– Bruce Lee

Actor, Director, Martial Artist & Philosopher

Good afternoon Ochoa Families,

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, moms to be, and those filling the role of mom!!! It is my sincere hope that you enjoyed a day of celebration.

Parents, as we near the close of the year there are lots of upcoming events, please take a look at the calendar linked below to ensure you do not miss anything important. This week, we will host make up testing for student who were absent over the past two weeks. Please be reminded that we return to our regular schedule. Students will dismiss at 3:05PM on Mon/Tue/Thurs/Fri, and 1:30PM on Wed. Plan accordingly for pick up. Remember for your student's safety, anyone not in the YEP program must be off campus within 20 minutes of dismissal.

Last week we celebrated our Teachers and our School Nurse. Thank you to all of our families who took the time to leave a note of thanks and appreciation for our teachers and nurse this past week. Additionally, I'd like to thank all of our parents for your contributions to our Wednesday, Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, hosted by our Leadership class this year. It was an amazing day!

There are two upcoming opportunities for students that I want to remind you of. The climate for students continues to require that we educate our children earlier on the topics that matter, so that they may be able to make informed decisions as young adults. In middle school our students are constantly faced with new decisions each day like, what groups of peers do I want to associate with, what decisions am I making to help align with my morals and values taught at home and school, how do I want to show up in the world and so much more.

We received an invitation from Mt. Eden's Principal and Theater teacher. We are planning a site-wide field trip to see a dress rehearsal of the Lion King, Jr at the HUSD PAC on May 20th. All eligible students will need to have a signed permission slip to attend. Permission slips will be issued this week and must be returned as soon as possible so that we can finalize the logistics of the trip. Currently, we plan to leave Ochoa at approximately 9:15AM on May 20th, walk to the HUSD PAC. The show begins at 10:30AM and will run until 12PM. Students, going on the trip who wish to have breakfast that day, must arrive at school between 8-8:15AM. we will walk back in time for lunch.

This year we have two important learning opportunities:

1. SMART TALK (Wk of May 12th): As part of our commitment to promoting the mental health and well-being of our students, your child’s school is offering participation in the Smart Talk curriculum developed by Stanford Reach Lab. This program is designed to support students in developing the skills they need to make informed, healthy decisions and build resilience against pressures related to substance use and mental health risks. The Smart Talk curriculum is a short-term, interactive educational program aimed at middle school students. It helps students:

2. California Healthy Youth Act/Sex Ed (May 12 for 7th grade/May 21 for 8th grade): science teachers will begin implementing the sexual health education curriculum for students. This curriculum is designed to provide accurate, age-appropriate information to help our students develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for making healthy choices and to increase positive health outcomes for students. We understand that sexual health education can be a sensitive topic, and we want to assure you that the curriculum has been chosen with careful consideration for age appropriateness and in accordance with state guidelines. Our primary goal is to provide our students with accurate information in a safe and supportive environment.

If you would like to opt your student out of the comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education please click on the following link to complete the OPT OUT<== click here

*If you wish for your student to participate in both of these learning opportunities, you do not have to do anything.

Have a wonderful week! Thank you for your continued partnership as we support our student through a successful middle-school career.

Warmly submitted,

~Principal Rowe-Andrews

Last week, we heard about the awful TikTok challenge where students are purposefully inserting items into the USB ports of their chromebooks to damage them. Please speak with your children about the need to take care of their Chromebooks as a tool necessary to support their education. They are intended to follow them throughout high school. Additionally, we are noticing students are in possession of more than one chromebook. As you know our Chromebooks allow us to provide a 1:1 learning experience for all students. We have loaner Chromebooks and chargers in every classroom in the event a student forgets their chromebook; forgetting should not be a regular occurance.

We are seeing many students attempt to hide lost or damaged chromebook and attempting to take chromebooks from the teacher carts, and other students. These are HUSD property, on loan to students; they do come with a replacement cost of approximately $400. Chromebooks are checked out, much like a library book. Students with outstanding fines are not eligible to participate in year end activities. Any "extra" chromebooks laying around your home should be returned immediately.

Thank you for your understanding.

• Summer Program Opportunity with the Eden Area ROP. For more information click HERE. To sign up, click HERE
• HPN Promise Summer of Math. For more information on this summer program, click HERE To sign up click HERE
• OCHOA goes to Washington, DC Trip_2025-26, click HERE to learn more. Parent meeting, May 22nd

As you have heard me say many times, the primary responsibility of school staff, is student safety and learning. As Ochoa staff and I supervise the parking lots at drop off and dismissal, there are serious safety concerns that we must not ignore. Please help us to keep our students safe by adhering to the following:

• Do remember there are children walking/crossing; they may not be alert always
• Do always yield to school busses
• Do adhere to ALL traffic signage (example: stop signs/no u turns/right turn only/directional arrows)
• Do drive less than 10 mph while inside the loop and our parking lots; be ready to stop
• Do travel the state mandated speed limit of 25 mph (or less) when driving in a school zone
• Do drive one way in and one way out allowing a more efficient flow of traffic
• If you are in the rear parking lot, and there are no spaces, please exit to allow the school buses sufficient space to move/ingress/egress
• Do not block the entrances to either lot

All Interested Students must apply:

The Hayward Youth Commission (HYC) advises the Mayor and City Council, and the elected boards of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD) and Hayward Unified School District (HUSD), about issues that affect young people in the Hayward community. Members may also work on projects and activities throughout the year such as identifying youth needs, organizing youth conferences, and more. Serving on the HYC counts towards community service hours. This is a Two-Year Term opportunity.

The Hayward Youth Commission meets monthly on the 2nd Monday of each month from September to June at 6:30 p.m., except holidays. Meetings are held at City Hall, Council Chambers.

APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

1. Live in the City of Hayward or within the boundaries of the Hayward Unified School District.
2. Be between the ages of 13 and 20 years old.

APPLICATION PROCESS:
Applicants are interviewed by a committee of representatives from each of the three elected bodies who then recommend the new members. Selected members are appointed by the City Council at a Council meeting. Commissioners are eligible for reappointment to additional terms if they continue to meet the criteria for membership and have actively participated in Commission meetings.

The Office of the City Clerk will notify qualified applicants of the date and time of the interviews.

Applications must be completed and submitted to the Office of the City Clerk no later than Friday, May 9, 2025, either online or to:

Hayward City Hall

Office of the City Clerk

777 B Street, 4th Floor

Hayward, CA 94541-5007

cityclerk@hayward-ca.gov

Interviews to be held on: Friday, May 30, 2025

QUESTIONS: Please call the City Clerk’s Office at (510) 583-4400.

Ochoa is a restorative practices school. We open each school year with a school-wide assembly during which, we speak with students about school expectations as well as what to do when they have differences of opinion and or conflict with friends/peers. This message is reiterated in our student handbook, presented by staff, in morning announcements and reiterated at the mid-year mark usually through a March/April assembly. Historically, behaviors tend to uptick during this time. Families, I urge you, to closely monitor your student's interactions via social media as well as remind them that when conflicts arise, fighting is NOT the solution. We have a responsibility to model for our students pro-social conflict management; fighting never resolves the issues. We ask that students and or families notify trusted staff so that we can allow the students to have a mediated conversation. Through our investigations, we have seen in many cases, conflicts begin with "he say/she say" from other students, who are not otherwise involved. They do not want to get into trouble themselves, and so they may sometimes unintentionally, take information they heard back to others. This often instigates and further fans the flames of conflict. Families, we ask you to notify us when you have concerns. The Ochoa staff and I will always do our best to get to the bottom of things, hopefully in a way that there are no fights or continued animosity between peers. Our students are part of a feeder pattern and need to even go to High School together. Lots of conflicts begins with evening or weekend activities- social-media posts, group chats, and other messaging (SnapChat, Tik Tok, InstaGram, Discord, Youtube, video game chats etc). From time to time, conduct a periodic/unannounced check of your student's cell phones so you know what's going on. Once again, we are asking for your partnership with these type of issues. Please take a look at the resources below to help you with this.

1. How to Lock Apps on iPhone-while this feature can be helpful for adults to maintain privacy of confidential documents such as banking information; in the hands of a teen-ager they can lock your access.

2. Access Hidden Apps on iPhone

3. How to Use the Search Function

4. Hidden Folder Access (Photos/Videos)- allows you to hide images and videos under a secondary password. (Vault/Calculator Vaults)

5. 5 Ways to Hide Apps

6. The Three Best Parental Controls to Manage Screen Time

FYI: You can find anything online. This is how the kids learn!

UPDATE: At the last Saturday HUSD Budget Town Hall, our Superintendent, Dr. Reimann expressed that every student absence district wide, not only costs valuable learning time for our students, it also costs HUSD approximately $86 per student, per day. Our Assistant Sup of Business Services, projects "just a 1% increase in attendance, can yield as much as $2 million" back into the district to be used to better support student learning and development. That is a significant amount of possibility that our students are missing out on. How can we make changes at Ochoa with our student population to improve these outcomes? We are at 91.21% for December (👇from November 92%) and our goal is 98%.

Check back often for updates on our current budget shortfall.

SBDM meets: **Tuesday, June 3, 2025 Meeting Agenda (Eng/Span)~Hybrid

Submit Meeting Agenda Items by clicking the box below Due: 5/26/25 for 6/3 meeting

I feel it important to share with you the urgency of getting students to school each day. Ochoa, like all schools sets an attendance goal for each month. Although we strive for 98% monthly attendance rate, we have not been able to reach 95% as of yet this year. We are noticing patterns of absences, Monday, Wednesdays, and Friday each week. If your student has appointments, we ask that you make them at the end of the school day whenever possible. We especially are noticing patterns of absences around holiday weekends. More than anyone, we recognize the need to enjoy a little family time, however doing so may come at a cost to your student's learning. Take a look at our attendance rates so far this year.

Our monthly Attendance goal: 98%

**April attendance= help us to increase our attendance rate by 10% this month!

March attendance= 92.01%

February attendance= 89.69%

January attendance= 91.78%

December attendance=91.21%

November attendance= 92.17%

October attendance = 93.5%

September Attendance = 93.3%

August Attendance = 94.19%

When our students miss instruction, they are still responsible for the work and mastering the content. Repeated absences over time (days, weeks, months, years) has the potential to create learning slide. This can make children fall behind their grade-level peers and create a level of anxiety, when they are unable to perform in the classroom. Help your student move toward the path to success this year and make sure they are in attendance daily and for the duration of the school day. Quarter 2 starts this week, let's turn our attendance rates around. Help Ochoa achieve a 98%!

Keep your Child on Track in Middle School_English

Keep your Child on Track in Middle School_Spanish

• The N-word+ ban policy translated into Spanish for easy access and understanding.

• A document outlining the history and harm of the n-word, also translated into Spanish, to help families discuss the significance of the policy at home.

• A link for families to provide their input on the policy, ensuring their voices are heard.

• A resource guide on how families can support at home (Spanish here and English here) with practical tips on fostering conversations about respect, inclusivity, and the importance of eliminating hate speech.

• Slide decks from the presentation: English presenter and Spanish presenter

• Spanish Words That Are Anti-Black & Anti-Indigenous video

Ochoa Families, there are many interventions that we put in place here at Ochoa to support all of our students; some are especially for those students who may be struggling academically and or behaviorally:

• Attendance incentives & programs (AC Transit Free bus pass)
• COST- Counseling supports (individual/group)
• Tutoring Support (Lunch/ After school/Weekends)
• Focal Student Progress Monitoring
• After school Programming (YEP)
• Restorative Circles & Mediations
• Academic Counselor Check Ins
• Student Success Team Meetings
• Progress reports (weekly)
• Check In-El Spec

This is a non-exhaustive list, however these supports are put in place to ensure your student gets the help they need to be successful and thrive here at Ochoa Middle School. When students do not meet academic or behavioral requirements, they are in danger of being placed on the 1) Risk of Retention List (Academics) or 2) The LOP List (Behaviors). I want to share with you what being placed on either of these lists might mean for your student. Please know that I am sharing this information proactively with the best of intentions for us to work in partnership.

Students at Risk of Retention (ROR)

Identified during the 3rd-4th qtrs

When students are unable to maintain their academics and have three or more "Fs" on their quarterly report card, we begin to hold a series of student success team meetings, academic check ins and start a process of progress monitoring your student. We offer one or a combination of the interventions listed above. If there are no improvements in their grades from Quarter 1 through the middle of Quarter 4, we will make a recommendation for retention. Students with three or more "Fs" on their report cards, will then be placed on the LOP list, where they become ineligible to participate in school related events such as: clubs, games, dances, end of year field trips, end of year fun school related activities up to and including 8th grade promotion. These lists apply to 7th and 8th grades students.

Students on the Loss of Privileges List (LOP):

Students can be placed on the LOP list for a number of reasons. The first, described above for academics and failure to perform. The second reason is based on violations of school rules and policies outlined in our student, district handbook, and california education code. This non-exhaustive list of violations may include:

• attendance
• any disciplinary action (Suspensions, In School Suspensions)
• poor attendance (includes tardies/absences)
• poor behaviors (any disciplinary actions)
• failure to serve consequences (i.e. detentions, community service, study halls, progress reports)
• failure to adhere to dress code
• failure to adhere to cell phone policy
• failure to maintain grades (less than two Fs)

Students appearing on this list will not be able to participate in any school related activities.

Families, this doesn't mean students can't make mistakes, we expect them to, however as we move toward the end of the school year, we do not expect to have to reiterate expectations, especially when there may have been an obvious disregard for the school and district policies. We are here to work in partnership with you and want ALL-100% of our students to participate through year end. Please have a proactive conversation with your children so that they fully understand this process.

Our meetings this year are:

SSC Meets as follows: Meetings held virtually at 5:30PM

10/17/2024- Hybrid Mtg, 5:30PM

10/22/2024- SSC District Training (mandatory), 5:30-7PM @ The HUB

12/5/2024- Topic: CAASPP Data review, 5PM Virtual

1/16/2025- Topic: Planning for 2025-26 & Budget Updates, 5:30PM Virtual

3/20/2025- Topic Data review

4/17/2025 Topic: SPSA Development/Review

4/17-Meeting Agenda English or En Español

Board Policy 6020: Parent Involvement & Family Engagement

🔻🔻All students must be picked up within 15 minutes of school events end.🔻🔻

Student athletes must maintain a 2.0 GPA with no more than one "F: Grades will be monitored regularly and students will be advised by the athletic director. School games and evening events must follow school expectations.

• dress code is enforced
• students must attend school; If absent and or on suspension during the day may not attend events/sports etc
• school appropriate language required
• school appropriate behaviors required

*Agenda is posted 72 hrs in advance.

Next Meeting: May 6, 2025

Meeting Agenda :To be published

Join Here: Google Meets Link or In person

Site Based Decision Making (SBDM) was introduced to Hayward USD in 1996 as a strategy for ensuring that staff, parents, and students at individual school sites had a vehicle for engaging in the decision-making that most affected their own sites. Over the years, HUSD board and district leadership have affirmed the importance of SBDM as a means of exchanging ideas, data, and other information necessary to improving educational opportunities for HUSD students.

These are public meetings any member of the Ochoa community is welcome to join meetings, submit agenda items, voice concerns, support process improvements and spending (MAA funds), and offer input to the School Site Council (SSC) team at Ochoa Middle School regarding suggestions for spending that supports student academic achievement.

Board Policy 6020: Parent Involvement & Family Engagement

• Monday, May 12, 2025

  • Spirit week Begins~Nostalgia Day
  • CAASPP Make-Up Testing begins; Regular Schedule this week 3:05 Dismissal
  • Ochoa Community Schools Huddle, 9AM
  • Pacific Islander Recognition Night, 7PM HUSD PAC

  
  

  Tuesday, May 13, 2025

  • Spirit week~Faculty Fashion Day "Staff dress Like a Student"
  • Spanish Placement Testing, Counselors (for rising 9th graders)
  
  

  Wednesday, May 14, 2025

  • Students Dismiss at 1:30PM
  • Spirit week~Dress like you are going to the Beach Day
  • Soccer Teams (girls/boys), (Link to Soccer Schedule_2024-25)

  
  

  Thursday, May 15, 2025

  • Spirit week~Favorite Character Day-Halloween Part 2
  • Special Board Meeting, 6:30PM
  
  Friday, May 16, 2025
  • Spirit week~Throwback Friday-Early 2000's
  • Parent Recognition Night, 6PM, Hayward Veterans Hall

  *Attend these meetings by invitation.

  -------------------------------------------------------

  Looking Ahead:
  

  May 20, 2025

  • School-Wide Walking Field Trip, HUSD PAC (for eligible students)

  May 22, 2025

  • AVID 8 /Puente 8, Santa Cruz Field Trip
  • SSC Meeting, 5:30PM (Virtual)

  May 23, 2025

  • Puente End of Year Event~Portfolio Night, 6-7:30PM

  May 26, 2025

  • Memorial Day Observed, NO SCHOOL

  May 28, 2025

  • HUSD Bd of Education Mtg, 6:30PM

  May 29, 2025

  • May The Music Never End, Spring Concert_6PM_Flier
  • Bridge to College Recognition Night, HUB 5:30PM

  May 30, 2025

  • 8th Grade Dance

  June 5, 2025

  • Last day for all 7th grade students, regular schedule today
  • 8th Grade Study Trip~Discovery
  June 6, 2025
  • 8th Grade Promotion Day, 11AM @Ochoa

Does your student require public transportation? If you would like to apply for a free AC transit card for your student please click the link below. This is not transportation specific to students with IEPs, but is available for ALL students.

Students should plan to arrive to school each day between 8 and 8:15AM, unless they have a zero period class. Students with a zero period PE class must arrive at school daily no later than 7:15AM. The first bell rings at 8:20AM and students must be in their seats or on their PE numbers by that time. Even if a student arrives "just 1 minute late," they legally must be marked tardy according to the law. Help us to achieve our daily and annual attendance goals this year and help us to get to 98% or better.

Website: https://ochoa.husd.us
Location: 2121 Depot Road, Hayward, CA
Instagram: coming soon

Facebook: coming soon
Twitter: coming soon