Parent Newsletter #4: 8/15/25

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 | Student Handbook

College & Career Newsletter | Athletic Newsletter

Principal: Dr. Yoshihara

Assistant Principal: Mr. Marik

Dear Highlander Families,

Thanks for a wonderful first week. Most student schedules are now in place, and we've had our first all-school assembly. Fall sport teams are just about finalized. We should be well into the groove next week as we transition into full school mode.

We invite families to consider the Fall Value Package if you plan to attend home games to see our amazing students outside of the classroom. Also, spirit wear if available on the IC store if you want to don the purple gear.

Below are some photos of the all-school assembly. We appreciate our student body for being such great participants and look forward to the Homecoming Rally in about a month. Also, a big "Thank You" to our Parent Club for the donation of the speaker/projector system which was put to the first "real" test today. It will certainly get more use throughout the year.

Warmly,

Dr. Yoshihara

August 18: Evacuation Drill (Special Schedule)

August 22: Last day to add Semester 1 class

August 22: Senior Sunrise (6:30-8 am, TBD)

August 29: ASB Friday Fest (TBD)

September 4: Back to School Night (7-9 pm)

September 5: ASB Club Day (Lunch)

September 5: Senior Picnic Fest

September 10: Photo Makeup (9-3:30, AHT Lobby)

Now that our mascot has been revealed, it needs a name. We invite our community to help us in this selection. We will begin with the solicitation of possible names and then the vote. The first part will be open to the community and the second part will be for just the student body and staff. The winner will get a special prize.

The leaders of our donors (ASB, Parent Club, Athletics, and Boosters) will review the submissions and select their top 3. Admin will then review the choices from each of the groups and create a ballot for the student body and staff to finalize the name. Let's have lots of input in our name choices!

Timeline:

August 15-August 29: Name suggestions

August 30-September 19: Top selections from donors

September 15-24: Voting by students and staff

September 26 (newsletter): Announce of name of our new mascot

Help us select a mascot name!

Since we are moving to a new tracking system for community service hours (Mobile Serve), please stop and login to your Track it Forward account now and click "export all hours" from the landing page which creates an .csv file (excel). This details each entry the student made and includes volunteer date, submitted date, hours, organization, notes, supervisor name/email. Seniors can use this information for their college application Activities section and resume updates; 11th/10th can keep the copy so they will have it for future college applications/resumes.

We will start running a Tardy report this week. Warnings and detentions will be assigned where appropriate. Remember, more than 10 tardies will impact Extracurricular Eligibility for the next reporting period. This applies to everything from sports, to dances, to theater and mock trial.

We appreciate feedback we have received regarding student schedules for our 11th and 12th graders. We will continue to work to find solutions to scheduling challenges wherever possible. There are still openings in the following electives:

1st Block - Guitar Engineering

2nd Block - A Cappella

3rd Block - Acting 2, Stage Direction, AP Computer Science Principles, Creative Writing, AP Bio, Guitar Engineering, Digital Photography

4th Block - Anatomy & Physiology, AP Seminar [late addition]

5th Block - AP Computer Science Principles, Robotics, Guitar Engineering, Dance

6th Block - Acting 1, AP Music Theory, AP Computer Science Principles

7th Block - Stage Directing/Acting 3, Dance, Stats, Art 1, AP Spanish,

• Drop-in Chromebook and tech support services are available in the PHS library on Mon-Wed-Fri during lunch.
• For urgent Chromebook help, come down to the Tech Office on the right side of the PMS library at the bottom of the ramp. Push the white buzzer. Someone is in the office MOST of the time.
• Email help@piedmont.k12.ca.us anytime with your tech questions or issues.

Please share your "First Day of School" and "Summer" photos with the PHS Yearbook Staff. These photos and any other photos throughout the year you would like to share can be sent to the following email and/or google form. Thank you!

piedmonthighyearbook@gmail.com or 2025-2026 Photos & Activities

Yearbooks and Senior Recognition Ads are only available for purchase through Jostens. Please use this link:

PHS Yearbook_Jostens Senior Recognition Ad_2026_discount

*discount pricing for yearbooks and ads applied through Oct. 31, 2025

Any questions? Please email Melanie McCauley, PHS Yearbook Adviser at mmccauley@piedmont.k12.ca.us.

(Sant Celoni, Barcelona, Valencia) Last call!!! a few spots left!!!

If your student is taking Spanish at PHS in level 3 and higher and is interested in participating in this program, here is the form to apply. We will have 19 students from Spain coming to Piedmont in February (4th-15th) and we will be traveling in April (3rd-14th). Hopefully we can reach 19 students to have a one on one experience. If you have any questions you can email me at dsahagon@piedmont.k12.ca.us

Looking for a way to volunteer? Nutrition services welcomes our parent volunteers at brunch and lunch each day in the Student Center. Not only will you be providing an important service, you will get to see many of our students in a positive way--you'll be giving them something they want (smile). You'll also get to hang out with our wonderful Nutrition Services staff! Please consider signing up with the link below. Thanks so much in advance.

Volunteer Sign Up for Food Service Shifts

We plan to enforce the requirement of all students to have tickets to home games this year. AD Small, ASB Director Adams, Mr. Marik, and myself have been finalizing how this will look. Students may purchase individual tickets to home games, but the ASB Activity Card will provide a much better value if you plan to attend any of the school athletic events. Here is what the PHS Value Package will entail:

• ASB Activity Card ($40): Access to all regular season home sports games, during school hours food giveaways, club grant support, rally giveaways. (Does not include dances or any playoff games.)
• Class Donation ($30): Donation to the class of 26, 27, 28 or 29
• Class T-Shirt ($20): Will be given to students in time for the spring rally
• TPH Subscription ($60): The ASB student package also includes a year subscription for 8 print copies of TPH ( the student news magazine) that will be mailed directly to families. Along with the print subscription, we will send email updates when new stories are published online for subscribers to read.

This package will be available in the Infinite Campus store. ASB stickers will be available near the start of the school year to affix to your child's ID card.

A shout out to our students for great work on not using their phones outside of lunch. Just a few clarifications and expectations:

• Open/free periods: If students remain on campus during their free/open periods, they should not be on their phones. We realize this may cause them to leave the campus, but it also reinforces our message that we are phone-free outside of lunch.
• Earbuds: Students are reminded that using earbuds generally means they are connected to a devices. They are welcome to bring an old school discman or even a walkman but being connected to their phone for audio/music is not permitted outside of lunch.

We have had a few inquiries regarding student planners for this year. At the start of last year, we learned that student planners were funded from an inappropriate funding source. As the planners were already purchased and the year had started, we did not change anything.

We also did an informal assessment of planner use around this time. While students used their planner earlier in the year, it trickled down to a much smaller number later in the year. We found numerous planners around campus and had many extras, signaling that students chose to not get one, since we had ordered one for every student.

As such, we made a decision to digitize the student handbook and allow students to purchase a planner that best meets their needs. Important announcement, bell schedules, and such are always available in Schoology as well. This was a challenge with the planners as schedules changed and QR codes stopped working.

We apologize for the late notice and any convenience this may have caused.

Coffee, Cars & Cops is back! Please join the Piedmont Police Department for this exciting annual event on Saturday, September 20th, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in front of the Piedmont Police Department. Please bring your family, friends, and anyone with an incredible exotic or classic vehicle. The community loves to see them on display!

To participate or show a vehicle, sign up with Ofc. Tyler Petit at coffeecarscops@piedmont.ca.gov and provide your vehicle make/model/year/color.

I’m looking forward to another amazing event with the community! See you there!

Thank you!!

Officer T. Petit #116

Piedmont Police Department

Boosters largest fundraiser Oktoberfest is set for Saturday October 4, 4-9PM at the Community Hall (same setup as last year). Tickets can be purchased at PiedmontOktoberfest.com .

Please review the entire student handbook (also will be a permanent link at the top of the newsletter) closely and note updates to the following policies:

• PHS Honor Society and Volunteer hours tracking
• Excused vs. Unexcused Absences
• Extracurricular Eligibility

Some important excerpts are below:

You will receive an email soon inviting you to the Mobileserve platform. Go here for more information.

Excused Absences

Absence from school shall be excused only for health reasons, family emergencies and justifiable personal reasons, as permitted by law, Board policy and administration regulations as outlined in PUSD BP5113.

College visits, outside sports, and trips for outside organizations are not excusable.

Short-Term Independent Study

If students are to miss school for reasons that are unexcused, they may apply for short-term independent study. There is a 15 day limit per school for this structure. If work is completed as outlined in the process, the student will not be coded as absent and will maintain academic standing and extracurricular eligibility. The process is outlined here.

Extracurricular Eligibility

24 or more total absences (excused and or/unexcused) may trigger an attendance review by an administrator. 24 period absences is approximately 5 days of school. Missing 5 or more days per quarter will mean a student has met the Federal threshold for Chronic Absenteeism. An attendance review may lead to extracurricular ineligibility pending circumstances.

Thank you to all our freshman families to were able to make it to the orientation--students in the afternoon and parents in the evening. We are so excited to welcome you officially on Monday. I have attached the slide deck and other resources below. We will have folks available on Monday to support and your freshman can get donuts (or donut holes) at the main entrance on Monday morning starting at 8:10 am. Please reach out if you have any questions.

• Freshman Parent Orientation Video (large file)
• Freshman Parent Orientation Slide Deck

Piedmont Community Service Crew is a youth-led organization in Piedmont that hosts a variety of service events every week from cooking to building tiny houses to environmental work. They are hosting a Kickoff on August 23rd from 4-6pm. Interested students (and parents) can fill out the form below or email Elena (26elenaoc@piedmont.k12.ca.us) or Stephanie (26stephaniele@piedmont.k12.ca.us) for more information.

Student Interest Form

So proud of our seniors for showing up this past Wednesday for 3 hours of "Boot Camp". We had a great turnout (about 60 students) for this inaugural event. We plan to continue this next year, hopefully at the end of the school year, giving students the summer to get a jump start on this.

We know library hours are limited and will be working to increase library access. We just wanted students and families to know how it will be as we start the year.

We have attempted to synthesize all of the start-of-the year donation requests in a single location. We know that the Education Foundation and Parent Club do yeoman's work in providing resources above and beyond state-allocated resources. We are truly grateful for their support. We also have exemplary programs that exist from additional donations.

Our teachers and respective programs (Athletics, ASB, TPH, etc.) truly appreciate these additional donations. They can be made within the School Store of Infinite Campus. Each of these items have specific account strings so they will go directly to the program/item(s) for which you've made the donation.

We have provided a brief description of what the donation will be used for without being overly detailed. We invite families who may have questions related to this to come to Walk Through registration where we will have people who can provide further information.

2025-26 PHS School Store Suggested Donations

I plan to offer student generated music on Fridays at lunch near the student center. Students may submit song requests using the following form. I will compiled the list by Thursday each week and play the top 20 or so submissions each week. Some guidances for songs:

1. The "playlist" will contain 20 or so rotating songs each week, based on student input.
2. Songs may not contain explicit lyrics.
3. Entrants must be current PHS/MHS students.
4. Students are allowed to make one entry per day.
5. I plan on the list to be "rolling" so songs can move up or down, based on demand/submissions.
6. I reserve the right to add yacht rock (e.g. Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross) if the list is not filled out. 🤐

We wanted to give our families a heads up regarding attendance at home games. Last year, we offered a value package (see above) for purchase which allowed students to attend all home games for free. This system was not fully formed and hence not enforced. Since then, we have put in the systems to implement it in the current year.

What this means:

• Students who come to a home game may show the ASB "sticker" affixed to their student body card. This will admit them into all home games.
• Playoff games are not included in this.
• Students in grades 6-12 may attend home games without a parent/guardian, unless it becomes a problem.
• Students who do not have a sticker may purchase individual home game tickets for $5.
• Playoff game prices vary and are determined partially by NCS.

Please direct additional questions to AD Small or myself. Thanks for your flexibility as we adjust to this change.

We will offer the following college entrance exams next school year. The dates are still tentative but we want to get information out to you know for planning purposes. All orders will be made through Infinite Campus School Store which can be done when the school year starts next year. If you have any questions, please reach out to Mr. Marik

• Pre-ACT - Saturday, 10/4/25 (confirmed)
• PSAT - Saturday, 10/18/25 (new date)
• SAT - Monday, 3/16/26 (still tentative)

The California Education Code requires the school site council to develop a Single Plan for Student Achievement. The purpose of the Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) is to create a cycle of continuous improvement of student performance, and to ensure that all students succeed in reaching academic standards set by the State Board of Education.

The PHS Site Council serves as a forum where school staff, parents, and students can discuss a variety of issues that affect student performance at Piedmont High School. To support focus in the area of curriculum, agendas are typically developed in order to coincide with the curricular areas that are up for adoption.

If you are willing and able to join us on the school site council for this coming year, please email me. We meet roughly four times a year (fifth meeting may be added). I will then see if an election is needed and if so, put that out in a future newsletter. Parents and students are welcomed to apply.

• A shout out to Barbara, Michelle, and Jenny for giving out donuts on the Last First Day for seniors. Such a wonderful tradition, and I'm sure our seniors appreciate the love!
• Kudos to our freshmen parents for matching the seniors parents with First First day for all our freshman. Special thanks to Julia, Amelie, and Susan for their leadership on this.