ASI Bruin's Den - Welcome to Week 2

Posted Date: 08/23/26 (04:19 PM)

ASI Bruin's Den - Welcome to Week 2 Parent, Guardian, & Student Newsletter ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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Principal's Message

Dear ASI Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for a fantastic first week at Alta Sierra Intermediate! It has been wonderful to see our campus full of energy, enthusiasm, and school spirit. Our students have settled into their routines, connected with teachers and friends, and jumped into the school year ready to learn. We are off to a great start, and I am excited about all that is ahead for our Bruins!

A BIG thank-you and reminders as we head into Week 2:

Drop-Off & Pick-Up – Thank you for your patience and cooperation during arrival and dismissal. Please continue to use safe and respectful locations for drop-off and pick-up and follow all traffic and parking expectations. Your partnership helps us keep students safe.
Arrival Time – Thank you for helping students arrive after 8:00 a.m. Supervision begins at 8:00 a.m., and arriving during this window helps ensure students have a safe and organized start to their day.
Dress Code – Thank you for supporting our students in following the ASI dress code each day. We reviewed expectations with students during our Welcome Week lessons and assemblies. We will continue to remind and encourage students throughout the year. Skirt and short length continue to be our most frequent dress-code conversation, so please take a moment to check lengths before your student heads to school.
Helmets & Bike Safety – If your student bikes, skateboards, or scooters to school, please remind them to wear a helmet every day and to lock up their equipment in the designated racks near the main office. We appreciate your help reinforcing safe choices.
Attendance – Regular attendance is one of the most important things families can do to support student success. Please make every effort to have your student at school and on time each day. If your student is absent, be sure to follow the attendance reporting procedures.
Starting Strong – Week 1 is always about learning routines, expectations, and getting comfortable in a new school year. As we move into Week 2, we are encouraging students to take greater ownership of their learning, their choices, and their responsibilities. Our goal is for every Bruin to learn, lead, and make a positive difference on our campus.

Thank you for the tremendous support you have shown our staff and students during the first week of school. We appreciate your partnership and the trust you place in us each day. When families and schools work together, our students are able to thrive.

Have a wonderful week, and we look forward to another great week at ASI!

With gratitude,
Mrs. Carter
Principal

Our Goal is to get 100% parent participation and membership at the student level or higher this year!

Please stop by our table on the amphitheater to sign up during Back to School Night (they will have a square to take cards). Or drop off a membership check to the front office.

🚲 E-Bike & Electric Scooter Safety Reminder

As we begin the school year, we want to remind families about e-bike and electric scooter safety. We have seen an increase in students riding electric bikes and scooters to and from school, and we want to make sure students are following California safety requirements.

Please remember:

Students under 18 must wear a properly fitted bicycle helmet when riding a bicycle or e-bike.
Class 3 e-bikes: Riders must be at least 16 years old.
Motorized electric scooters: Riders must be at least 16 years old and have a valid California driver’s license or instruction permit. A helmet is also required.
Students should always follow traffic laws, use designated bike lanes when available, and ride responsibly.
E-motos and other electric motorcycles are not the same as e-bikes and are subject to different regulations. Some require DMV registration and are not permitted for use on public roads.

Most importantly, please talk with your student about making safe choices when traveling to and from school. A few extra minutes of caution can prevent a serious accident.

Thank you for helping us keep our Bruins safe!

If you know in advance that you will be picking up your student early, please call the main office ahead of time. This allows us to have your student waiting for you and makes the process much quicker.

If you arrive without calling first, we will need to send a Teacher’s Assistant to your student’s classroom with a pass. This process takes more time, as we do not interrupt classroom instruction with phone calls. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Additionally, we kindly ask that you do not pick up your student early on Wednesdays or Fridays to match an elementary schedule. Alta Sierra does not have Early Release or Friday Game Day. Every class period is valuable, and your student’s last class of the day is just as important as the first.

We are excited to continue expanding opportunities for students at Alta Sierra this year through our Math Academy Intervention Program, a built-into the day support designed to help students strengthen foundational skills, build confidence, and experience greater success in their current mathematics classes.

For our first round of intervention, students will be identified based on their math grade from last year and/or SBAC performance. Students selected for this initial round will be pulled from their elective or PE class for two one-hour intervention sessions. Students will will still receive three hours of instruction and participation in their elective and PE course. Each session lasts for 4-6 weeks.

The purpose of these first sessions is to frontload learning and strengthen previously taught skills that students need in order to be successful with current grade-level mathematics. By addressing skill gaps early and reviewing important concepts before they become barriers to new learning, we hope to give students a stronger foundation and greater confidence as they move forward in their math coursework.

As the year progresses, our intervention groups will become flexible and fluid. Students will be identified for additional intervention based on their performance on end-of-unit assessments. Students who need additional support will have the opportunity to receive targeted reteaching of the concepts they have not yet mastered and then retest after receiving that additional instruction. This process provides students with another opportunity to demonstrate their learning and can positively impact their overall math grade.

Our goal is not simply to provide remediation after a student struggles. Instead, we want to intervene early, identify learning gaps, reteach essential skills, and provide students with additional opportunities to demonstrate mastery. We believe this approach will help students become more confident, capable, and independent mathematics learners.

Because Math Intervention is built into the school day, participation is required for students who are identified for an intervention session. We appreciate your support in reinforcing the importance of attending these sessions and taking full advantage of this additional learning opportunity.

We are very excited about this work and the opportunity to provide our students with targeted support when they need it most. Our goal is for every student to have the skills, confidence, and support necessary to be successful in mathematics.

HOW TO JOIN SPECIFIC ASI SUBGROUPS IN PARENT SQUARE

Follow these steps:

Log in to your ParentSquare account on a web browser or the mobile app.
From your main dashboard, click on Participate in the left-hand navigation menu.
Select Groups from the drop-down menu.
Browse the list of available district or school groups.
Find the group you want and click Join.

Try StudentSquare! We now have a new platform to help streamline school communication for both families and students. The platform has two sides: ParentSquare for families and StudentSquare for students. Students set up their StudentSquare accounts this week in science class.

StudentSquare is the app students will use to access important school, class, club, and sports announcements. At school, students can access it through Clever on a classroom Chromebook. At home, they can download the app to their phones for easy access.

Please remind your student to check StudentSquare regularly so they don’t miss important announcements, reminders, updates, or other information about what’s happening at school. It’s the go-to source for staying informed and connected throughout the school year!

Our Fall Student Body Fundraiser will kick off in September! More information will be shared in next week’s newsletter.

In the meantime, you can start compiling a list of contacts that your student is allowed to reach out to. We are looking forward to a successful fundraiser and truly appreciate your support in advance!

Good Attendance in school includes being on time and not being late. Being late can lead to poor attendance, and can also make students feel embarrassed and left out. Students who miss important information and instruction when they are not in class can fall behind, even if they only miss a day or two every few weeks. This week we gave students who were late warnings and encouragement to get to class on time before each period. Next week, we begin assigning lunch detention to students who are tardy (late) to class before school, after break, or after lunch.

ASI Club Day Selection

Next week, students will select three to four club choices during science class for the school year. At Alta Sierra, most club meetings are built into the regular school schedule, and all students participate. Students participate in one club approximately six times throughout the school year.

Please note that some clubs may require students to bring materials or food items to meetings. For example:

Cooking Club – baked goods or other ingredients
Asian Leadership Club – Asian food

Clubs are selected by students. A list of the clubs selected last year is on our website. It will be updated soon. If there is a club you do not wish your student to be in, please complete the club exclusion form on our website. https://altasierra.cusd.com/71221_3 (The one listed here is for last year. I will have it updated this week.)

We can’t wait to welcome you to Alta Sierra Back to School Night on Tuesday, August 25!

🍴 Dinner on Campus | 5:00 PM
Come early, grab dinner from one of our food trucks, and get ready for a fun evening at Alta! Check the flyer for the food truck lineup.

📚 Classroom Rotations | 5:30 PM
• Each class is 15 minutes
• You’ll have 5 minutes to pass between classes
• Your student’s schedule and room numbers will be available in Parent Connect - NOT Parent Square.
👉 We highly recommend having Parent Connect open on your phone to help you navigate campus!

🎉 AND THERE’S A BONUS…
Sign in to your student's classes during Back to School Night for a chance to win an Early Release Pass to our first Food Fair! 🍕🌮🍿
We’ll draw 100 student names! 🎟️

Meet your student’s teachers, explore campus, grab some dinner, and kick off an amazing year together.

We’ll see you Tuesday, Bruins! 🐾❤️🤍💙

Our afterschool labs begin next week! Labs will run Monday through Thursday from 3:20–5:20 p.m. There will be no labs on Fridays.

Labs are organized by course, and students may attend only if they have homework to complete or need extra assistance from their teacher in that subject. This is a drop-in program, so no sign-ups are required.

Please note: Students must have an assignment to work on or need academic assistance in order to attend. Students who do not have an assignment or need for assistance cannot attend.

Food and Drink: No food or drinks other than water are allowed.
Behavior: Students with behavior concerns will be removed from labs and sent to after-school detention.
Cell Phones: Are not allowed.
Early Pickup: Students may leave early only if a parent picks them up at the door of the classroom.
Bus Riders: A 5:20 p.m. bus is available for students who need transportation home after labs.

Academic Assistance: Your student's teacher is your first contact when you have an academic concern.

Staff email Links: https://altasierra.cusd.com/OurStaff.aspx

A secondary resource for you is your students Learning Director or our GIS. They will refer you back to your student's teacher first if you have not previously contacted your student's teacher.

AB & RSP - LD: Daryl Katoch mailto:darylkatoch@cusd.com
Math, Science and Instrumental Music - LD: Shauna Everson mailto:shaunaeverson@cusd.com
PE - GIS: Erin Roberts mailto:erinroberts@cusd.com
Electives, ELD, & Intervention (except Instrumental Music) - GIS: Michael Marius - mailto:Michaelmarius@cusd.com

Athletic Questions: Please contact our Athletic Director.