Posts by Hibah Samad

by Hibah Samad  The Manhattan Beach Unified School District last week launched a new e-bike safety initiative aimed at ensuring students’ safe commutes on the road. Student e-bikes parked at Manhattan Beach Middle School and Mira Costa High School must have a new addition to their bikes —  a District-certified sticker, signifying their completion of…

  by Hibah Samad Educators from each Manhattan Beach Unified School District school have been named the 2023-2024 Teachers of the Year. The eight honorees were surprised with the announcement by their principals on campus in early April. This year’s honorees are Lilla Foster, Mira Costa High School Special Education Department chair; Dana Vaccaro MBMS…

by Hibah Samad   The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is preparing to implement Ethnic Studies courses at Mira Costa High School.  These courses will meet new state graduation requirements set forth by California Assembly Bill 101 in 2021. The bill mandates that all California high schools offer ethnic studies courses in the 2025-26 school year…

by Hibah Samad  Mira Costa High School’s Boys varsity volleyball team is celebrating a significant victory and title. Once again, the team brought home the gold at the Best of the West tournament on Saturday, March 9, at Poway High School.  Regarded as the premier volleyball tournament of the high school season, the Best of…

by Hibah Samad The Grammy Award-winning Mira Costa Jazz 1 band finished first in the Large Ensemble Category at the 5th Annual National Jazz Festival, a prestigious competition that took place in Philadelphia on February 10.  The festival featured 68 ensembles from 50 schools across the country. The MCHC Jazz band shared the stage — …

by Hibah Samad The Manhattan Beach Unified School District anticipates reducing expenditures by nearly $11.3 million over the next two years.  On January 10, Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget, kicking off the state’s six-month budget process.  “While there is a long way to go before MBUSD has an approved state budget for the…

by Hibah Samad Three Mira Costa students are competing in a national competition aiming to elevate their entrepreneurial endeavors. 9th graders Charlotte Fan and Wyatt Newbill and 12th grader Taylor Ryan have been selected in their age category for the 2024 “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” competition by the Intellectual Property Owner’s Education Foundation…

by Hibah Samad  The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is hosting its Annual Kindergarten Information Day, an event designed to help incoming and new families for the 2024-2025 school year with the transition to Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten. The program, which takes place January 20 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Grandview Elementary, is…

by Hibah Samad  Mira Costa High School sophomore Mona Cho is now part of a historic moment at the White House. On October 11, in celebration of International Day of the Girl, Cho was one of fifteen girls honored by First Lady Jill Biden for leading change and shaping a brighter future in communities across…

by Hibah Samad The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of the more than 16,000 semi-finalists nationwide who will now compete for the finalist title in the 69th Annual National Merit Scholarship competition. Seven of those selected as semi-finalists are Mira Costa High School students.  The semi-finalists were chosen from a pool of more…

by Hibah Samad Mira Costa High School, for a second consecutive year, ranked in the top 2 percent of best public high schools in the nation according to the annual “Best High Schools” by U.S. News and World Report.  Data on nearly 25,000 public high schools were reviewed, and nearly 18,000 schools ranked on six…

by Hibah Samad  Twelve seniors were honored for completing the unique Biotech elective course offered at Mira Costa High School. The students are the sixth cohort to successfully complete this challenging program. The graduating class had a special ceremony hosted by their teachers,  Ernesto Nodado and Rebecca Fox, both who have diverse backgrounds in the…

by Hibah Samad The Manhattan Beach Rotary meeting on Monday was dedicated to Manhattan Beach Unified and American Martyr’s educators. For the past 73 years, Manhattan Beach Rotary has honored Teachers of the Year with a special awards ceremony.  Rotary Club president Gerry Morton expressed the club’s long-standing commitment to acknowledging and celebrating the exceptional…

 by Hibah Samad/MBUSD  Mira Costa students in Shannon Vaughan’s creative writing class participated in a unique intergenerational poetry writing session through the City of Manhattan Beach’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Older Adults Poetry Circle program.   Members taught students how to write short poems through a technique called “Writing Poetry from the Inside Out.” The session…

by Hibah Samad/MBUSD  Parent and community engagement is now enhanced with the Manhattan Beach Unified School District’s new mobile app for Apple and Android phones.  The app has been live for two weeks and allows students, staff, families, and the community to stay connected and access the latest information through custom, branded home screens for…

by Hibah Samad/MBUSD  Robinson Elementary staff and 130 students joined schools around the globe for the 12th annual Great Kindness Challenge. Students took their school project idea beyond the classroom walls to spread kindness across the City of Manhattan Beach by installing their “Our Stake in Growing Kindness” project at Metlox. Last Thursday morning, the…