Hawk Updates

April

1st: New Student Enrollment Opens

7th: School Site Council. 3:45pm

9th: IEP Training Series in the MPR. See Flyer below.

9th: APEX Fun Run

10th: Dining for Dollars - Perfect Pizza. See flyer below.

14th - 18th: Spring Break. No School. CHES Office Closed

23rd: 1st Grade Musical Performance. See Flyer below.

23rd: CAPES Foundation Meeting

25th. Community Gathering

25th - May 2: Book Fair

May

1st: 2nd Grade Teacher Date. See flyer below!

2nd: Book Fair

2nd: CAPES Dinner Auction. See Flyer Below

2nd: CAPES Parent Night Out in the MPR.

5th: VAPA Vision

9th: 2nd Grade Musical Performance in the MPR.

May 13th: Minimum Day. 12:45pm Dismissal for ALL STUDENTS

16th: 5th Grade Invention Convention in the MPR.

19th: VAPA Vision

21st: CAPES Foundation Meeting

23rd: 3rd Grade Musical Performance in the MPR.

26th: MEMORIAL DAY. NO SCHOOL

29th: Dining for Dollars. Sunny Scoops.

30th: Community Gathering

Click HERE for the School Calendar.

PUSD New Student Enrollment Reminder

Poway Unified New Student Enrollment for the 2025-26 school year opens on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 8:00AM.

We can’t wait to meet our new families! New Student Enrolment for Poway Unified School District is an online process. Packets are completed digitally using any computer, tablet or smartphone with an internet connection. Please contact your assigned school of residence to schedule an appointment if you do not have access to a device/internet or need assistance with completing the online enrollment packet.

School starts on August 13, 2025 for the 2025-26 school year. Welcome to PUSD! For more information about our schools and programs, visit our website.

Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten Lottery Information

If a school reaches near capacity for TK or Kindergarten, a lottery may be needed to determine student placement. To be included in the lottery (if required), families must submit their new student enrollment packets between April 1, 2025, and April 9, 2025, by 11:59 p.m. Only students who enroll during this period will be eligible. If a lottery is necessary at our school, families will be notified. District conducts the lottery for each site.

Exciting news for our TK program! Beginning 2025-26, PUSD Transitional Kindergarten will be a full-day program. The range of age-eligibility will also expand - children who turn four-years-old on or before September 1, 2025, will be age-eligible for TK. (Students who turn 5 on or before September 1, 2025 will be age-eligible for Kindergarten) Please feel free to share this news with your friends and neighbors who have children in this age range.

Enrollment for TK for next year opens on April 1, 2025.

As we begin planning for the next school year, we want to share our process for student class placement. Our goal is to create well-balanced classrooms that support the academic and social success of all students. To achieve this, we carefully consider a variety of factors, including academic needs, learning styles, peer relationships, and overall class dynamics.

Because of this thoughtful process, we are unable to accept teacher requests for individual students. Please know that our staff works diligently to ensure that each child is placed in an environment where they can thrive.

Thank you for your understanding and support. If you have any specific concerns about your child’s learning needs, feel free to share them with us, and we will do our best to take them into account during the placement process.

Aaron Little

Principal

Our upcoming APEX Fun Run is more than just a fun event—it’s one of our biggest fundraisers, directly impacting the programs that make our school special! The funds raised help provide essential resources for our music, garden, and PE classes, ensuring our students continue to benefit from these enriching experiences. Additionally, this fundraiser supports classroom supplies, engaging activities, and special events that bring our school community together. Your participation and support make a huge difference in creating a vibrant, well-rounded education for our students. Let’s run, have fun, and make this year’s APEX Fun Run our most successful yet!

Come cheer on your Hawk as they hit the track and raise money for our school!

Run Times

• 9-9:45 K-1
• 9:55-10:40 2-3
• 10:50-11:35 4-5
• 11:45-12:30 TK

Order Your 2024-25 Yearbook Today!

Chaparral Hawks Yearbooks are available for purchase. Choose softcover or hardcover and personalize for free by creating two custom pages filled with your own photos and memories. Personalized pages are optional but must be completed by Monday, April 21st.

Click here to order your yearbook—log in or create an account to get started.

Share Your Photos for the Yearbook!

Help us feature your smiling kiddos in the yearbook! Please upload your photos, such as "First Day of School" and "Fall Book Fair", to TreeRing by logging in and selecting Share Photos. Prefer an app? Download the free TreeRing Yearbooks app! Need detailed instructions? Click here.

(To be eligible, photos must be high quality and taken on campus. The deadline to include fall and winter school photos is January 31st.)

Parents-

We’d like to remind you that when students are checked out early, we wait until the parent or guardian arrives at the school before calling them out of class. This allows students to remain engaged in their learning for as long as possible, minimizing missed instruction time.

Additionally, please remember to bring ID!

Thank you for your understanding and patience when picking up your student.

It takes a lot to ensure our kids are getting the best experiences and education. If you or someone you know wishes to donate to a teacher's classroom or the overall school, one way you can do so is through the follow site: CLASSROOM SUPPLIES - ONLINE DONATION PROGRAM

Valentine's Day Grams

• Decade Day- Dress up from your favorite decade...past OR future! 1950s? 1990s? 2090s? The world is your oyster!

• Donate grocery store gift cards (no more than $25 per card) for PUSD families in need. Let’s try to raise $1,000! There will be another announcement about this during the community gathering on 3/28

• Snuggle up with a good book! To help celebrate the book fair that starts April 25th, we are asking each teacher to host a read-a-thon in their classrooms to encourage kids to read!

• Book Character Day! Dress up like your favorite book character in honor of the book fair and the read-a-thon!

We are excited to announce that we have a new Student Support Assistant, Ms. Jenny Oesterblad. Ms. Oesterblad will be working with Mr. Hicks to support our students with Second Step lessons and all of our children's social-emotional needs. Welcome!

"What's this 'Second Step' I keep hearing about?" Great question! Second Step is a longstanding program at Chaparral and throughout our district. It forms the foundation of our Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, which is designed to help students from Transitional Kindergarten (TK) through all grade levels develop vital social and emotional skills.

Second Step lessons guide students in building empathy, learning strategies to self-regulate and calm down, solving problems effectively, and understanding bullying prevention, along with many other important life skills.

At Chaparral, we have a dedicated SEL team: Ms. Oesterblad teaches our youngest learners in TK through 2nd grade, and Mr. Hicks works with students in grades 3 and up. Together, they equip students with the tools they need to confidently navigate social and emotional challenges, fostering a positive, inclusive learning environment where all students can flourish.

2024/2025 School Year Birthday Marquee Signups are now open!

Complete the form from the link provided below if you would like your child's name (first name and last initial) to appear on the Chaparral Marquees during the week of his/her birthday. To secure your marquee reservation, please make a $25 donation to CAPES after submitting the form.

Note--Each marquee has only two (2) available sign-ups per week. If a week is not listed, it has reached the maximum capacity of reservations. Holiday weeks have not been included. This form is ONLY for the 2024/2025 school year. Please do not submit a response for a future school year.

Your child's birthday message (ex. Happy Birthday Lizzie B.) will appear at some point during the week and will stay up for a minimum of 1 day.

Please note that our CAPES volunteers may need at least one (1) week of advance notice to honor birthday marquee reservations.

Click the link HERE to sign up today!

We are looking for any parent who may be interested in helping with the 24-25 Yearbook!

If you are interested, please reach out to Will Smith at chaparralcapes@gmail.com.

Thank you!

PUSD provides breakfast and lunch to all students free of charge pursuant to the California Universal Meals Program. Free meals are available to all families, regardless of their free or reduced-price meal eligibility status. Breakfast service will begin at 8:25 am and end at 8:40 am. Students will report directly to the playground after eating breakfast. Students not eating breakfast need to arrive when the playground opens at 8:25 am.

Meal program details are provided on the Food and Nutrition Department website at PUSD Food and Nutrition. Families are still encouraged to submit a school meal application for free and reduced-priced meal benefits because this information may be used for other programs such as Federal and State funding for your school, reduced registration fees for academic tests, free or discounted fees for bus passes, ESS childcare, and athletic programs, discounted rates for internet service and many more! The application can be found online at https://www.myschoolapps.com/ . Applications must be submitted on an annual basis.

In order to Volunteer on campus, PUSD's Volunteer Requirements must be met and the following documentation needs to be submitted to the office:

1) Volunteer Application & Megan's Law clearance form + picture ID (signed annually)

2) TB clearance/negative result from a health care provider (Good for 4 years)

3) Code of Conduct form (signed annually)

4) Code of Confidentiality (signed annually)

Note--the district office needs at least 2 weeks to process and clear volunteers once all forms/documents are submitted; therefore, please submit the volunteer paperwork as soon as you are able.

Obviously, the best environment for any student to learn is the school environment. Whenever possible, families are strongly encouraged to avoid taking vacations and other trips that results in their students missing extended periods of time from school.

However, when these trips are unavoidable, parents can request an OCIS contract. Details of OCIS contracts can be found below.

Off Campus Independent Study (OCIS) Contracts

This contract allows the student to complete work that he/she would be doing if they were in class and helps the school to continue to receive funding from the state. The student needs to work with his/her teachers closely to submit the assignments.

The threshold for implementing an OCIS contract is limited to a minimum of 3 days through a maximum of 14 school days. The 14-school day limit for OCIS contracts is cumulative for the entire school year.

At least 5 school days of notice is required to set up an OCIS Contract.

*A family who plans to keep their student out of school beyond the 20 days must enroll their child in Poway Home Education Program (PHEP: TK through 8th grade)

Please refer to the PUSD website for more information and contact the student’s counselor.