The Scoop

Dear Chugach families,

As we go into October, it’s hard to believe we are nearly done with the first quarter of the school year. I want to thank all the families and students for helping to make the start of this year a positive and productive one. This is also the time of year when our weather can become a little unpredictable, so please make sure your student(s) have the proper gear for going outside no matter what the conditions are.

This month we will be having the first of many wonderful traditions at Chugach when we kick things off with our Fall Carnival on 10/19/24. If you haven’t experienced this event, don’t miss out on it this year!

Have a great month, everyone, and I look forward to seeing you around the building.

Joel

Tuesday, October 1- Friday, October 4 - No hot lunches @ Chugach, snack packs only

Wednesday, October 2 - Flag Football Jamboree @ Trailside (3:45pm-5:00pm)

Friday, October 4 - Parent Coordinator Meeting (8:30am in Seed Lab), Chicken Club Meeting (3:00pm in Angie's Room, Grades 3-6)

Monday, October 7 - CEC Board Meeting (3:00pm in Art/Health Room)

Tuesday, October 8 - Community Assembly Meeting (6:00pm on Zoom)

Wednesday, October 9 - Jihee FG Field trip (8:45am-11:00am); Else FG Field trip (12:15pm - 2:00pm); Weekend Chicken Care meeting (3:00pm by the coop; K-2 families)

Friday, October 11 - EARLY RELEASE DAY (Dismissal @ 11:15am)

Monday, October 14 - Indigenous People's Day - NO SCHOOL

Thursday, October 17 - Middle Portfolio Share (8:10am-9:00am)

Friday, October 18 - In-Service Day - NO SCHOOL

Saturday, October 19 - Fall Carnival (3pm-5pm)

Monday, October 21 - Primary Learning Celebration/Portfolio Share (8:10am-8:50am)

Tuesday, October 22 - Primary Learning Celebration/Portfolio Share (8:10am-8:50am)

Wednesday, October 23 - Primary Learning Celebration/Portfolio Share (8:10am-8:50am); Parent Teacher conferences; EARLY RELEASE DAY @11:15am, Gear Swap 12pm-4pm

Thursday, October 24 - Parent Teacher conferences; EARLY RELEASE DAY @11:15am, Gear Swap 12pm-4pm

Friday, October 25 - In-Service Day - NO SCHOOL

The lunchroom is one of the busiest places in our school, especially as we try to feed 278 students between 11:25am and 12:30pm! To help things run smoothly, we'd like to mention a few items:

1. If students are having "School" or "Hot" lunch, they must let their teacher know in the morning or tell Phellisha or Carrie when they arrive after 8:20am. This is the only way that our Cafeteria Manager, Makoto, knows how many lunches to prepare. When more students take hot lunches than there are lunches prepared, we run into slow downs as students have to wait for Makoto to heat up additional lunches and then they run out of time to eat before the next group of students arrive for lunch. Please help us by reminding your student(s) to let teacher or the front desk know if they are having school lunch. THANK YOU!!!

2. We only have one microwave available for students in the lunch room to heat up their food from home. With so many students bringing lunches to heat for more than 1-2 minutes we are finding students still waiting to heat their food up when the lunch period is over and the next group of kids are arriving to the lunchroom. Please consider sending students to school with a cold lunch or with hot food items kept warm in a thermos.

PLEASE NOTE: Makoto, our cafeteria manager, will be away from Tuesday, October 2 through Friday, October 4th. There is no substitute cafe manager available to fill her role while she is away. As a result, there will be no hot lunch service at Chugach on the dates above. We will have the shelf-stable snack paks and shelf-stable milk available for all students at no charge.

More information about school lunches can be found on the Chugach Optional "Lunch Information" page.

Head Lice: A Friendly Reminder about an itchy subject…..Head Lice 🐜

• Remind children to not share: hats, scarves, clothing and/or hairbrushes with their friends

• If you notice your child itching their head, or if you notice sores (caused by scratching) please check their head and hair

• If you find head lice on your child notify Nurse Maya

• If you are unsure, Nurse Maya is happy to check your child's hair for you 🙂

Head lice are a nuisance, but they're not dangerous, they don't spread disease, and they are not a sign of poor hygiene. Please see this link for more detailed suggestions for handling head lice—so we can stay ahead of potential cases in the future.

ASD OCTOBER FLU CLINIC 💉🦠

In an effort to support our community and families, ASD is planning to provide flu clinics again this year during parent teacher conferences on October 23rd and 24th. Select Middle and High Schools will be hosting flu clinics from 1:00pm-8:00pm. Look out for more details soon.

Air-Awareness

We wanted to share that Chugach has staff that suffer from Fragrance Sensitivity. A fragrance sensitivity can come from a variety of everyday items including but not limited to toiletries, cosmetics, air fresheners, cleaning products, laundry detergents, and pesticides. Although, different than an allergy the symptoms it can cause impact learning and working. This information is being shared to bring awareness to our community. More information can be found here: https://www.asdk12.org/Page/3096

The days are getting shorter, the leaves are turning and there's snow on the mountains; It's Fall Ya'll. Time to break out those warm sweaters and chunky scarves and come to the Chugach Optional Fall Carnival. There will be games and prizes, the legendary 6th Grade Haunted House, a cake walk, a pot-luck snack bar, popcorn, cotton candy, a puppet show, Kid-ergarten baby goat petting zoo and more! Wristbands are $5 a person or $20 max per family.

Chugach Optional students go outside for morning and lunch time recess in almost all weather. The only exception is when the outdoor temperature falls below -10F. Please make sure your student(s) come to school with the appropriate outdoor gear and encourage them to go outside with all their gear on.

Nurse Maya has extra winter gear available to loan out to students when it is forgotten at home. We would like to build up a supply of loaner rain weather gear as well. If your family has outgrown raincoats or rubber boots you would like to donate to Chugach, please see Maya.

There will be a Chugach Chicken Club meeting after school on Friday, October 4th. Chicken Club members (grades 3-6) are encouraged to attend. This meeting will last about 30 minutes and will be held in Angie's classroom.

K-2 families who would like to be involved in Chugach Chicken care: We would love to have you involved in weekend chicken care! We will be having a quick 30 minute meeting after school on Wednesday, October 9th for K-2 families who would like to learn the ropes. We will meet at the coop. Caring for the chickens is an easy and fun thing to do, and the youngers love being involved!

Questions? Stop in to talk with Angie in her family group

or email Angie: riley_angie@asdk12.org

Our Lost & Found collection has been growing fast in the last few weeks! We currently have over 50 coats, jackets, hoodies and sweaters hanging on the hooks, plus items on the shelves. We will have tables out during the Parent-Teacher conference days (10/23 & 10/24) with items spread out for finding. Any items not claimed by October 25th will be donated to our New Hope Neighbors. Please take a few moments and look through the lost and found to see if there are any items belonging to your family.

Parent-Teacher conferences will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th. On both of these days, students will be released at 11:15am (please be sure to have your pick-up plan in place!).

The Online Conference Scheduler will be available for parents to schedule a meeting time starting on Tuesday, October 15th. More information on how to set up your parent-teacher meeting will be sent out on that day.

Welcome to our library!!!

For over 50 years, our library has been the heart of Chugach.

I am honored to be a part of our Chugach philosophy and history.

When I say ‘our library’, that is exactly what I mean.

If you would like to open a library account for you or a younger sibling,

please come and see me!

My ‘Checking Out Books’ Philosophy

I feel strongly about having books in students’ hands. When students ask how many books they can check out, I ask them what they think is appropriate for them and their family plan. Each family is different so each student has a different plan. Please talk with your child(ren) about your family library plan – how many library books can be checked out at a time, how library books travel to and from school (in a bag is really important with all of this rain!), where the books are kept at home and if a book is lost or ruined, how it will be replaced. I honor your family decisions. Please feel free to share these plans with me. Thank you for talking about this responsibility with your child(ren).

Rock the Vote for our ‘Candy-date’!

In library, we are beginning our learning about the election process through 'Rock the Vote for our Candy-date'. Our focus is the election process and understanding that every vote counts! We will not be sharing personal/family thoughts about current local or national candidates. If this is brought up, I will stop that part of the conversation and say that it is a family conversation.

Last week favorite candies were nominated.

This week we will vote in our Primary to decide who will be on our election ballot.

In the weeks to come, we will be engaging in creating persuasive, positive posters and speeches for campaigning.

Our goal is to have our election results announced Nov 6th.

Any questions or thoughts, please feel free to connect with me in the library or email me: brabec_amy@asdk12.org

Many thanks!

Amy

We had a great first Community Assembly Meeting of the year, "Introduction to Chugach." We had breakout sessions on the following four topics:

● What is the CEC and how do we spend money?

● Chugach Culture

● Family Participation and Events

● Learning and Assessment at Chugach

If you missed the meeting, you can find the meeting minutes and links to presentations or documents from each breakout sessions here: https://www.chugachcommunity.org/meeting-minutes

Thank you to the teachers who helped to plan and/or facilitate the breakout sessions: Celeste, Genie, Else, Jihee, Kris, Amy and Mikelle. We appreciate you donating your time to make this community wonderful.

Thank you to all of the families who came to the event! It is your participation that makes this school special.

October's Community Assembly Meeting will be on Zoom and will cover multiple topics including:

● Big Simple Updates

• How much have we raised and how much more do we need?
• How have teachers spent Big Simple funds so far this year?

● Upcoming Events

• Fall Carnival
• Auction

● Other Items

• After School Care survey results and next steps in the process

We hope to see you there on Zoom, Tuesday, October 8, 6 p.m. We will send the Zoom link before the meeting!

We would like to congratulate Yuna Ha, Yunnie Jang and Luna Lee for completing the ASD English Language Learners Program. Pictured with the students is Principal Joel and ELL Tutor Miss Sara.

Our fall picture day went great, and we got some amazing student, staff and class photos. Picture re-takes will be on November 4th for those who either missed the first day or are unsatisfied with the ones they already got. If you have any questions about pictures or need help with ordering, please ask Phellisha in the front office and she can help you or put you in touch with Lifetouch to assist you further.

BAWK, BAWK, BAWK! Do we have your attention?! We only have two weeks left of our Big Simple fundraiser and we are still pecking away at our goal! Have you contributed yet? If not, please hatch a plan to donate!

There are so many egg-straordinary ways that Big Simple supports our teachers and students, including theme-based project supplies and study materials, field trips, or classroom enhancements. The suggested donation is $125 per student. Head over here to learn more about Big Simple and make your contribution. Big Simple runs through Friday, Oct. 11.

The CEC is organized under IRS code section 501(c)3 as a tax-exempt public charity. Your donation to the Big Simple is tax deductible. The Chugach Educational Corporation Tax ID Number is 92-0156985. Don’t forget to ask your employer if they will match your donation!

Parents/Guardians must call the Attendance Line by 9:15 a.m. when their child will not be at school for the day. Please provide the following information on the attendance line:

Student name

Parent/Guardian Name

Reason for Absence

If your child’s absence is not called in by 9:15am or if a reason for the absence is not provided, parents/guardians will receive an automated ASD phone call regarding their unexcused absence.

Excused Absences: Absences may be excused for health reasons (including medical appointments), family emergencies, participation in religious activities, or other reasons as approved by the principal. If no reason is given the absence will be considered unexcused.

Pre-Arranged Absences: If you know your child will be out for longer than a few days please fill out a Pre-Arranged Absence Form, available in the Front Office. Travel/Vacation is generally considered a Pre-arranged Unexcused Absence (unless otherwise determined by the principal).

Late arrivals: Students are considered Tardy if arrival at school is between 8:20am -9:10am. Arrival after 9:10am is considered a morning absence. Please be sure to check in with the office when arriving after 8:20am to let them know you are here and to have your school lunch counted.

All schools must perform the drills listed below, per ASD Board Policy 6114, federal and state laws.

Types of Drills

Drop, Cover & Hold on (Earthquake)

Two per school year, due by:

• October 17th (Mandatory - Great Alaska Shakeout)

• March 6th

Evacuation (Fire) each calendar month of the school year

Violent intruder, Active Shooter (ALICE - Interior)

Once per quarter with no drill fourth quarter, due by:

• September 30 - Full ALICE evacuation to rally point or secondary location, barricade discussion.

• December 6 - Full ALICE Barricade with discussion - Counter

• March 6 - School choice ALICE Drill (see options - Drills Read Me)

Lock-down (Exterior Attacker)

Once, due first semester

Stay Put

Once, due first semester

Shelter-in-place (volcano, hazmat, etc.)

Tabletop exercise, once per school year

Chugach Optional has already completed our August and September Evacuation Drills, our first quarter ALICE Drill and our yearly Lockdown and Stay-put drills.

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.

End-of-Day Pick-up

• If you are waiting at the curb during pick-up, please pull forward as far as possible to allow other vehicles to enter the line. Cars should never be unattended in the fire lane. This is a safety issue and we appreciate your help.

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.

Opportunities

• We are in need of Noon Duty attendants to assist with outdoor recess and lunch room supervision. Please go to the ASD website to apply or ask for more details at the front office.

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