The Scoop

Dear Families,

We are off into fourth quarter and spring is definitely in the air. Over the next few weeks we will be conducting our state benchmark testing for grades 3 through 6. Up until this year, students were given two separate assessments (PEAKS and MAP) for both English/Language Arts and Math (Science for 5th graders). This typically meant testing for the entire month of April.

This year, the state of Alaska was able to combine their testing requirements together into one test, the AK STAR/MAP test. This means our students in grades 3-6 will be testing in two shorter windows.

Starting next week our 3-6 students will be testing on Tuesday and Wednesday ( 4/4-5/23 ) from 9:30-11:30. They will be doing their math testing on these days. The following week on Tuesday and Wednesday (4/11-12/23) from 9:30-11:30 the students will be doing their reading test. These tests are important for Chugach, the ASD, and state as they give us invaluable information on your students progress. Please make every effort to have you child here and on time to school those days.

I would also like to share with you some information on a safety and reporting program that the Anchorage School District has called STOPit.

STOPit is an anonymous reporting tool designed to deter and mitigate bullying, cyber abuse, and other inappropriate behaviors, consisting of an app and a back-end incident management system for school administrators.

Specifically, the program empowers students and families to:

• Report at-risk or inappropriate behaviors anonymously
• Submit photo or video evidence
• Alert designated administrators to issues and risks early, before they escalate

No personal information is needed to use STOPit. The only way personally identifiable information will be accessible through STOPit is if a requester voluntarily includes it within the content of a request or message.

Starting next week I have asked teachers in the middle and upper grades to share information on STOPit with their family groups, and we will have some posters up around the school with STOPit information on them.

Below is a link to the ASD website with a video and information on STOPit. Please feel free to go over this with your student(s) as you feel appropriate. https://www.asdk12.org/STOPit

Have a great week and I’ll see you around the building.

Joel

We have GREAT news! Starting Monday, April 3rd, hot lunch service will resume at Chugach Optional!! Please help us welcome our new cafe manager, Tim Kosednar. Tim's own children attended Chugach Optional in their younger days and Tim is happy to be back as part of the Chugach community!

With the return of hot lunch service, school lunch will no longer be free at Chugach Optional. School lunches cost $4.50 and include milk. If only milk is being purchased the cost is $1. Please note - if purchasing just milk, students must have a positive balance on their student meal account.

It is recommended that parents pre-pay their students meal account through Parent Connect. Prepaid meal accounts help the lunch lines go faster and gives students more time to eat. For information on how to pre-pay a students meal account click here.

Families can also apply for Free and Reduced-Price meals by completing an application on the ASD website Student Nutrition page.

April 3 - Hot Lunch Service Returns to Chugach!!! WOOHOO!!!!

April 4 - Ukelele Club (2:50pm)

April 5 - Garden Club (3:00pm)

April 7 - ASD Lottery Runs

April 11 - Ukelele Club (2:50pm), Alumni Night (6:30pm - Library)

April 12 - Garden Club (3:00pm)

April 14 - ASD Lottery Notifications, EARLY RELEASE (11:15am); Chugach's Got Talent (5:30pm)

April 18 - Ukelele Club (2:50pm)

April 19 - Garden Club (3:00pm)

April 20 - Community Assembly Meeting (5:30pm)

April 24 - Track Practice (3:00pm); Online Registration for Returning Students Opens (Parent Connect)

April 25 - Ukelele Club (2:50pm)

April 26 - Track Practice (3:00pm); Garden Club (3:00pm)

April 28 - EARLY RELEASE (11:15am)

Upper musicals are in full swing. Vocal coach volunteers are needed to work with students performing solos, duets, or in small groups for 20-40 minutes at a time. If you can read music, love music, or have a background as a singer, you're qualified! Please leave Yuki your contact information and times you are available during the school day.

Tuesday – April 11 6:30-8pm

Are you or your 6th grader anxious and/or curious about the transition from Chugach to middle school? Do you have questions about middle school?

If so, Alumni Night is the event for you. This is an opportunity to hear from former Chugach students who are now attending a variety of middle schools in our district. They will share their experiences and answer questions that current Chugach students or parents may have. And who knows best how the transition from Chugach to middle school goes than the kids that are doing it now! This night is designed for 6th graders and their parents, but 5th grade students and parents are also welcome to join.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Thank you to outgoing CEC board members for your time and dedication!

Jenny Rosenbaum, Treasurer

Tamar Ben-Yosef, Secretary

Jennifer Flanagan, Member at Large

Amy Mick, Parent Coordinator Representative

We have five CEC board vacancies: Vice President (one year spent as VP and one year as President), Vice Treasurer (one year spent as the Vice Treasurer and one year as the Treasurer), Secretary, Member at Large, and Parent Coordinator Representative. The Vice President and Vice Treasurer are two-year terms; all others are one-year terms.

Want to know more about each role? We've got you covered - click here for full position descriptions! Please feel free to reach out to any of the current CEC board members to learn more about being part of the CEC or more information about any of these specific roles.

Joey Caterinichio, CEC President

On behalf of the Chugach CEC Board Members

In early March we had a wonderful guest at our school with Nick Woodard, world champion jump roper and motivational speaker! Thanks to Polly's Big Simple funds and the CEC, we were able to be amazed at his jumping skills and his positive message to our community!

How is it April already?!?! While the sun is getting warmer and higher, I am realizing that our year is wrapping up. I celebrate that we have had thousands of books being checked out from our library this year. Unfortunately many have not been returned…yet. Thank you for supporting your child in finding and returning library books. On my Clever page, there is a video on how to look in the library catalog for checked out books. There are bonuses for using the online catalog: *being able to see the cover of the book, *saving paper and trees, and *supporting our students being in-charge library users. If your student is unsure of their ASD username and password, I can help!

ASD Clever Guide

Last day of library book check-out

There comes a time each year that we need to say it is the last day to check out books. This year it is Friday, May 5th. While this doesn’t feel very ‘love of library’ for me, I do need two weeks to find all of the books that have not been returned…yet. If a student needs to finish a book and is unable to return the book by May 5th, I will absolutely work with each student on a plan.

Missing a library book?

If a library book is missing and/or needs to be replaced, please use the following guide to help you: Missing a library book plan If, for whatever reason, you are unable to replace a book, please connect with me and we will make a plan. I feel very strongly about the following quote:

“schools … can make it easy and unrisky for children to take books home … by worrying less about losing books to children and more about losing children to illiteracy.” Richard L. Allington

Chugach March Book Madness!!!!

Think of March Madness with a book twist!

The end of February students nominated their favorite novel and favorite picture book. We took the top 64 choices of each and put them into brackets. I am thankful that I used a ‘randomizer’ to seed the brackets. It took the pressure off of me when the students had to vote between two of their favorite titles! We began voting the week before Spring Break. We are finishing up our ‘Sweet 16’ voting this week. It has been a fantastic venue for book conversations within our community.

Two favorite comments from Chugach March Book Madness from this week:

From a third grader commenting about a picture book “This is one of my favorites from my childhood.”

A fourth grader saying, “Dog Man is a classic!”

Someone recently asked me what it is like to be a librarian. My response: best job in the world. I have the privilege of connecting students with books and witnessing their growth up and down our hallway…such joy!

Please connect if there is any way I can support!

Many thanks!

Amy

brabec_amy@asdk12.org

Students in grades 3-6 that are interested in participating in track after school, please pick-up a permission sheet from the office, sign and return it to Polly. The practice days and times will be Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00pm-4:00pm. Our first practice will be April 24th. Meet in the gym with running clothes, running shoes and a water bottle. We will be outside most of the time, so please have appropriate weather gear.

If any parents would like to help out with the practices I would greatly appreciate it!

Track Club Schedule:

April 24 - Practice 3:00pm-4:00pm

April 26 - Practice 3:00pm-4:00pm

May 1 - Practice 3:00pm-4:00pm

May 3 - Track Meet @ Chugach 4:30pm-7:30pm

May 8 - Practice 3:00pm-4:00pm

May 10 - Track Meet @ Hanshew 4:30pm-7:30pm

May 15 - End of Season Party

May 17 - Practice for those going to the Invitational Track Meet

May 19 - Invitational Track Meet @ Mears 4-7

Online registration for returning ASD students opens on April 24th and will be open until August 18th. If you know your student will be returning to our school, please register them for the coming school year as soon as possible using your Parent Connect account. There will be a link to register your student under the "ASD Quick Links" tab.

What a fun night of Science and Sharing! Congratulations on a job WELL DONE!!

We've had another busy month with lots of people to thank!!

• ART NIGHT: A huge thank you to Erika Green for heading up a wonderful, fun filled evening with amazing Art! Thank you as well to all our community members who came out to purchase art in support of our sister school, the Mauni Primary School in Malawi, Africa. The Art Night event raised about $5000.
• SCIENCE SHARE: We appreciate all the students that took the time to conduct science projects and then shared them with our community! Thank you to Laura Schue and the Science Share committee for organizing the event.

Attendance

• All students arriving after 8:15 am must sign-in at the office to avoid the truancy robocall
• If your child is going to be out of school for the day please contact the office before 9:30 am at 907-742-3730
• More details on Attendance can be found here

Parent/Visitor Sign-in

• All parents, visitors, and volunteers who are going to be in the school after 8:30 am need to sign in at the office.

Parking Etiquette

• Please refrain from parking in any of the "RESERVED" parking spots, the fire lane or the loading dock area. We know parking is tight but for safety and courtesy reasons these areas/spots must be respected. Chugach families are welcome to park at the New Hope Church across the street and in the Municipal EOC parking lot but please do not park in their reserved parking areas and be mindful of your speed at all times.

Outer wear

• It's spring in Anchorage! Please encourage your student(s) to dress appropriate for the day's weather conditions. Now that temperatures are staying well above the -10F indoor recess cutoff, students will be going outside for recess - rain or shine - and must be prepared.

The Chugach Optional Office is open from 7:30am - 4:00pm every school day. We can be reached at 907-742-3730 or by email at ChugachOffice@asdk12.org

Email: chugachoffice@asdk12.org
Website: https://www.asdk12.org/chugachoptional
Location: 1205 E Street, Anchorage, AK, USA
Phone: 907-742-3730