The Blazer Bulletin

Hello Trailblazers!

What a wonderful week we've had at The Ranch! The weather was beautiful and our students enjoyed playing under blue skies. As you may know, we are preparing for a change in the weather next week. Since rain is in the forecast there has been changes to the planned Field Day dates. You will receive a new field trip permission slip from your teacher. All students must have an accurate, signed, field trip form in order to participate in Field Day. More details about this can be found below under the PTA section.

On Friday, we had another successful Community Gathering, assisted by Ms. Sara Sherzai our Principal of the Day! We welcomed a counselor and assistant principal from Oak Valley Middle school who spoke about life in middle school. Parents of 5th grade students, there is an adult only information night at 6pm on March 19th!

This week, I received emails from concerned community members citing illegal parking in the neighborhoods surrounding the school. In addition, they shared that there has been an increase in the amount of trash in the neighborhood streets. Help us demonstrate that we Respect Each Other by following all parking regulations and throwing trash away responsibly.

Next week we have some exciting PTA activities planned that include Field Day and the 80s Dance Party. Read below for more information!

Warmly,

Teri Heard

Your Very Proud Principal

March 7: Revised Field Day for TK-2nd grade (due to the Field Day we will no longer be hosting a Community Gathering on the 7th)

March 7: 80's Family Dance

March 9: Daylight Saving's Time begins

March 10: Revised Field Day for 3rd-5th grades

March 10: Fire Drill

March 11: Jump Rope Assembly

March 12: Foundation Meeting, 6:30pm

March 13: PTA Association Meeting, 8:00am

March 14: VAPA Vision

Stone Ranch has developed a new program to positively influence student behavior. This program is called Together, We RIDE and it replaces the Character Counts program. Students have been learning about the expected behaviors and will be rewarded with Blazer Bucks that they can redeem at the Trailblazer Trading Post (our student store).

Our first store will be Wednesday, March 19th. We are looking for a few parent volunteers to help out during the store. Please sign up here if interested. So far, we only have one volunteer.

Parents! Please help students learn what the R-I-D-E stand for in our new expected behavior model. I will be randomly selecting students to tell me what the letters stand for and, if they answer correctly, they may earn a Blazer Buck!

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of your student looks like? Do you feel like you are missing out on important school dates and details? Well, we have the answer for you! Follow us on Instagram (@stoneranchpusd) for sneak peeks into our school day and to learn about all of our upcoming events!

Attendance rates improved significantly this week. We had two days with less than 4% of our students absent. Thank you to our families for prioritizing sending your children to school. We exceeded our February goal!!! Let's keep up the good work for March.

We have some exciting news regarding our district’s TK program! Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, 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 five-years-old on or before September 1, 2025 will be age-eligible for Kindergarten). Enrollment for TK for 2025-26 school year opens on April 1, 2025. Please feel free to share this news with your friends and neighbors who have children in this age range.

Science Olympiad

Congratulations and a huge shout out to the SRES Science Olympiad program on yet another fabulous year of participation in the Division A.

Six Stone Ranch teams participated in the Science Olympiad program this year, with 90 students from 3rd, 4th and 5th grades.

The Science Olympiad Regional tournament was held at Miramar College on Feb 22nd.

There were 7 schools and 19 teams participating in Division A from various districts in San Diego. Division A had 16 events this year, and Stone Ranch participated in all 16 of them.

Stone ranch students received 1st rank in the following events:

A for Anatomy

Codebusters

Forest Finds

Save the Ice

Balloon Racer

Stone Ranch students ranked in top 3 in the following events:

Anemometer (rank 3)

Fossils (rank 3)

How big can it grow (rank 2)

Map reading (rank 3)

Metric Master (rank 2)

Two Stone Ranch teams secured 3rd and 4th place overall.

All the students demonstrated perseverance, excellent teamwork and incredible energy throughout the tournament day and preparing for it for the past few months. Kudos to all of them for participating and giving an amazing performance!

A big thanks to our incredible parent coaches and high school coaches for the time and dedication for the past many months. We are grateful to you all for taking many hours out of your busy schedules to coach the teams every week.

Thanks to all the parent volunteers who helped to smoothly run the school booth on the tournament day.

Our PTA Field Day has been rescheduled due to the rain forecast for early next week. Please see below for new dates and a new volunteer sign up!

Friday, March 7th:

1st Grade - 8 to 9

TK & Kindergarten - 9:15 to 10:15

2nd Grade - 10:20 to 11:20

Monday, March 10th:

4th Grade - 8 to 9

3rd Grade - 9:15 to 10:15

5th Grade + Combo Class - 10:30 to 11:30

If you would like to volunteer on either or both of the new dates, please sign up below:

Field Day Volunteer SignUp - New Dates

If you have any questions, please contact

Melanie Hickson (melhickson@gmail.com)

Field Day Chair

The Poway Unified transfer window opens on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 8 a.m.! If you live within the Poway Unified boundaries and want your child to attend a school different than your assigned school, submit your request online through the Transfers page on the PUSD website. (This includes siblings of current students.) Please make sure to still enroll your child at their assigned school of residence when new student enrollment opens on April 1, 2025. Transfer requests can only be processed once your child is enrolled in their school of residence. The transfer request window will close on March 31, 2025 at 5 p.m.

Parents of English Learners: Tomorrow, Friday, February 28th, is the last day Poway Unified will be conducting our Family Engagement and Accountability survey to gather input from all families of English Learner students. This survey helps shape the District’s goals and guide priorities for the 2025-2026 school year. Your feedback is extremely helpful as we continue to seek ways to better our English Learner program. Please click HERE to complete the survey.

Our next DELAC meeting is Wednesday, March 12th, at 6pm at the District Office. You are cordially invited to attend this meeting with your DELAC representative. At this meeting, we will be looking at the results of our engagement survey and will engage with one another to gather input from parents along with brainstorming ways to continue to support our English Learner families. Your time is precious and we would gladly appreciate you attending to support the hard work of your parents!

Nondiscrimination Philosophy and Policy Statement

The Poway Unified School District (PUSD) is an equal opportunity employer/program and is committed to an active Nondiscrimination Program. PUSD prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, nationality, immigration status, ethnicity, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression or association with a person or a group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. For more information, please contact: Title IX/Equity Compliance Officer, James Jimenez, Associate Superintendent of Personnel support Services, Poway Unified School District, 15250 Avenue of Science, San Diego, CA 92128, 1-858-521-2800, extension 2121, jjimenez@powayusd.com. For students, you may contact Title IX Coordinator/504 Coordinator Jamie Dayhoff, Director of Attendance and Discipline, Poway Unified School District, 1-858-521-2840, jdayhoff@powayusd.com.

Stone Ranch Mission: To create an environment where each and every child feels safe, valued, and inspired to be their authentic self.

Principal email: theard@powayusd.com

Website: stoneranch.powayusd.com

Location: 16150 4S Ranch Parkway, San Diego, CA 92127

Phone: 858-487-8474