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School News

Tomorrow -- Super Mario's Literacy Night

Updated Tue, Feb 24th

Five Ilustrated children and a dragon reading books

Dear Families,
We are so excited to see you this Wednesday, February 25th, for our school’s Super Mario's Literacy Night! This is a fantastic opportunity to jump into reading and discover practical, fun ways to support your child’s learning at home.

Event Schedule

6:15 PM: MU Doors Open
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM: Literacy Games and Activities

What to Expect

The evening is designed to be hands-on and high-energy. We will be hosting various stations focused on foundational reading skills, where students and parents can play games together. You’ll walk away with simple strategies and activities that make practicing reading at home feel less like homework and more like play.

Alternate Lunch-Time Space for Students Observing Ramadan

Updated Mon, Feb 23rd

Illustrated five children and glowing lanterns for Ramadan

Dear Castlemont Families,

We would like to offer an alternate food-free space during lunch for students who are fasting in observance of Ramadan.

If you would like for your child to use this option, please email me directly with your child(ren)'s name and grade at kdelarosa [at] campbellusd.org . Thank you!

Kristen Delarosa

Principal

Coffee with the Principals

Updated Wed, Feb 18th

Hello Castlemont Families,
I hope you are enjoying this rainy week. I was in my home office yesterday and kept hearing what I thought was the neighbors slamming their front door. Then a huge roll of thunder shook the house, and I realized that no doors were being slammed.

Though your students are out on vacation, I do want to take a moment to share that we have a Coffee with the Principals meeting scheduled for next Thursday, Feb. 26th. We will meet in our library from 8:30-9:30. Our topic will be school and community safety. After sharing our Comprehensive Safety Plan, our guest speaker will share community safety information.

The meeting will be held in both English and Spanish, and yes, there will be coffee! I hope you will be able to join us-- we have not had an in-person coffee in a long time. Depending on your feedback, we can schedule our next Coffee in the evening via Zoom.

Kristen Delarosa
Principal

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Planning for Our Spring Carnival

Updated Tue, Feb 17th

Our Spring Carnival is coming on April 24th.

Please see the attached flyer.

The flyer includes:

Dates and times for our Spring Carnival planning meetings
Zoom meeting link and details
A volunteer interest form for parents who would like to help

All meetings are held at 8:15 PM on the following dates:
2/11, 2/25, 3/11, 3/25, and 4/8

Spring Carnival Planning Meeting (Zoom)
Meeting ID: 813 4166 5896
Passcode: 138641
Zoom Link

Volunteer Sign-Up Form:
https://forms.gle/Y5DsdRA8KdgC5Zfx9

spring_carnival_planning_flyer_3_1.pdf

spring_carnival_planning_flyer_3_1.pdf (1.85 MB)

New Student Tour for 2026-2027

Updated Mon, Jan 26th

We hope you will join us for our enrollment tour for 2026-27 incoming families this Friday, January 16th at 3:00pm.

We will start with a presentation at 3:00 in our Multi-Use room (the cafeteria with all the windows). The presentation will be followed by a campus and classroom tour of our TK and kindergartens.

Open enrollment itself is only open to incoming TK families; however, we welcome all new incoming families to join us!

See you soon!

Principal's Message January 2026

Updated Sun, Jan 18th

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Dear Castlemont Families,

Welcome back! I hope your winter break was filled with rest, relaxation, and wonderful memories with your children. It will be such a joy to see our hallways filled with energy and smiling faces again tomorrow morning. There is something truly special about the "fresh start" that January brings to a school building.

Our January fresh start includes our annual PBIS (Positive Behavior Incentive System) re-boot. We will revisit and re-teach our positive expectations with specific focus on areas of improvement that our behavioral data indicates are needed at each grade level; for example, in kindergarten we will re-teach the expectations for safe play on the slides while in fourth grade we will re-visit the good sportsmanship expectations during soccer games. We will be holding the PBIS assemblies throughout this week.

School Site Council -- Your Vote Matters

It is extremely important to us that we stay connected with you, our school community, and part of this connection is made through our School Site Council. We are opening voting today for three additional representatives for our School Site Council. Please take a moment to open the ballot link and vote. Voting closes Sunday, January 11th.

CASTLEMONT SCHOOL SITE COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BALLOT

PDSAs

As we jump into the second half of the year, our teachers are hard at work using PDSA cycles (Plan, Do, Study, Act) to help our students grow. Just like a scientist uses the scientific method to test an idea, our teachers are:

Planning new ways to help students learn.
Trying those ideas out in the classroom.
Studying the results to see what’s working.
Adjusting their lessons to make sure every child succeeds.

We are committed to this "continuous improvement" approach to ensure this semester is even better than the last!

Our School Play is Back!

More exciting January news-- After much planning, writing, and ongoing fundraising, the Castlemont school play is back for a third year! A HUGE thank you to Ms. Sandee Medlin for giving us this opportunity again. Ms. Medlin wrote numreous grants requests (two of which have been granted, so far!), wrote the play and the original score, and has been deeply involved in promoting and fundraising. I would also like to give a shout-out to our small but mighty group of parent “boosters” without whom we would not be able to move forward! Please see the calendar for audition dates.

Good News About Attendance!

We continue to carefully track our overall and grade level attendance data. Why? Because being at school is the most important component of being a successful student. The good news is that we are showing an improvement in attendance over last year. Keep up the good work!

I know I will be heading to bed on time tonight after enjoying some late-night movie watching over our break. Getting back into our routines will be important for all of us, especially for our children.

🗓️ Important Dates for January

Please mark your calendars for these upcoming events and school closure date:

Monday, January 5: Students return to school (Welcome back!)
Thursday, January 8: Home and School Club Meeting @ 8:00 pm (via Zoom)
Friday, January 9: Ocean Adventures Assembly
January 12- 28: DIBELS and iReady Testing Window
Tuesday, January 13: South Winchester BBQ Dining Day.
Monday, January 19: No School in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Tuesday, January 20: Castlemont School Play Auditions
Thursday, January 22: Castlemont School Play Auditions

We are so grateful for your partnership and look forward to a fantastic month of learning ahead. As always, my door (and email inbox) are open if you have any questions or concerns.

Warmly,

Kristen Kimoto Delarosa, Principal

December Spirit Week

Updated Mon, Dec 8th

Hello Castlemont Families,

December 15th -19th is Spirit Week! Please see attachment with our Spirit Week daily theme.

Thank you

__________________________________________

Hola familias de Castlemont,

¡La semana del 15 al 19 de diciembre, es la Semana de Espíritu Escolar! Consulte el archivo adjunto con el tema diario de la Semana.

Gracias

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A Spooktacular Success

Updated Tue, Nov 4th

On behalf of Castlemont Teachers, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for your participation in our first teacher-sponsored fundraiser of the year. It was so memorable watching families dress up in creative costumes, dance & sing along, and have a wicked good time together at our Halloween Dance last Friday evening. We are so grateful for our wonderful community, and are appreciative of the generosity from money spent on donations, ticket sales, and concessions. We were able to raise around $4300 in profit from this event which will all go back to classrooms to support student learning. A big shout out to our HSC for helping us with cash processing, our office staff for help with communications and logistics, and our awesome local community partners- Happy Donuts and The Pizza Guys for providing treats and discounted pricing. Please think of them for your next meal or event! If you ordered photos, they will be sent home with your child in labeled bags this week.

Thank you again for your enthusiastic support, as events like this are what make our school community so amazing!

Junior Coaches Take the Lead

Updated Fri, Oct 31st

A line of elementary school students enthusiastically play a game on a playground.

Take a look at the photo accompanying this story and you will see the pure joy of students being led in a game of "Ghost Busters" by our Junior Coaches. Junior Coaches are a select group of 4th and 5th grade students. Students must apply to be part of the program and are trained in how to facilitate a wide variety of games for other students at recess. Junior Coaches are given weekly recess assignments and also meet weekly with our Positive Behavior Incentive Systems (PBIS) /Safety and Support Coordinator, Miss Julie. We are incredibly proud of our student leaders!

Principal's Newsletter

Updated Thu, Oct 9th

Hello Castlemont Families,

Can you believe it is almost October? Yesterday’s morning thunderstorms, A.K.A. “False Fall” has me ready for our next season. In this next season, we have plenty of great things coming up at Castlemont for both students and our families, but first I would like to give you an update about the latest regarding our districtwide Continual Improvement implementation.

For our students, Continual Improvement means having more voice and involvement in their own learning. Students engage in setting goals, reflecting on the strategies that work for them, and sharing their feedback.

The first tangible evidence you see of this work is in each classroom’s mission statement.This is our second year of working with mission statements, and every class has created their own. Our next step this year is to keep them “alive” by revisiting them and updating them as needed throughout the year. In Mrs. Bell and my office, for example, we have a copy of each class’s mission statement, and we use them a reflective tool with students.

You will also see evidence of “Plus/Deltas” not only in classrooms, but in the meetings and events that you attend at Castlemont. The plus part of this tool is for each participant to share what went well or what was helpful. The delta portion provides a space to give feedback and suggestions for improvement. The plusses are uplifting to read, but it’s the deltas that give us the opportunity to grow and improve.

In the next newsletter, I will share another integral part of our Continual Improvement, the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle.

As far as what’s coming up in the next month, we have quite nice list:

9/27 This Saturday--Garden Familia Work Party 9:00-11:00am

10/4 Charleston Wrap Fundraiser ends

10/6 - 10/10 Conference Week *Minimum Days* -- Dismissal at 12:30/12:35

10/9 Home and School Club Meeting 8:15-9:15pm via Zoom

10/13 No School for Students (Staff PD Day)

10/17 Halloween Dance 6:00-8:00pm

10/23 Erik’s Deli Cafe Dine out Day

10/31 Halloween Parade OR Autumn Leaf Art 8:30-9:00am

11/7 Jog-a-thon

I encourage all families to do two things to help keep informed about school news, activities, and resources:

Follow the Castlemont Instagram page: castlemontelementary
Bookmark and check in on our Home and School Club website: https://sites.google.com/view/castlemont-hsc

I hope you all have a great Friday and a rejuvenating weekend.

Sincerely yours,

Kristen Kimoto Delarosa, Principal

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School News

Tomorrow -- Super Mario's Literacy Night

Event Schedule

What to Expect

Alternate Lunch-Time Space for Students Observing Ramadan

Coffee with the Principals

spanish.jpg

1.jpg

Planning for Our Spring Carnival

spring_carnival_planning_flyer_3_1.pdf

New Student Tour for 2026-2027

Principal's Message January 2026

December Spirit Week

winter_spirit_week_eng.jpg

winter_spirit_week_span.jpg

A Spooktacular Success

Junior Coaches Take the Lead

Principal's Newsletter

Tomorrow -- Super Mario's Literacy Night

Alternate Lunch-Time Space for Students Observing Ramadan

Coffee with the Principals

Planning for Our Spring Carnival

New Student Tour for 2026-2027

Principal's Message January 2026

December Spirit Week

A Spooktacular Success

Junior Coaches Take the Lead

Principal's Newsletter

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