Parent Letter

“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.”

~Sundar Pichai

Happy Sunday Ochoa Families,

Last week we kicked off our Ochoa Monster Book Bash Read-A-Thon. Can we get students to read for 50K minutes and collect $15K for our marquee at the same time? New update: Now Ms. Ilankoon's class is in the lead for minutes read and Ms. Kean's 6th period is still leading for donations. So far 13,590 minutes read and $250 collected. Families, we appreciate your support!

Also last week, our Leadership class, under the direction of Ms. Haynes, hosted their first event for the 2026-27 school year. The Halloween Carnival was a huge success. I loved the activities and the students had a blast! A special thank you to everyone who lendt a hand, Ms. Hiester, Mr. Ferreira, Mr. Estacio, Ms. Andrews, face painting booth, Ms. Kean Boo pops, Ms. Carpenter's Guessing game (great integration of math), Ms. Lewis and Ms. Pisa for the Pumpkin toss game and our Leadership teacher and students with other fun games, and the featured musical chairs. We saw you out there getting your groove on Ms. Sheve with the kiddos. Thank you to families for the candy donations we appreciate you stepping in to help where ever you can. Kudos to everyone for a job well done!

As October and Filipino History month comes to a close, our SBDM team discussed the possibility of doing a tasting with the help of the Mondoy family (Ruth and Rob Mondoy). Well its here, on Thursday, November 5th we will have a Taste of the Philippines during the lunch hour. Seafood City Grill will be donating Shanghai lumpia, Turon, and Halo- Halo for students. Not to worry, there is a staff treat in there also. We may need your help with distribution, please let me know if you are willing to volunteer at lunch Thursday. Thank you all in advance :-) A special thank you and shout out to the Seafood City Grill for your donations and the Mondoy Family for volunteering your time!

2nd Quarter is here! It's a chance at a fresh start. As a reminder to students and families, that placement for the next year is just around the corner. Student success during the first semester of the year (Qtr & Qtr2) is the determining factor. Soon (Jan/Feb) our high school counselors will be meeting with our 8th graders to start programing/planning for their freshman year in high school. It seems far off, but its not really. If your student needs support, our teachers have office hours at lunch and after school; tutoring is available on campus. Our YEP program continues to accept new students. The first hour of the program is H/W club and every Thursday, they do a more intensive Study Hall, pulling student outstanding assignments from Infinite Campus to make sure they are completing them.

Pro Parent Tip: Parents at the end of the school day your student's assignments should be written in their school planner. Ask them to see the planner and if they completed their assignments. If they say yes... go the next step and ask to see the completed work. When I was raising my children this extra question went a long way in our communication about their role in their education.

As a reminder, I'd like to address concerns about parking lot safety for our students. We are noticing there are many occasions where families are disregarding the posted traffic signage. For example: no left turn and or u-turns in the main parking lot. In the rear parking lot, we are seeing families enter at speeds that exceed the 5 mph allowed, failure to follow arrows for the flow of traffic and yield to pedestrians. These are basic rules of the road intended to keep our students safe. This presents a huge safety concern for our students and staff. We want to avoid any tragic situations at all costs. Please drive with care for the safety of our students and staff. *If you have teens doing pick up an drop off please talk with them about these important safety concerns.

*NOTE: Parents must pick students up within 15 min of school events ending times.

Thank you all for your partnership. I know it will be a great year!

Warmly submitted,

~Ms. Rowe-Andrews, Principal

📚📕📗Most Minutes Read: Ms. Ilankoon's Class - 2nd place Mr. Tañada

💵💵💵 Most Donations: Ms. Kean's 6th period Class

📗📕📚KEEP READING!!!📚📕📗

We are excited to announce our Monster Book Bash Read-a-thon! This fun, schoolwide event is designed to encourage our students to read more while raising money for a new school marquee. We are looking forward to celebrating our students’ love of reading and rewarding their hard work along the way!

How the Read-a-Thon Works

For two weeks, students will track the time they spend reading stories in English class, in another class, or at home. Our goal is to encourage students to build strong reading habits while working together to support our school.

A few important guidelines:

• Students should read stories, books, or other narrative texts—not textbooks or informational textbook material.
• Students will record their reading minutes using the Minutes Read Form, found in their ELA Google Classroom.
• Each entry must include the student’s name, English teacher, class period, date, minutes read, and a short summary of what they read that day.
• Students will select their reading time from the multiple-choice options of 5–30 minutes, in 5-minute increments.

Please remind your student to record their reading regularly and include a brief summary of their story each time.

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal

Our school goal is to raise $15,000 for a new marquee and read a combined 50,000 minutes!

Important donation information: Donations are a flat amount and are not based on the number of minutes a student reads.

To make sure all donations are recorded and credited correctly, families must use our Donation Form first. You can find it by clicking on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/mw75nmns. Be sure to complete the form and click Submit. The confirmation page will then provide a link to make your donation through our PayPal site.

Using the Donation Form is very important because it provides the information needed to sort and track donations correctly.

Prizes and Rewards

We have some exciting incentives to motivate our readers!

• Bark Bucks: Every student will earn 1 Bark Buck for every $10 raised.
• Top Reader: The student who reads the most minutes will receive a $25 gift card of their choice.
• Top Fundraiser: The student who raises the most money will receive a $25 gift card of their choice.
• Classroom Rewards: The class with the highest average reading minutes and the class with the highest average amount raised will each earn a sweet treat party of their choosing.
• School-wide Celebration: If we reach both our goals of $15,000 raised and 50,000 minutes read, the entire school will celebrate with an ice cream sundae party!

Thank you for supporting our students, encouraging reading at home, and helping us work toward a new school marquee. Every minute read and every donation brings us one step closer to our goals!

Let's make this year's Monster Book Bash Read-a-thon a monstrous success!

Happy Reading!

Here is where we are:

Goal 98% ~ CurrentOverall= 94.07%🔻🔻

7th grade= 94.17%🔻

8th grade= 93.95% 🔺

*We have lots of work to do to reach our goal of 98%. Please let us know how we might help with issues around attendance. There are district resources that help, please let us know.

In Person Support:

Hayward Public Library, Downtown (C Street), location Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 3-6:00 PM.

For more information, please contact Kohella Lane at 510-881-7953

kohella.lane@hayward-ca.gov

On-line support:

Tutor.com

Tutor.com provides on-demand tutoring, homework help, test preparation and writing assistance for students in grades K-12 in over 40 subjects. Live tutors are available from 1:00 pm - 10:00 pm. You can also use their practice quizzes and SkillsCenter Resource Library to study 24/7.

Easy Access from Home or School

1. Go to the tutor.com page.
2. Enter your library card number and tutor.com password (allows you to save your study sessions, favorite tutors, and more).
3. Select your homework subject and grade level.
4. Connect to a tutor in an online classroom.

There are spaces left in our YEP program, do not miss out...Our Youth Enrichment Program also known as Y.E.P. is our after school program, run by our Site Coordinator Mr. Ryan Edmonson.

Please click the link to sign up/register (English/Español) . Click the button below to sign up.

*YEP FREE after school support for students M,T,Th,F from 3:15-6PM and Wed. from 1:30-6PM

All last week Ochoa's teams hosted try outs for the following teams:

7th/8th grade Girls- Coaches: Mr. Ryan/Mr. Keysch Game time: 11/4 @3:30PmM

7th Grade Boys - Coach: Mr. R. Singh Game time: 11/4 @ 5:30PM

8th Grade Boys - Coches: Ms. Larkins/Ms. Croft / Mr. Burton Game time: 11/4 @4:30PM

Practices will continue on Monday & Tuesday of this week. Wednesday is game day @ Sunset

*Students may not arrive more than 15 minutes ahead of game time.

Families, when students are attending the games as both athletes and spectators, we must make a few requests:

First and foremost, we want to remind you that the responsibility of the school athletics program in addition to exposing students to multiple sports, it is to teach students discipline, sportsmanship, responsibility, and accountability. *Families, please remember to model the pro-social behaviors that we want and expect to see from our students athletes when attending our games and other school functions. Parents you are our student's first teachers.

• Please review these expectations with your students.
• Students and families attending school events are expected to uphold the appropriate conduct of sportsmanship at all times.
• Student athletes are required to maintain a min. of 2.0 GPA; counselors review weekly
• Students not in attendance at school for the day are not authorized to attend.
• All student athletes and spectators, may arrive to the games 15 minutes prior; there is no adult supervision before that time. *unless specified by the coach in attendance. Ex: game starts at 3:30PM, arrival time is 3:15.
• All student attendees must be picked up promptly after the game ends to ensure their safety.
• Students on suspension may not attend any school events or be on any school campus during a suspension.
• Students who did not attend school may not attend or participate in any school related event activity or sporting event.
• Two-sport athletes have a responsibility to complete what they started. This is a commitment expected in high school, collegiate, and professional sports programs. If your student is enrolled in multiple sports, remind them if they are to continue, they must finish what they started with the current season.

Does your student require public transportation? If you would like to apply for a free AC transit card for your student please click the link below. This is not transportation specific to students with IEPs, but is available for ALL students.

SCHOOL SUCCESS IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO GOOD ATTENDANCE. Ochoa strives for a 98+% attendance rate for our students each year. Poor performance in the classroom is often the result of poor attendance. If students are to achieve maximum value from their middle school education, 100% attendance is the goal. Did you know that the state of California only allows students to be absent, with *valid excuse for less than 10% of the year?

*valid excuses for absences from school are:

• Illness or quarantine
• Medical, dental, or optometry appointments

• Religious Requests, upto one per quarter with prior written notice and approval
• Attendance at funeral services for a member of the immediate family

California law requires all students 6 to 18 years old are required to attend school on time and regularly. Cal. Ed. Code § 48200.

A child is habitually truant if, without valid excuse, they are:

• Absent for three days in a single school year,
• Absent or tardy more than 30 minutes three times in a year,
• Any combination of the above. Cal. Ed. Code § 48260(a).

A child is chronically truant if they have missed 10 percent of the school year. Cal. Ed. Code § 48263.6.

Parents must Report Absences-Please call us!: All absences must be cleared by a phone call or a note within 72 hours of the absence from a parent/guardian to the attendance office (510 723-3130 Ext. 43111). When absences are not cleared in this manner the family can expect to receive a call from our office or automated phone system.

Monday, November 2, 2026

• Ochoa's Monster Bash Read-A-Thon Updates; Who is in the lead?
• Football Pizza Party, Lunch time

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

• Election Day- Be sure to Vote!!!!
• Puente Field Trip, ShoreLine, 9-1:30PM
• Parent Nutrition Class, 9AM

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

• Faculty Meeting, Library @ 1:45PM
• Ochoa Basketball v King MS @Sunset
• Girls @3:30PM
• 8th grade Boys@4:30PM
• 7th grade Boys@5:30PM

Thursday, November 5, 2026

• A Taste of the Philippines (Seafood Grill Donations) @ lunchtime
• SBDM Mtg, 3PM- Meeting Agenda (in progress)
• District Advisory Committee, 5-8PM

Friday, November 6, 2026

• Assembly Schedule Today, Bikes, E-Bike and Scooter Safety-9AM 8th grade, and 10AM 7th grade
• IEP Mtg, 10AM

Looking Ahead

• Canned Food Drive Kick Off
• Parent Nutrition Classes, 9AM
• COST 1PM
• IEP Mtg, 2:30PM
• LCC 3:30PM
• Equity Oversight Committee Mtg, 5PM

Wednesday, November 10, 2026

• Superintendent Site Visit 8:45AM

Wednesday, November 11, 2026

• Veterans Day observed- No School

Wednesday, November 18, 2026

• School-Wide field trip: Mama Mia @ HUSD PAC
• School Board Meeting, 6:30PM

Thursday, November 19, 2026

• Ochoa Parent Day-ScreenAgers film #1, 8:30AM; Parents Shadow 4th Pd

Thanksgiving Break

• 11/23-11/27/2026

Thursday, December 3, 2026 (Tentative)

• ELAC/Virtual Summit K12 Night: ELL Students/Families, 5:30PM RSPV Required (Dinner provided)

Website: https://ochoa.husd.us
Location: 2121 Depot Road, Hayward, CA
Instagram: coming soon

Facebook: coming soon
Twitter: coming soon