
affiliations =
president =
principal = Mrs. Marge Ruffalo
dean =
founder =
head_label = Vice Principal
head = Mr. Ed Graham
enrollment = 1042
grades = 7/8
address = 245 W 18th Street
district = Upland Unified School District
oversight =
accreditation =
mascot =
colors = Blue and Gold
colours =
newspaper =
yearbook = Title varies each year (Currently "Piece by Piece")
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
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free_3 =
website = [http://www.upland.k12.ca.us/pjh http://www.upland.k12.ca.us/pjh]
footnotes =
picture =

Pioneer Junior High School is a junior high school in Upland, California. It serves seventh and eighth graders in the northern part of Upland.

Distinguished School

Pioneer is a California Distinguished School, winning the award in the spring of 2007. The school had tried for the award several times in the past and finally achieved it.On Thursday March 20, 2008 the school received the Governor's Challenge Front Runner award. In addition, for the 2007-08 school year, both seventh and eighth grade Academic Pentathlon teams received first place.

Accelerated Program

Pioneer's accelerated program allows students doing better in school to move ahead earlier. Advanced classes (called "Accelerated") are offered in English and History. For Math, seventh graders who pass the Algebra test at the end of their sixth grade year take Algebra I and eighth graders who pass Algebra I take Geometry. Enrollment in advanced classes is based on teacher recommendation, STAR test scores, and grades.

Electives

The school has excellent elective opportunities, including Home Survival, whats cooking? Woodshop, Ceramics, Performing Arts,creative arts, Band, Communications, Computer Technology, Art, and Chorus. Each student may take one elective out of his or her six classes. In seventh grade, students can either take the 'Wheel' or participate in band or chorus. The Wheel consists of six electives, each lasting a course of six weeks (two per trimester). Each elective introduces the students to the courses they can opt to take as eighth graders.

Music

Music includes band and chorus. Before school, the jazz band practices. Many students at Pioneer were in the district's sixth grade jazz band, giving them a great introduction to jazz. Jazz I is an audition group which performs admirably and competes at the Western States Jazz Festival at Upland High School. Jazz II is for students who couldn't make Jazz I, enabling them to sharpen their jazz skills. Many seventh graders start in Jazz II and then move into Jazz I as eighth graders. The chorus is normally 70-80 students and they most often do two or three part choral music with and without a piano background.

Physical Education

The physical education at the school is very rigorous compared to the average junior high. Students dress out, run an obstacle course, and stretch daily. They then take part in sports, which vary every few weeks. Once each trimester, students are allowed to choose the sport (out of approximately four) which they participate in for a unit. Some sports include softball, basketball, volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, and track and field, hockey, and dance.

Pioneer School News

Each morning, during homeroom, the daily announcements are given in the form of a news report: Pioneer School News (PSN). The announcements are sent out through a closed-circuit television network to all of the classrooms. Students who participate in this news program are chosen the previous year based on grades and experience with computers and filming. Approximately twenty-five eighth graders produce the morning show, rotating positions such as hosting, working the computer that plays the introduction and commercials, and filming. The students produce all of the aired material, some commercials coming from the eighth grade Technology electives.

References

*cite web|url=http://www.upland.k12.ca.us/schools/junior_high/pioneer/|title=Pioneer Junior High
*cite web |url=http://web.mac.com/pioneerschoolnews/iWeb/PSN%20Offical%20Website/Home/Home.html |title=PSN News

External links

* [http://www.upland.k12.ca.us/uusd/index.html Upland Unified School District]
* [http://upland.k12.ca.us/schools/junior_high/pioneer/ Pioneer Junior High]