Parent Letter

(from left to right)

Mr. Silva, Mr. Estacio, Mr. Willkom, Ms. Ramos, Mr. Tañada, and Mr. Tandoc

"It is but fair to say that America is not a land of one race or one class of men. We are all Americans that have toiled and suffered and known oppression and defeat... America is in the hearts of men that died for freedom; it is also in the eyes of men that are building a new world."

~Carlos Bulosan

Happy Sunday Ochoa Families,

So many great things have been happening at Ochoa Middle School. Here is a quick run down of the coming week. We continue to celebrate Filipino American History month, hosting activities through the end of October. Morning announcements, and the integration of culture in the classrooms teach students about the history, and rich traditions of Filipino American people. Our staff above have quite a few surprises in store for students this week in honor of Filipino culture. Stay tuned for more.

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 education.

This Friday, Ochoa's Leadership class will host our 3rd Annual Halloween Carnival. There will be lots of great music, games, contests, prizes, and food. Students may wear their costumes.** All students planning to attend must present a signed permission slip from their parent or guardian. Tickets are $2 each.**school dress code applies, students may not wear full face masks and may not carry any weapons and or replica weapons to school.

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

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

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, October 26, 2026

• Ochoa's Monster Bash Read-A-Thon Begins

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

• Secondary Curriculum Council, 8:30-3:15PM
• Parent Nutrition Class, 9-11AM
• IEP Mtg, 10AM
• COST Mtg, 1PM
• SSC Member Training, 5:30PM (The HUB)

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

• ELAC Meeting, 8:45AM
• SST Mtg, 9AM
• SST Mtg, 10:30AM
• IEP Mtg, 12PM
• Board of Education Meeting, 6:30PM
• In Person: 24411 Amador St, Hayward, CA 94544, USA

• Public Session: 6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. (unless extended)

This Board of Education meeting will be held in person. Viewers may also participate via Zoom or view only on YouTube. Join by telephone: +1 408 638 0968 or +1 669 900 6833

Zoom ID: Closed Caption is available in several languages via Zoom. Spanish Interpretation is provided. The agenda shall be posted on the board meeting website at least 72 hours prior to a regular meeting.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

• SST Mtg, 8:30AM
• IEP Mtg, 10AM
• Puente Fall Conference (Virtual) 9-3PM
• IEP Mtg, 1PM
• 6-8 Grade Exploratory Mtg
• YEP will proudly celebrate Lights On Afterschool, a national celebration highlighting the incredible impact of afterschool programs on students, families, and communities.

Friday, October 30, 2026

• IEP Mtg, 8:30AM
• IEP Mtg, 1PM
• Halloween Festival/Leadership, 3PM

Looking Ahead

Saturday, October 31, 2026

• Halloween

Sunday, November 1, 2026

• Daylight Savings, Fall Back 1 hr

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

• Election Day
• Puente Field Trip, ShoreLine
• Parent Nutrition Class, 9AM

Wednesday, November 4 , 2026

• Ochoa Parent Day-ScreenAgers film #1, 8:30AM
• Faculty Meeting, Library 1:45PM

• Canned Food Drive Kick Off
• IEP Mtg, 2:30PM

Wednesday, November 11, 2026

• Veterans Day observed- No School

Thanksgiving Break

• 11/23-11/27/2026

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

Facebook: coming soon
Twitter: coming soon