Parent Newsletter #16: 11/7/25

Website | Phone: (510) 594-2626

Location: 800 Magnolia Ave, Piedmont, CA 94611
Instagram: @piedmonthigh

Parent Newsletter: Archives | Parent Club

Bell Schedule (Regular) | Library Schedule

Road to Graduation | Athletic Newsletter

College & Career Newsletter | Yearbook Info

2025-26 School Profile | Student Handbook

Principal: Dr. Yoshihara | Asst. Principal: Mr. Marik

Dear Highlander Families,

Thank you to all that were able to come out to Community College Night this past Tuesday. Our attendance continues to increase for this event, and we find it a valuable experience for our community.

The AP ordering deadline is today. After that prices will go up. Please order tonight to take advantage of the best pricing. Full information is below.

We invite our families to come enjoy the fall theater performance (more information below) of Noises Off. We have four performances this year so let's pack the house each night. You'll be amazed.

Lastly, we do have school on Monday (Tuesday schedule) followed by a day off on Tuesday. We honor all those that have served our country, past and present.

Warmly,

Dr. Yoshihara

November 7: Regular deadline for AP Ordering (info below)

November 10: Tuesday Bell Schedule

November 11: Veteran's Day [District Holiday]

November 13: Boosters Meeting (7 pm, Student Center)

November 14: Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day (7:45-8:15 am, Piedmont Park)

November 14: Parent's Club Meeting (9 am via Zoom only)

November 17: Additional College Admissions Workshop (6-8 pm, Library)

December 1: Incoming 9th Grade Orientation Night (6:30-8 pm, AHT)

December 3: Incoming 9th Grade Course Selection (Academy, AHT)

December 8: World Languages Singing Competition

December 8: Incoming 10th-12th Grade Course Selection Night (6:30 pm, AHT)

Piedmont High School’s Advanced Acting class is thrilled to present the comedy Noises Off, by Michael Frayn.

Four-time nominee of best play, Noises Off is considered one of the best farces ever written. The shows are set for Thursday, November 13th through Sunday November 16th.

Noises Off is a hilarious backstage comedy about a small theater company struggling to put on a play. The chaotic play-within-a-play gives the audience a glimpse of what putting on a show is like, from a shaky tech rehearsal to performances on a tour that completely fall apart. Forgotten lines, misplaced props, slamming doors and messy relationships ultimately lead to total chaos.

Showtimes

*Sardines Cast Thursday, November 13th @ 7pm

**Doors Cast Friday, November 14th @ 7pm

*Sardines Cast Saturday, November 15th @ 7pm

**Doors Cast Sunday, November 16th @ 5:30pm

*Sardines Cast includes Ali Atanasio, Collin Cameron, Trenton Downing, Kirstin Fedor, Theo Ferguson, Dinar Kidane, Sparrow Lieu, Matias Seelenberger and Sadie Shoop.

**Doors Cast includes Amelia Addington, Chaz Amit-Guite, Sacha Andrews, Elisha Bell, Caleb Canada, Yiyou Fang, Declan Murphy, Lila Schwab, and Benjamin Wakefield.

All shows are at Alan Harvey Theatre at Piedmont High School, 800 Magnolia Avenue, Piedmont CA 94611

Tickets can be purchased at phsacting.ludus.com

($10 for Students & $18 for General Admission online.)

Noises Off contains humor about sexual innuendos, and is a slapstick comedy that would be most appropriate for ages 10 and up. For more information or questions about content, please contact director Kimberly Taylor at ktaylor@piedmont.k12.ca.us

Our next Parents' Club meeting will be on Friday, November 14, from 9:00-10:30am via Zoom only. The change in venue (from the Alan Harvey Theater lobby to Zoom) was in response to a request that some parents may not be able to attend physically on Friday mornings, but may have the flexibility to join remotely. Our featured guest speaker will be Officer Hugo Diaz from the Piedmont Police Department. Please join us. Here are the Zoom link and agenda:

PHS Parents' Club Meeting - November 14, 2025, 9:00-10:30am

Zoom Only

Join Zoom Meeting
https://sfsu.zoom.us/j/85158489940?pwd=Ib4m7rZAFdCpUkXQrIEEEbaZzuZvha.1

Meeting ID: 851 5848 9940
Passcode: 187364
-------------------------------------
One tap mobile
+13092053325,,85158489940# US
+13126266799,,85158489940# US (Chicago)

Agenda

I. Welcome

II. Approval of October 27, 2025 Minutes - Vote

III. Announcements/Reminders

A. December Meeting

B. Teacher Grants

C. Giving Campaign Update

D. Restorative Justice Circle Keeper Training on 11/3

IV. Administrative Staff Report - Dr. Yoshihara and Mr. Marik

V. Topic of Interest: Discussion with the Piedmont Police Department - Officer Hugo Diaz

VI. Adjourn

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sally Baack and Dana Lung

Co-Presidents, PHS Parents' Club 2025-2026

The PUSD Grade-Level Participation Challenge is on! The grade with the highest parent participation by December 31 will win a special class party

Last year’s champs (then-2nd graders, now 3rd) hit 78% participation and celebrated with a Vivarium demonstration. This year, they’re leading again with 43%, but the current 2nd grade is close behind at 40%!

By school, Havens currently leads with 46% participation, followed by Beach (37%), PMS (32%), Wildwood (29%), and PHS/MHS (26%).

Every gift counts — and high participation shows our teachers, students, and staff that our community is all in for their success. Let’s aim for 100% participation and celebrate together!

Donate Today → PiedmontEdFoundation.org/donate

Join the Piedmont community for Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on Friday, November 14, 7:45–8:15 AM at Piedmont Park.

Ruby Bridges was just six years old when she bravely became the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South, paving the way for equality in education. We’ll honor her legacy of courage, kindness, and inclusion with reflections from our Affinity Mentors and a walk to school as a community.

Missing your 7th-grade year? Want the year your parents or even grandparents were at PMS? We might have that yearbook! The yearbook staff is selling past yearbooks at a discounted price.

Our current inventory list is linked here. If you are interested in purchasing one of these, please email pmsyearbook@piedmont.k12.ca.us

Our students continue to amaze. PHS and our district continues to rank among the top in the state in standardized testing. I would like us to continue to climb to the top. We are very close. I also want to congratulate a number of our students who achieve perfect scores in their junior year in the respective areas:

English Language Arts (Scaled Score = 2900)

• Alexander Chin
• Athena Li
• Kalyani Spieckerman

Mathematics (Scaled Score = 2900)

• Milo Bakshi
• Alexander Chin
• Audrey Dickinson
• Julian Gard
• Sam Huynh
• Niko Kalamas
• Miles Kim
• Adrian Kondakov
• Athena Li
• Elias Reed-Miguel
• Nate Welch
• Rachel Young

Science (Scaled Score = 650)

• Nico French
• Niko Kalamas
• Petro Papahadjopoulos
• Rachel Young

All students on this list are eligible for a Crumbl cookie of your choice. Please email the principal your selection, and I will personally deliver it to your class, usually before lunch.

This week's report was run from 10/6-10/31 (4 weeks). 208 students had perfect attendance during this period. This includes:

• No tardies (of any type)
• No absences (of any type)

I then put it through a randomizer, and a winner is selected. The winner will be announced in the newsletter and then emailed directly for their selection of a Crumbl cookie!

I am pretty excited about this past week. While we didn't get a single day with zero tardies, we got very close on Wednesday (11/5). On Thursday, our seniors had 0 tardies this time!

11/3: 16 tardies to period 1 (5/3/4/4)

11/4: 25 tardies to period 1 (5/7/5/8)

11/5: 7 tardies to period 2 (1/4/1/1)

11/6: 9 tardies to period 1 (2/5/2/0)

11/7: 15 tardies to period 2 (3/7/3/2)

Last week (10/29), our juniors received no unexcused tardies. As such, this coming Thursday (11/13), they will receive a special treat at brunch with a special bagel and cream cheese! Congratulations juniors on a job well done.

The SAT will be held on campus on Monday, March 16th during the spring school-based testing window. Sign-up and exam ordering will take place through Infinite Campus, not through College Board. More details to come.

Dear PUSD Families: With the government shutdown continuing indefinitely, we are thoughtful about families in our community who are impacted by the loss of government benefits, including SNAP or TANF assistance for food and essential support.

In order to assist families who may have immediate need, we invite parents who would like to donate a grocery store gift card of any amount to the main office of their child’s school. Please place the gift card in an envelope labeled “government shutdown donation.” Our Principals will distribute the gift cards to families in need. We invite donations through November 21st, the Friday before the Thanksgiving week holiday.

We are grateful to the parents and our Board for this creative and real-time support idea. Let us come together during these difficult days to care for each other.

Based on your responses to our survey (see link below), we are adding the AP German and AP Psychology tests to our list of exams offered this Spring. If your student is interested in signing up, follow the 2-step process using the following Join Codes. German: YQEAYD Psychology: 47X269

The Deadline for ordering AP exams without incurring a late fee is Friday, November 7th

Ordering AP exams is a 2-step process. Tests will not be ordered unless both steps are completed.

STEP 1 - Your student should log-in to their College Board account and indicate which exams should be ordered. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.

STEP 2 - Log-in to the Infinite Campus School Store and place an order for all exams your student plans to take. Note: Join Code no longer needed for this step.

Interested in taking an exam for a course we don't offer? - Please fill out the survey here. We may offer additional exams if enough students sign-up.

If you have questions on payment or ordering, please contact our registrar Darlene Low (dlow@piedmont.k12.ca.us)

Our Parent Club is seeking a few more volunteers for our library. This will allow our students a safe space to stay during the day, primarily when they have open periods.

1. Please sign up here to indicate your availability.
2. Volunteers need to be fingerprinted via Livescan. The attachment is below. We cannot reimburse for the cost which is estimated to be between $70 and $100.
3. Your general role is to supervise students ensuring they are not disruptive and following library rules (e.g. no eating).
4. Please reach out to Karen (karenabird@gmail.com) if you have any questions.

We wanted to let families know that we have some Save-the-Dates for course registration for the coming year. Please mark your calendar for these important dates. Much more information is forthcoming as we finalize course catalogs, slide decks, etc.

• December 1: Incoming 9th Grade Orientation Night (Parents): 6:30-8:30 pm, AHT
• December 3: Incoming 9th Grade Course Selection (Students): Academy, AHT
• December 8: Incoming 10th-12th Grade Course Selection (Students & Parents): 6:30-7:30 pm, AHT
• December 8-January 6: Course Selection
• Midnight on January 6: Course Selection closes

Thank you all for supporting your students with being at school and focusing on their classes during the 1st quarter of the year. We are now in our 2nd window of determination which goes from 10/24/25 - 1/19/26. The next official date of determination is 1/12/26. Please note that eligibility for Winter Ball will be based on progress during this time frame. If you have any questions, please reach out to Mr. Marik.

In response to Board direction provided last school year, we are following up in regards to our newly implemented cell phone policy. We need to gather information from our different stakeholder groups (students, parents, and staff) to provide to the Board. This will allow them to give recommendations on future actions that may be warranted in relation to our cell phone policy.

You may get more information about this third-party survey here. We then ask that parents/guardians fill out the survey at the link below. I will also provide the student survey, which your children should fill out. That information was sent as a direct email to them earlier today. We would like all of these surveys to close on November 3. Please reach out if you have any questions.

• Parent Cell Phone Survey
• Student Cell Phone Survey (this was directly emailed to students earlier today)

What is PPN?

Piedmont Parents Network (PPN) is a parent-run organization that holds monthly meetings to provide parents with the opportunity to meet, connect and discuss issues affecting their child, the school, and our community All parents of students at PHS/PMS/MHS are welcome - there are no membership dues - RSVP and show up!

When are the next meetings?

12th Grade:

Wednesday, November 19: 7:30-9:00 pm

Facilitators: Sara Ironside, Jen Ferguson

RSVP: jen.c.ferg@gmail.com for more information

Meetings for the remainder of the year:

• Wednesday, December 17: TBD (tentative date)

• Thursday, January 22: 7:30-9:00 pm

• Wednesday, February 25: 7:30-9:00 pm

• Wednesday, March 25: 7:30-9:00 pm

• Thursday, April 23: 7:30-9:00 pm

• Tuesday, May 19: 7:30-9:00 pm

11th Grade:

Thursday, November 20: 7:00-8:30 pm

If you have thoughts, please fill out this form: Google Form for 11 Grade

Facilitator: Kristen Brett

RSVP: kbrett@srvusd.net

Meetings for the remainder of the year:

• Thursday, January 22: 7:00-8:30 pm

• Wednesday, February 25: 7:00-8:30 pm

• Thursday, March 26: 7:00-8:30 pm

• Thursday, April 23: 7:00-8:30 pm

10th Grade

Next Meeting Date: Coming Soon!

Facilitators: Sarah Puckett, Maggie Mittan

RSVP: sarahbeamish@hotmail.com or maggie.mittan@gmail.com to be added to the 10th grade PPN email list.

9th Grade:

Thursday, November 13: 8:45-10:00 am.

Facilitators: Judy Lin, Yoko Ichikawa, Anne Hawkins

RSVP: hawkins42@gmail.com for location information

Upcoming Meetings:

• Tuesday, December 9: 7:00-8:30 pm

• A Shout Out to Ms. Manalo-LeClair for a great Community College Night this past Tuesday. We had a great turnout.