About Us

School Description and Mission Statement

Mesa Verde Middle School, located in Rancho Penasquitos, a suburb of northern San Diego, California, exemplifies the educational heights that can be attained when a solid partnership exists between school and community. Built in 1994 and situated on over 30 acres, the campus has 59 permanent classrooms clustered into three main villages, a number of conference rooms, an office complex, a performing arts center, band and orchestra rooms, four computer labs, a fitness lab, a cafeteria, a gymnasium, large playing fields, athletic facilities, and several specially designed rooms for meeting the needs of students who have severe handicaps. The library, in addition to housing the student circulation collection, also provides technological media access. Each classroom has at least two computers; an installed LCD Projector system, document camera, and all are networked to the site file server. From the network, informational software, as well as access to the Internet is provided school-wide.
Mesa Verde is one of six middle schools in the Poway Unified School District. The school serves a culturally and ethnically diverse middle class population of students who live in single-family homes and apartments west of Interstate 15 and clustered near Route 56. There are fifteen different ethnic groups represented within our student body of just over 1300 students. 54% of our student population is Caucasian, 24% is Asian, 8% is Filipino, 7% is Hispanic, and 2% is African American. The number of students who receive free and reduced lunches has remained fairly constant at 6% of the total student population. Special needs populations include RSP, ELL, SDC, SDCCS and GATE. Each special needs population is served according to state law and individual requirements. In addition to the aforementioned, there are a number of other support and intervention efforts for those students struggling or requiring extra attention: AVID, Before and After School Programs, Student Success Clubs, Tutorials, and Student Support Groups.

The staff of 82 certificated and classified employees strives to provide the very best educational experience possible for the 1,300 students who call Mesa Verde home. MVMS employs over 50 teachers and additional certificated specialists, three full time administrators, one full-time Librarian, three full time counselors, one full-time and one part-time school psychologist, and one full-time and one part-time speech therapist. Mesa Verde benefits from the assistance of classified staff members who serve in a variety of capacities such as instructional assistants, office staff, custodians, and cafeteria workers.

Mesa Verde Middle School enjoys an excellent reputation within the immediate and outer lying communities of San Diego and Poway. MVMS regularly ranks among the top middle schools in academic performance according to CAASPP scores and the California Dashboard. MVMS is a California Distinguished School and a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Students and teachers from MVMS are routinely honored for excellence each year from outside agencies like the San Diego County Fair, the California Association of Directors of Activities, the California Association of Student Leaders, the Science Olympiad, and from various service clubs (e.g.: Lions Club, Rotary Club, etc.) and Regional and State Band and Orchestra organizations.

MVMS parents are actively involved members of decision and policy-making committees. The School Site Council places parents in advisory roles within the school, while our PTSA regularly ranks in the top three for membership in our district. In addition, the MV Foundation’s fundraising has grown exponentially, raising money to support teacher supply budgets, lab supplies, new classroom and library furniture, murals, and clubs such as Drama, Robotics and Science Olympiad, just to name a few. 

Each week, teachers participate in Professional Time on Wednesday mornings, where MVMS students commence school an hour later than normal on those days. This time allows teachers to pursue staff development opportunities and to collaborate within and between content areas as well as grade levels. Professional time has improved communication between teachers and helped to foster a more cohesive and thoughtful school-wide instructional program.