Chugach Families,
Here we are heading into the final month of the 2022-2023 school year, and I would just like to say it has been a privilege getting to know all the wonderful students and families this year. Along with this being a fantastic year, we are saying goodbye to both Teresa and Yuki as they pursue other priorities in life. Both of them will be dearly missed next year. For upper students, we were lucky to be able to hire Kris Hinrichsen, who comes to us from the Chinook Open Optional Program. Kris is also a parent of one of our current kindergarteners, so he comes to us with an optional background and has experienced our school's values and philosophy as a parent (and now a teacher).
The job posting for our school secretary position is on the ASD website and is open to applicants within and outside of the school district. If you or someone you know would like to apply for the position, please encourage them to do so. I hope to fill this position by the end of the school year, but the process may go into the summer.
Also, if you have been following any of the local news lately, you will have noticed a large increase in the use of Fentanyl both here in Anchorage and in the Valley. Specifically, the Anchorage School District has had ten high school students experience overdoses in the last month. Five of those ten were within the past two weeks. In response, ASD has provided principals and nurses with some information to share with families regarding the dangers of Fentanyl. I have asked Nurse Maya to share some of the information and links to some of the videos in her section of this issue of The Scoop. Please take some time to review the literature and videos and decide if you would like to share this with your child(ren). The target audience for some of the videos is for 6th-12th grades, but there are videos that would be age appropriate for younger students. One of the scariest things about Fentanyl is that young school-age children can mistakingly take pills that contain Fentanyl. These pills look like candy (bright colors, similar look, and size to Skittles), so I feel, as a parent myself, that this would be a topic I would seriously consider sharing with my son if he were still school-age.
As many of you know, if you have been to any of the last few CAM meetings, Chugach Optional, as well as all elementary schools, needs to make sure our overall school has a 25:1 student-to-teacher ratio. This does not mean that all classes will be at a 25:1 ratio. Some will be less than that number, some will be at that number, and some may be slightly over that number. We will not have the large class sizes that you currently see in neighborhood schools, but it does mean that I need to increase our student population. To do that, I will not only need to accept more students in during the lottery process, but I will need to also go through our waitlist and possibly the fall lottery as well. This will also mean that I cannot have class lists developed and ready until July or early August. Please be patient with this, and know that the front office staff and I will work with teachers to make student placement is equitable and try to honor parent suggestions.
Lastly, Chugach Optional will be having our front vestibule and office redesigned over the summer. This is part of the school district's plan to update all elementary school’s secure entrances. We are hoping this will be completed by July 25th, but there is a good chance that the project timeline will be extended. If that is the case, we will use the 12th Avenue entrance until our front vestibule is completed. I will keep you all posted on this issue.
Joel
