About Cortez Hill

Parents are powerful and essential to the success of Cortez Hill Academy. Your involvement in your student’s school is one of the most important ways you can contribute to your student’s high school success. Volunteer opportunities abound at CHA. By enrolling your student at CHA, each family agrees to contribute forty hours or $400 per year to the school. How can you do that painlessly? You can earn two hours per month by attending each of the ten CHAPA meetings. This would equal 20 hours, fully half of your volunteer requirements.

You can fulfill the rest of your obligation by signing up for one or more of the following parent work teams. This is a great way to meet other parents, keep on top of what is going on in school and more important, in your student’s life. Get to know the people your student knows.

Each team will need two co-leaders, elected by the group, self-selected, or appointed by CHAPA leadership. Each team will have a school employee as their link to administration. The current teams follow:

Liaison to the CHA Board of Directors: Each year we invite an active parent of a student who has attended CHA the prior year to volunteer or be elected to the position. Jo-Anne Bogias will represent CHAPA on the Board in 2005-06.

Liaisons to Each Teacher: Our teachers are essential to your student’s success. They need your support. There are three freshman, three sophomore and two junior advisories led by one teacher each. There is one large senior advisory with two teachers. We would like at least two persons to partner and support one individual teacher. You would be the parents they could call or email if they needed to communicate with the parent group.

Field Experience Support: Each six-week learning component involves a major field experience. We will need chaperones and drivers for these school trips. We want three parents who teachers can call to help them find chaperones.

Community Service Team: All 9th and 10th grade students are required to do a total of 30 hours each year of Community Service. This is part of their Advisory and Citizenship grade. (11th and 12th graders are required to find an Internship opportunity for a minimum of 30 hours. We need a parent team to help monitor and support other parents in finding their 9th and 10th graders an opportunity to serve. We have hundreds of resources and connections for you to use in binders at the school.

Communication Team: We want a minimum of 70% attendance at CHAPA meetings this year (that is a C- on a report card). That means every parent needs to attend at least 7 of the 10 meetings during the school year. (A special THANK YOU to the faithful who attend every meeting). The Communication Team is essential to achieving our goal. Led by two co-chairs, this group maintains the current phone contact numbers and email address list of parents. Responsibilities of this team include organizing and implementing a Phone Tree to remind parents of upcoming meetings and events at school. You would also establish an email list and send regular memos to remind parents about events and meeting dates: CHAPA is usually the 1st Tuesday of each month from 6:15 to 7:30pm.

CHAPA Meeting Program Team: Work with the CHAPA President to plan 10 meeting programs. Responsibilities include contacting speakers (with help from the Principal or CEO, if wanted) to talk about topics of interest to parents of high school students. This group will also find prizes and incentives to encourage parent attendance at meetings, that is, contact local businesses for small gifts, tickets, restaurant coupons, etc.

Food and Special Event Team: This team provides two very important services to the students and CHA community. First, we need food and juices provided for each student on the mornings of the days we take the high-stakes state tests: CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam, which all students must pass before graduating) and the STAR (the California Standards Tests for each core subject). Then, for fun, fun, fun, you will plan and organize the Winter (first week of December) and Spring (end of April) potluck for the entire community. This has been a wonderful opportunity for parents to get to know each other, the staff and students.

The Newsletter: Keep everyone in the loop with a newsletter printed at the school each and aligned with each six-week component. (If you are talented, you could publish it to our website and send it by email). You will provide valuable information to all parents, students and staff by gathering data from teachers, administration, students and other parent committees. Keep everyone informed of important dates and events. Report on happenings in the CHA community. Create a written record of the journey of students at CHA.