Thank you to our Sotomayor community for honoring our military students and families through our Military Parade and Picnic last week. It was wonderful to see our community come together to support and honor our Snowy Owl military students, knowing that they serve too. We recognize their strength, resiliency, courage, and sacrifice and are honored to celebrate our military students at Sotomayor!
📣 Spirit Day Announcement! 🧩💙
Join us in celebrating Autism Awareness Month with a special Spirit Day on April 30th!
Wear blue or your favorite Autism Awareness gear to show your support and help spread kindness, understanding, and inclusion for everyone in the autism community.
Let’s come together to celebrate differences and embrace neurodiversity! 💙
#LightItUpBlue #AutismAwareness #InclusionMatters
Snowy Owl Expectation Focus
Our goal at Sonia Sotomayor Elementary School is to create and maintain a positive and safe learning environment for all and hold students accountable for being positive forces within our school community. The Snowy Owl Expectations are taught, modeled, and practiced throughout all grade levels and locations around campus. For the next week, we will continue to focus and reinforce the expected behaviors for recess. We appreciate your support in asking your Snowy Owls at home what specific behaviors allow them to be safe, respectful, responsible, and kind at recess.
CAASPP Testing Is Almost Here
What is CAASPP Testing? Every year, California students take several statewide tests. When combined with other measures such as grades, class work, and teacher observations, these tests give families and teachers a more complete picture of their child’s learning. You can use the results to identify where your child is doing well and where they might need more support.
Near the end of each school year, students in grade 3 and higher take summative assessments. The umbrella term we use to talk about the summative assessments our students take is CAASPP which stands for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. Be sure to to learn more about these state tests by going to the Starting Smarter web page at: http://ca.startingsmarter.org/ or review the Parent Guides to Understanding at: http://cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/parentguidetounderstand.asp.
Please make EVERY effort to make sure your child is at school, on-time every day. It is important to not plan vacations or doctors/dentist appointments in the next few weeks and to review the assessment calendar each week, to know which days your child is testing. Your can also reach out to your child’s teacher for more details about your child’s specific testing schedule.
Breakfast and Lunch with the Chef
Our Breakfast and Lunch with the Chef is back this week! Our district chef will prepare a fresh, made from scratch breakfast and lunch item to serve to our Snowy Owls during their regular breakfast and lunch period. He will be at Sotomayor on Tuesday, April 29th. He will be preparing a bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwich for breakfast and cheeseburger and a homemade potato salad for lunch.
We will still offer the other normal choices that are on our lunch menu. We look forward to this fun and delicious opportunity again for our Snowy Owls!
PTA Updates
We need your help!
All board positions are open for 2025–26, and we must fill President, Treasurer & Secretary to keep our PTA going. Without them, we lose access to funds and can’t plan events next year.
Not ready for a board role? Join a committee (Membership, Fundraising, Events)! These roles are key to keeping things like book fairs, movie nights, and workshops alive.
Interested? Reach out ASAP—our nominating report is due next weekend. You can email us (soniasotomayorpta@gmail.com), message us (here on Facebook or on Instagram), or complete this interest survey: https://forms.gle/ppRudDobdy51PDYQ6.
If your family is joining Sonia Sotomayor next year and you are interested in supporting PTA, please let us know!
This year showed what a few determined parents can do—but it’s not sustainable. Let’s keep the momentum going and make next year even better for our Snowy Owls!
YMCA Summer Camp
Your family can count on South Bay Family YMCA to ensure your child is having fun in a safe, nurturing environment. The Y offers single-day, weekly and specialty camps to meet the needs of parents and match the interests of our campers.
Sonia Sotomayor Elementary School 