Canyon Families,

We are officially into the home stretch of the 2024-25 School Year as we begin the last full month of the year. April gave us many reasons to celebrate as our amazing students were recognized for outstanding achievements in Art, Athletics, Academic Teams and Performing Arts. May is also going to be busy with AP/IB Testing, Prom, Awards Nights and the beginning of the process to select a new mascot. Below might be the longest newsletter I ever published trying to get it all in!

Brent McKee
Principal

Spring is an exciting time of year as Seniors begin making their final decisions about where they are headed for next year. May 1st is the traditional signing day as that is the deadline when most Colleges and Universities require a commitment to attend. To celebrate our Seniors, we had a special Signing Day on May 1st. Seniors were dismissed from 3rd period 15 minutes early. They were then given the opportunity to place a sticker that represented their plans for next year. This could be a sticker representing the University the plan to attend, representing a branch of military they committed to or a sticker that represents a career choice. Seniors then signed their name beside their sticker. Those that didn't have a sticker just wrote their school etc. We will keep this banner on display for the remainder of the school year to celebrate our Seniors and the great futures they have ahead of them. ASB also provided donuts and played music for the event as we begin to celebrate the Class of 2025!

Graduation is just over a month away! Please click on the following attachment for information about the Graduation Ceremony as well as Graduation Tickets.

Last October, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 3074 that prohibits the use of Native American terms from being used as a school mascot. This includes Comanches. Starting July 1, 2026 we will need to have a new mascot in place. This was NOT a Canyon or OUSD decision. It is now a State Law that we must abide by. Therefore we are starting the process now. The timeline is as follow:

May 2025 - Take Nominations (Anyone can nominate a name)

June 2025 - Canyon Students Vote to Narrow the List

August / September 2025 - Canyon and El Rancho Students will vote to pick a new Mascot

Homecoming 2025 - New Mascot Announced

Comanches will remain our mascot / nickname through the 2025-26 School Year.

In an effort to collect as many good ideas as possible, we are allowing anyone to make suggestions. Just click on the link below by May 23rd.

May is teacher / staff appreciation month. Last year, we allowed parents to nominate staff members for our employees of the month and it worked out really well. Staff members greatly appreciated the positive comments. If you have a teacher who has made a positive impact on your student's life ot maybe a classified staff member who has been more than helpful to you please take a moment to nominate them. It only takes a minute and your positive feedback means a lot.

Over three nights from April 23 through April 25, some AMAZING Dancers under the direction of Mrs. Andrea Greene performed their annual Spring Dance Show IGNITE. Anyone who saw the show would agree that there was a lot of outstanding talent on display as our dancers entertained the audience for almost two hours.

The Canyon Color Guard Team competed in Championship Prelims on Saturday, April 12th at Marina High School and took home First Place and a spot in Championship Finals. They then competed on Sunday, April 13th at the UCI Bren Center. They made Canyon Color Guard HISTORY with a score of 90.59 - the highest score any Canyon Colorguard team has received. They took home 3rd place and as they competed against 37 other schools in their division.

The month of May and June will allow our talented musicians and singers one last opportunity to perform before the end of the school year. Our Choir will perform a Vocal Showcase on May 21st at 7:00 PM in the MPR. Our Concert Band will perform at Fullerton College on June 5th.

Some of Canyon's Outstanding Artists were select for the honor of having their work displayed at the "OC ARTS FOR ALL STUDENT ART SHOWCASE" on May 3 at Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza. However, you don't need to drive to South Coast Plaza. Please click on the slideshow below to view some outstanding work by some of our amazing students.

During the Week of April 14th, our World Language Department hosted it's annual International Week. The purpose of this week is to recognize and celebrate the different cultures from around the world. To celebrate, they decorated the quad with flags from every country. During lunch they had booths set up to help educate our students on the different cultures from around the world with each day having a them. Once again our staff and students from did a great job with this event!

Before Spring Break, Canyon successfully hosted its first ever MUN conference, drawing in close to 50 students from El Rancho and Canyon. The students spent the morning collaborating on writing resolutions in an effort to make progress on global issues. Awards went out to the delegates who demonstrated appropriate demeanor and respect while clearly communicating their ideas. Building a bridge with El Rancho was a first step in growing the pipeline for future Model United Nations growth. If you would like to be involved, join the Instagram "@canyonmun1" or Remind "@chsmun01" for updates.

This year, our French levels 1-4 students competed in Le Grand Concours, the national French language competition sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French. Students are evaluated for their written, oral and listening comprehension skills in French. Over 46,000 students competed in 2025. Eight of our outstanding students performed so exceptionally well that they won Medals at National level. CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Gold medals:

Jai Bajwa (French 2, 99th percentile)

Yoobin Cha (French 1, 97th percentile)

Preston Nguyen (French 1, 97th percentile)

Silver medals:

Colette Aitken-Penn (French 4)

Sophie Semaan (French 4)

Bronze medals:

Samaira Kassam (French 3)

Athene Wang (French 2)

Ziyana Kassam (French 1)

On Wednesday, April 21st, Eight Canyon Athletes signed their letters of intent to continue both their academic and athletic career at the college level. CONGRATULATIONS to these eight student athletes on their outstanding accomplishment. Picture below are:

Back Row (L to R):

Brayden Van Hook - Volleyball - William Penn University

Conner Lindauer - Lacrosse - University of Dubuque

Jayden Legaspi - Track and Field - Concordia University Irvine

Nate DeSouza - Lacrosse - Tusculum University

Front Row (L to R):

Madison Gallacher - Track and Field - Azusa Pacific University

Emily Howard - Cross Country and Track - Cal Poly University

Ainsley Jackson - Lacrosse - Colorado State University Pueblo

Everett Roach - Basketball - University of Hawaii at Hilo

Congratulations to our Boys Volleyball who were the Crestview Champions! They are currently 15-6 overall and finished 7-1 in League Play. They qualified for CIF but unfortunately, their season ended with a tough first round loss to Los Alamitos on Tuesday, April 29th. The Comanches are coached by Matt Silva.

The Canyon Girls Lacrosse Team qualified for CIF and won their round game! They defeated Woodbridge by a score of 11-8 on April 29th and will play at Chaminade in a second round game on Thursday, May 1st.

The Canyon Girls Beach Volleyball team in it's first season ever are having an AMAZING CIF Playoff run. After beating San Juan Capistrano yesterday 4-1, the girls are now in the Semi Finals. The will play on Thursday, May 1st against Campbell Hall at Huntington Beach at 2:00 PM. If they win, they will play for a CIF Championship on Saturday, May 3rd. That game would be at 10:30 AM at Long Beach City College.

The Canyon Boys Lacrosse team had another good season under Head Coach Neil Trusso. Ranked in the top 25 of Southern California for most of the year, they qualified for C.I.F. Unfortunately, they lost their first round game to El Dorado 6-4 on Tuesday, April 29th. Congratulations on a very good season!

Above is just a small sampling of the outstanding athletic performances that have happened. In addition to those teams already listed, we expect Baseball and Softball to qualify for CIF. Swim and Track League Prelims are this week and several of those athletes will probably have playoff success. Look for more updates on those individuals in June.

For all the athletic schedules and information, please visit the Canyon Athletic Website

About 11 years ago, Canyon had two seniors named Braden Griffiths and Colton Priest. While they were at Canyon, they did glider training together in Los Alamitos through the Civil Air Patrol and took flight lessons together at Chino Airport. Both of them got their private pilot licenses around the same time toward the end of their senior year. Both of them had a passion for being in the Air Force one day. After High School, they took different paths but both have accomplished their goal and are now in the Air Force. Recently, the two were able to reconnect thousands of miles above the ground. Colton had to fly his F-16 back from Japan after a 7 month tour there. This requires refueling in the air. Below is a picture of Colton having his plane refueled. Guess who is flying the KC-46 Fuel Tanker that is pictured? None other than his good friend from Canyon High School Braden Griffiths.

Mrs. Lindsey Blanco is our Teacher of the Month for April. Mrs. Blanco has been a Math teacher at Canyon for 14 years. She currently teaches Math 2 and Math 3 and is one of our Co-taught Math teachers. Mrs. Blanco has a great rapport with her students and is well deserving of this recognition.

We normally just recognize one classified employee each month but this month we are recognizing a team. They are our AMAZING kitchen staff! Under the direction of Mr. Chris Jones, they work hard each day serving food before school, during nutrition and at lunch. They have also started preparing "To Go" Boxes for our athletes who need to leave for a game early and would normally not be able to eat lunch. Thank you to all of these great people for making sure our students get fed.

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY TUTORING

The National Honor Society has tutoring in Room 133 from 3:30 to 4:30 Tuesday through Thursday.

Every morning at 7:30 AM, we offer Math Tutoring in Room 139. Mr. Joe Svoboda is available to help any student who is having trouble with Math. No appointment is necessary. This is a great opportunity for those who can't get help outside of school to come before school and get help with Math. Due to Faculty meetings, there is no tutoring on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month.

Thursday, May 1st @ 9:00 AM - PTSA Meeting in the Library

Monday, May 5th @ 7:30 PM - CHS Foundation Meeting in Room 114

Monday, May 5th - AP and IB Testing Begins

Saturday, May 17th from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM - Prom at the Arctic Train Station

Monday, May 19th - Athletic Awards Night

Wednesday, May 21st @ 7:00 PM - Vocal Showcase in the MPR

Thursday, May 22nd - Blood Drive in the MPR

Monday, May 26th - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, May 28th @ 6:30 PM - Laureate Awards in the MPR

Thursday, June 5th - Concert Band at Fullerton College Pops Concert

Wednesday, June 11 - Minimum Day

Thursday, June 12 - Minimum Day

Thursday, June 12 @ 7:00 PM - Graduation Ceremony at Fred Kelly Stadium

For up to date information during the month, you can check out the Canyon HS Website or click on the Daily Bulletin which has up to date announcements on what is happening at CHS.