CPA Tiger Talk

On Tuesday March 25, 11th grade students will take the ACT exam at CPA instead of following their normal class schedule. In order to ensure the optimal testing environment, Tuesday March 25 will be a Digital Learning Day for students in grades 9, 10 and 12. All other students, PreK-8th grade, will have a normal in-person school day. Thank you!

CPA will be on Spring Break from March 31 - April 4. We look forward to welcoming students back to school on Monday April 7.

Have a relaxing and fun Spring Break!

Monday March 24-Friday March 28: Elementary Spirit Week (see above)

Tuesday March 25: ACT Exam for 11th Grade Students

Tuesday March 25: Digital Learning Day for Grades 9, 10, & 12 due to the ACT Exam

Wednesday March 26:Deadline to submit designs for the 2025 CPA Walk/Run Shirt Design Contest (see below)

Friday March 28: Last Day of Quarter 3

Monday March 31-Friday April 4: No School (Spring Break)

Monday April 7: Quarter 4 begins

Monday April 14: Board of Directors Meeting, 6pm

For the full 2024-2025 CPA Calendar, please visit the CPA website.

Breakfast is available each day to all students for free, and the program allows students to eat in the classroom with their friends.

Breakfast is available to all students 7:40-8:30am every school day.

Please encourage your students to arrive on time and eat a free breakfast!

All Minnesota students are able to receive a free lunch every day. The free lunch includes an unlimited salad bar to ensure no student goes hungry. Students who wish to purchase a second lunch may do so. Students or staff can add money to their lunch account using the SchoolPay system.

Current breakfast and lunch menus can be found on the CPA website.

Make sure you are following CPA on social media to see all the amazing things that are happening at our school!

Follow CPATigers on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to Rusty the CPA Tiger on Youtube!

Thank you to everyone who came to the Scholastic Book Fair! It was a huge success--we made $3,300, half of which can be used to buy books for reading groups and classrooms!

Thank you for helping us promote the love of reading for CPA students!

Are you interested in joining the CPA Board of Directors?​

CPA's Board of Directors consists of 9 members, representing the community, parents, and staff. For the 2025-2026 school year the board has the following positions open:

• 1 Parent Position
• 1 Teacher Position
• 1 Community Member Position

Board members will be elected on May 15th, 2025 at the CPA Annual Meeting. If you are interested in serving on the School Board for the next three years, please email Sarah Zosel, Board Chair at sarahz.board@cpakpk12.org and include a short statement about why you want to serve and what experience you bring to the board.

CPA families, please click this link to complete the Annual CPA Family Survey by May 1. This survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete.

We are very interested in your opinion about your experience with Community of Peace Academy. If you have more than one child attending CPA, please give answers that reflect your overall experience. Your answers will be confidential.

Please read each question carefully. We appreciate you taking the time to do the survey.

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) launched a public feedback portal at education.mn.gov for parents, students, teachers, and community members to submit detailed accounts of the ways recent Executive Orders and abrupt federal education cuts are impacting schools and children across our state. The announcement comes as the President signed an Executive Order directing an abrupt dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, uprooting federal investments and supports for our schools.

More than 860,000 students in Minnesota depend on stable partnerships that have existed between their school communities, MDE and the U.S. Department of Education across administrations. For decades, the federal investments facilitated through those partnerships have played a key role in ensuring students in Minnesota receive the support they need to learn and thrive, including:

• $256 million for students with disabilities
• $192 million for students from low-income backgrounds
• $27 million for academic enrichment
• $6 million for students in rural schools
• $38 million to support children living on military bases or Native American reservations
• $100 million for Career and Technical Education workforce development programs

These investments provide critical resources for students with disabilities, early learning programs, broadband access, transportation, Career and Technical Education, and teacher training—all of which strengthen our schools, workforce, and communities.

Get your child ready for school! Early childhood screening helps you:

• See how your child is doing
• Find potential health and developmental concerns that may cause barriers to your child's learning
• Connect you and your child to programs and resources to support healthy growth and development.

Contact ECS for a FREE screening for your child age 3, 4, or 5 at ECScreening@spps.org or 651-632-3746. For more information or for translated messages, click here!

Mark your calendars: The 2025 CPA Walk/Run will be on Saturday May 17 at Phalen! And we are now accepting submissions for the CPA Walk/Run Shirt Design Contest! Anyone who is interested can submit a design. Here are the contest guidelines:

• Designs should be on plain (unlined) paper
• Designs should contain the words "CPA Walk/Run 2025."
• Artists should write their full name and their teacher's name on the back of the design
• Submit designs to either office
• Deadline: Wednesday March 26

The winner of the shirt design contest will receive a free shirt. Question? Contact Ms. Fischer (sadief@cpapk12.org or 651-280-4564).

Save the date!

CPA's 2025 Prom will take place on Saturday May 10th at the Minnesota Humanities Center in St. Paul. Stay tuned for more details!

Project Fairy Godmothers is hosting a Prom Dress Giveaway!

When: April 5th from 8am-3pm or April 6 from 9am-1pm

Where: Jimmy Lee Recreation Center, 270 Lexington Parkway N., St. Paul 55104

Participants will need to bring a current school ID or proof of 2025 enrollment and should register at one of the locations below:

• Email: projectfairygodmothers@gmail.com
• Website: projectfairygodmothers.org
• Facebook: Project Fairy Godmothers

There will be hundreds of dresses, styles, and colors to choose from, and shoes and accessories will be available to complete the outfit! Participants should wear biker shorts and a sports bra to accommodate using shared dressing rooms.

Did you know: the #1 reason people enroll at CPA is because a friend or family member recommended it?

We currently have openings, and we are offering a $50 gift card as a thank you for current CPA families who refer new families that enroll and attend CPA.

Who do you know? Tell them to check us out, and make sure they tell us you sent them!

The income tax filing season is officially open, and the Minnesota Department of Revenue has asked us to share some information with CPA families to see if you can qualify for valuable tax benefits on your 2024 income tax returns.

Child Tax Credit

• Families may qualify for a Child Tax Credit of $1,750 per qualifying child with no limit on the number of children claimed. They can receive a refund even if they do not owe tax.
• For more information visit our Child Tax Credit webpage or watch our video on the Child Tax Credit.

K-12 Credit and Subtraction

• Minnesota has two tax relief programs for families with children in kindergarten through 12th grade: the K-12 Education Subtraction and K-12 Education Credit. Both programs help lower taxes and may provide a larger refund
• For more information visit our K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit webpage or watch our video on the K-12 Education Credit and Subtraction.

Free Tax Preparation

• Families may qualify for free tax preparation through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) or AARP Tax-Aide. These programs prepare federal and state income tax and property tax refund returns.
• To find a free tax site near you visit our free tax preparation webpage.

The City of Saint Paul’s Public Works Department is exploring new ways to manage citywide snow operations to keep all streets safe and passable during the winter months. As a part of this ongoing work, Public Works announced they will pilot a weekly alternating one-sided parking cycle this season. One of the pilot areas is near CPA and may impact parking in our neighborhood between Sunday, February 2 and Saturday, April 12.

Within the pilot area, all vehicles must adhere to the weekly alternate side parking rules. During the “even” weeks, vehicles may only be parked on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses (typically located on the south and east sides of the streets). During the “odd” weeks, vehicles may only be parked on the side of the street with odd-numbered addresses (typically located on the north and west sides of the streets). Sundays are the “changeover” days.

A detailed map is below. The pilot area boundaries are Maryland Avenue to the north, Desoto Street to the east, Case Avenue to the south, and Mississippi Street to the west.

CPA partners with SchoolNow for mass communications. Here's how it works:

• In urgent situations, such as snow days, reminders about planned school closures, and unexpected incidents, we will communicate with phone calls or texts (you can choose your preferred method)

• For general communications, such as the weekly Tiger Talk newsletter and invitations for special events, we will communicate via email (you can choose to opt out of this service)

Visit the SchoolNow page to update your phone number and email address. You will need to log in with the email address or phone number that is on file with the school, because this secure system pulls family information directly from our database. If you are unable to log in, please ensure the school office has your correct contact information.

Please note that we cannot use this system to contact students directly from our database. However, families can add as many additional phone numbers as desired. If students have their own phone and/or email address and wish to receive communications, their families can add those by logging into SchoolNow.

CPA partners with a transportation management company called 4MATIV. Please call or text the transportation hotline at 651-478-2482 if you have any of the following:

• Daily transportation changes (cutoff 12pm)
• Questions about pickup or drop off
• Questions about the current location of your vehicle
• Transportation concerns

If you are planning on picking up your student early from school, you must notify the office by 2:00pm.

• PreK-8th Grade: 651-776-5151
• 9-12th Grade: 651-280-4589

To change your student's bus arrangements (either from bus to pick-up OR from pick-up to bus) you must call 651-280-4588 by 1:30pm.

After 1:30pm, staff are attending to students for end-of-day procedures and are unavailable to deliver messages to students.

We discourage parents from picking up their children ten or fifteen minutes before dismissal time. This is a valuable time when teachers are putting closure to the day and it is very distracting to the children when the classroom is receiving phone calls to have a student sent to the office. We want ALL of our students to receive the optimum learning environment and appreciate your understanding in this matter.

CPA students are expected to in uniform every day for school. Families, please help ensure your children are wearing proper uniform clothing each day.

All students must wear:

• A CPA shirt as the outermost layer
• Blue, Black, Khaki or Gray Solid Color Pants or Shorts
• OR Navy Uniform Jumper, Skirt or Skort (elementary only)

Please review the full uniform policy in our Family Handbook for further details. Thank you!

CPA partners with the Every Meal program to provide free weekend food bags for interested families. Paper registration forms are available in the office. Families can also sign up electronically by completing this form.

To learn more about the Every Meal program or to make a donation to support their work, please visit the Every Meal website.

Please let us know if your child is absent from school. Families can report absences in any of the following ways:

• Elementary School Attendance Line: 651-280-4534
• Middle School Attendance Line: 651-289-3740
• High School Attendance Line: 651-280-4535
• Email: CPAAttendance@cpapk12.org
• Attendance Online Form: Available through the CPA Website

The schoolwide Lost & Found is located in the cafeteria. Please encourage your students to check for any missing items as soon as they are lost. All items that remain in the Lost and Found on the first day of each month will be discarded or donated. Thank you!

This newsletter can be auto-translated using the buttons on the top right of the page.

If you prefer, our liaisons will be happy to translate or explain any announcements in Tiger Talk or answer any questions you have about CPA. Contact Maikao Lee at 651-280-4545 (Hmong), Mariana Majil at 651-289-3742 (Spanish), or Paw Nay Bu at 651-280-4591 (Karen) for support.

Teaching Peace. Building Community. Developing Character.

Website: cpapk12.org
Location: 471 Magnolia Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651-776-5151
Facebook: facebook.com/CPATigers