Parent Newsletter #34: 4/25/25

Website: https://phs.piedmont.k12.ca.us/
Location: 800 Magnolia Ave, Piedmont, CA 94611
Phone: (510) 594-2626 | Instagram: @piedmonthigh

Parent Newsletter: Archives

2024-25 School Profile | Bell Schedule (Regular)

Road to Graduation | Yearbook Info

College & Career Newsletter | Athletic Newsletter

Principal: Dr. Yoshihara

Assistant Principal: Mr. Marik

Dear Highlander Families,

It has been another busy week with much happening across our campus. From iSearch night, so the Spring Dance Show, but the many athletic events happening, there was definitely something for everyone.

We know AP Testing is just around the corner and affects many of our students. Before then however, we have Phantasmagoria happening on Thursday night at 7 pm. Come see the talent of our Highlanders. Have a fantastice weekend.

Best,

Dr. Yoshihara

April 26: Senior Prom

April 28: Fire Drill (special schedule)

April 28: World Language Singing Competition (all day in the PHS amphitheater)

April 30: Cap & Gown Disbursement (10am-1pm, seniors only)

April 30: Supt Advisory Council (cell phone discussion)

May 1: Phantasmagoria (PHS/MHS Talent Show)

May 5-9: Teacher Appreciation Week

May 5: Start of AP Testing

May 6: National Teacher Appreciation Day

May 11: Mother's Day

May 14: Board Meeting (7 pm, likely cell phone policy to be on the agenda)

May 15: Guitar Exhibition (5-7 pm, engineering lab)

May 19: Senior Awards Night (7-8:30 pm, AHT)

May 20, 22: PHS Instrumental Concert (7-9 pm, AHT)

May 23: PHS/MHS Day on the Green (1:30-3:30, baseball field)

Wednesday and Friday will be Academic Support for all. Remember to tag a teacher!

Link to FlexiSched: https://piedmont.flexisched.net/

This is a notification that we will be holding a fire drill on Monday, 4/28. There will be a modified schedule for the day. Students will report to period 5 and the drill will happen sometime within that time frame.

As we continue to finalize the schedules for both students and staff for next year, we have an update for our Highlander families. We have identified a teacher for AP Seminar for next year: Mr. Jamie Mockel. Mr. Mockel's collegiate work is around research (anthropology) so it is right up his alley. Furthermore, he is most excited to take this knowledge and apply it to this course for next year's Highlanders.

We also have a number of other teachers who will get trained with Mr. Mockel this summer (Ms. Black and Ms. Newell). This will be indicator of future instructors for this course as well as for AP Research (for consideration in 2026-27). If you are still interested in signing up for this course, open to current 9th-11th graders, please reach out to your counselor.

We have some students who have scored among the highest in the nation in the 2024 PSAT. From more than 1.3 million test takers, each of these students is among the 50,000 highest-scoring and will be recognized in the fall.

From the 50,000 high scorers, about 16,000 will be named National Merit Semifinalists and the others will be commended. The former group will move on to compete for the roughly 7,000 Merit Scholarship awards to be given out in 2026. Good luck to all of our students.

1. Milo Bakshi
2. Alex Chin
3. Cassie Colby
4. Audrey Dickinson
5. Julian Gard
6. Samantha Huynh
7. Kate Jumper
8. Niko Kalamas
9. Miles Kim
10. Athena Lim
11. Maddox Ma
12. Darcy McKee
13. Nate McKenzie
14. Petro Papahadjopoulos
15. Aidan Patty
16. Luck Peterson
17. Olive Reining
18. Noah Sohn
19. Kalyani Spieckerman
20. Naomi Treichler
21. Nathan Tuan
22. Nate Welch
23. Jerry Jialin Yu

We had a student come up with an Idea Drop Box. From the student:

Idea drop will be available starting this coming Monday April 28 . You can drop your ideas and any school related suggestions you might have on the Idea drop box outside the library.

The box will be there to collect ideas for the next two weeks, till May 9! We look forward to read and implement whenever possible all your suggestions and ideas to make our school a better and inclusive place for everyone!

Hello Students:

This is another reminder to get your hours logged into Track it Forward before the May 10th deadline. It is easier to input these requests if you do this now vs wait until closer to the date instead of the last minute rush. You will help us to manage the request for new organizations if you log in these hours now. Thank you.

Important reminder: As we get close to the end of the year, we’d like to remind Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors there are two requirements to qualify as a PHS Honor Society Member*:

1. Minimum Semester GPA (total and weighted) of 3.60.

2. Community Service Hours. The hours must be earned and logged in Track It Forward by May 10 of each school year in order to receive credit.

*not available to Freshmen

For more information on Honor Society please see: https://phs.piedmont.k12.ca.us/counseling/honor-society

For more information on Community Service Hours (including a detailed FAQ on what qualifies) please reference: https://phs.piedmont.k12.ca.us/college-center/community-service-tracking

Thank you,

Ms M-L

The Bird Calling Contest video is now available. For those that want to relive the joy, feel free to check out the links below. It is in two parts and it may ask you to download the video, due to file size. Enjoy.

Bird Calling Contest Video Part 1

Bird Calling Contest Video Part 2

Prom will be on Saturday, April 26th at a to-be-announced venue! Students should arrive to campus at 5:15 pm and meet near the ramp between the STEAM building and the student center. All students will be breathalyzed & searched. No backpacks or big bags but small purses are OK. All students and guests must have the appropriate permission slips in place. All students and guests must take bus to and from venue. If you have any questions, please see Marik.

Teacher appreciation week is quickly approaching and with it so is the end of the school year!

Please join us in celebrating our wonderful teachers and staff at PHS! Please sign up and donate what you can!

Thanks so much for all your support!

PHS Hospitality Team

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

All students signed up for APUSH for the 25- 26 school year will be REQUIRED to take an entrance assessment and take notes on a chapter from the class textbook. The assessment will be for educational purposes only - it will not count toward their grade or be used by the school to determine eligibility for the class. If they do not take the assessment they will be dropped from the class. The assessment is administered Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (April 21-23) during World History, Lunch and Academy, respectively. Sign ups for taking the exam during academy and lunch are outside the counseling office.

Is your child a professional athlete? In the entertainment industry? Or, in need of an online independent study program?

This year PUSD launched an Independent Study Program (ISP) for qualifying students in grades 9-12. Independent Study is a hybrid program that allows qualifying students to complete their high school requirements, with most of the work completed online and on-campus meetings at least once a week.

Key Features:

• Uses the Accelerate Education platform, with students completing ~5 hours of independent work daily.
• Weekly 1-hour individual meetings with an ISP teacher for mentoring, tutoring, and organization.
• Optional daily virtual synchronous sessions for core subjects.
• In-person attendance required for PSAT/SAT, state testing, and specific college/career events.

Application Process:

1. Submit the PUSD electronic application linked HERE, including a student-written letter.
2. Attend a Student Success Team (SST) meeting with stakeholders.
3. Receive acceptance and next steps upon qualifying.

Program Highlights:

• Students remain enrolled in their current high school (PHS or MHS).
• ISP provides a flexible, alternative instructional strategy aligned with district curriculum and graduation requirements.
• Access to A–G approved courses and equivalent standards-aligned content.

More information is linked HERE. For additional questions, please contact Principal Irma Muñoz Daniels at imunozdaniels@piedmont.k12.ca.us

Dual enrollment is coming to PHS. We want to express appreciation to our teachers for working with us in ensuring students have access to high level curriculum beyond what we currently offer, while maintaining a robust program for all. We also want to thank our Board for the vision to allow our Highlanders to excel academically.

We plan to offer Math 3C in the fall on the PHS campus. This five unit advanced math course will cover partial differentiation: Jacobians, transformations, multiple integral, theorems of Green and Stokes, differential forms, vectors and vector functions, geometric coordinates and vector calculus. Students will need to have successfully completed Calculus BC to enroll in this course.

The course is scheduled to be offered Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:20-3:35 pm. and will follow the college calendar. PHS Counselors will be reaching out to all students who expressed interest in a dual enrollment course and meet the prerequisite to verify enrollment and go over the next steps to begin enrollment in the class for the fall semester.

We are excited about this new opportunity for our students. Questions may be directed to the Principal.

Gather your team to create one of the novelty holes for Piedmont's 2nd annual Pop-Up Putt-Putt Course!

The 18-hole course will be set up in the Piedmont Park Parking Lot and feature community entries from neighborhoods, families, schools and local organizations. After the course is installed on the morning of April 27th, it will be open for community play from 12:00–4:00 pm!

How to Enter

Those interested in designing a hole for the course should fill out an entry the form (click the button below or HERE). Deadline to enter is April 10th. Get creative, clever and have fun with your design!

There will be prizes for Best Overall Entry, Most Creative, Most Clever and Best Use of Recycled Materials!

Piedmont Pop-Up Putt-Putt & Picnic in the Park

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Course Open for Play: 12:00–4:00 pm

Piedmont Park Parking Lot

In case you need a few ideas to get the ball a rollin’…

This week's student is Amelia Callaway. Thank you for getting your responses to me. We start off by having Ms. Sohn share some thoughts on Amelia.

1. What quality(ies) best describes this student? Amelia is enthusiastic, interested and eager to learn. She asks questions that demonstrate she is thinking deeply about the content and is curious to know about the causes and/or effects of a certain historical event.
2. How long have you known the student? Since the beginning of the school year.
3. What is the most memorable event you have of this student? It always seems that Amelia has much to contribute in terms of her knowledge about life around the world. She is curious about and has respect for other cultures.
4. How does this student Achieve the Honorable? Every time she turns in an assignment she always has something thoughtful and insightful to say about what we are learning about.
5. If there was one word to describe this student, what would it be? Genuinely engaged (sorry, one word just wasn't enough!)

And from Amelia herself:

1. So far this year, what has been your most memorable experience? This actually hasn't happened yet, but this weekend, I will be going to San Diego for crew to compete in the San Diego Crew Classic, and I am super excited for that. I think it will probably be one of my most memorable experiences this year!
2. If you were to describe PHS to someone who is thinking about coming, what would you say to them? I would say that PHS is a tight-knit, academically focused school with really great teachers.
3. If you were in charge at PHS, what is one action you might take to make it better? I would probably hold an academy lesson on time management.
4. If you could share one sentence with your parents/guardians, what would you say? Thank you for giving me all of the opportunities you have, and supporting me in the ones that I choose to pursue!
   
5. What is your favorite word? Stroke
   
6. What is your favorite song? My favorite song is probably Misty by Caamp.
7. What is your favorite food? My favorite food is probably smoothies
8. Can you share a photo of something from your summer and why it is special to you? This is a picture of my cousin and me at the Taylor Swift concert in December. I am really close with my cousins, and my younger cousin especially. It was so fun to go to a concert with her!

• Deep appreciation to Nairobi for leading the Parent Club this past year. She has been a stalwart for our students and will be missed (although I know she will be around). We welcome the new co-leaders: Dana and Sally.
• A shout out to Eli. She is always positive and welcoming every time I see her--the epitome of a Highlander.
• A big thank you to Colin and Andson for handling the "back of the house" stuff at the recent Dance Show.

Thanks to all those that participated in the Highlander Trivia question in the last newsletter. We had excellent participation this time.

The question for last week was: For those who begin to know me, they have learned that I've seen a few musicals. This is a father-daughter "thing" as she has enjoyed musicals ever since her first one (The King & I). Since then, how many musicals have we seen together. [non scientific, and based on my best estimate]. Updated.

So the first musical I saw with my younger daughter was The King & I back on June 13, 2015 at the Glendale Center Theater. She was 8 years old then. Since then, we have see 124 musicals together. Number 125 will be this weekend where we will watch Six (for the fourth time).

Congratulations to Audrey L. who got the closest with her answer of 50. Please come to the main office at your convenience to claim your prize!