KUA News

August 2025 Newsletter

Empowerment Through Opportunity

Our mission: to break down barriers for students by providing more instructional time, enriching programs and a high-expectations, no-excuses environment to ensure high school graduation, college success and career readiness are reasonable goals for all students regardless of race, language, ethnicity, gender, economic status or zip code.

Administrators’ message

Welcome, all our new and returning families, to Kids Unlimited Academy! Thank you for choosing our public charter school, where teachers, support staff and the administration team look forward to a new year of learning, growing and exploring together.

KUA leadership is energized by the consolidation of our campuses, which welcomes our Pre-KU Early Learning program back to Medford and also encompasses KUA’s fifth grade classrooms in our main building block bordered by North Riverside Avenue and Edwards and Niantic streets.

Centralizing KU was a huge task led by our facilities and transportation manager, Buddy Hull, who worked throughout the summer in preparation for the 2025-26 school year. We also would like to acknowledge our amazing custodial, kitchen and front office staff, including some new employees, for getting our school in tip-top shape. With fewer custodial staff this year, KUA is relying more on teachers and students to keep their classrooms neat and tidy. Please model this value at home and encourage students to take responsibility for their spaces and belongings.

Families are key partners in KUA’s success. We look forward to seeing you at our school events and participating in field trips, classrooms and schoolwide activities. Please complete your volunteer application through the Medford school district as soon as possible, so when opportunities arise to get involved, you’re already approved! Families are required to volunteer six hours per month to fulfill their KUA parent engagement contracts.

In response to families’ preferences for an afterschool program, KUA shifted enrichment to the afternoon, with pickup from 4:30 to 5 p.m., and the school start time to 8 a.m. with breakfast service at 7:30 a.m. Students not enrolled in enrichment must be picked up by 3:30 p.m.

Afterschool enrichment is a separate KU program under the direction of Site Manager Yaremi Mejia. A KU alumna, Yaremi holds a master’s degree in physical education and served during the 2024-25 school year as KUA support staff, specializing in positive student behavior.

In the spirit of developing and maintaining effective communication, our Student/Parent Handbook (English and Spanish) is a tool we will utilize on a regular basis at KUA. Please use this document as a guide to answering your questions. After reviewing the handbook, please sign and return the Computer/Internet and Acceptable Use policies by the end of the second week of school.

Lupita Vargas – KU Director of Educational Services, lvargas@kuaoregon.org

Lindsay Ochs – KUA Principal, lindsay.ochs@kuaoregon.org

David Thygeson – KUA Assistant Principal, david.thygeson@kuaoregon.org

Lindsay Ochs

Principal

From the Principal’s desk

A smile. Kind words. A helping hand. Daily dedication to excellence. A yearlong commitment to our shared vision.

Whether big or small, these are just some of the ways — every day — that confirm we all matter. The theme for Kids Unlimited Academy’s 2025-26 school year extends beyond teachers, students, school support staff and administrators. Parents are vital partners in our school community, and their involvement makes all the difference.

Please review the “parental keys for a successful year” on page 19 of the 2025-26 Student/Parent Handbook (English and Spanish) These are values and habits to model and practice with your student daily. Monthly family engagement opportunities — from meetings and academic activities to social events and celebrations — at the school connect us all, keep us on the same page and fulfill the requirements of KUA’s parent-student compact.

KUA family nights are fun and educational for parents and kids alike. Monthly Site Council meetings invite two-way communication as we share the latest data on student progress, along with campus and program updates. To best accommodate families’ schedules, KUA Site Council will be exclusively on Zoom this year. See kuaoregon.org/site-council for meeting dates and times, the Zoom link and past meeting notes.

Also new this year is KUA’s social-emotional curriculum, Ripple Effects. Research-based and highly engaging with almost 200 individual lessons, Ripple Effects interfaces with our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to ensure students are succeeding in all aspects of their KUA experience: achieving at grade level in their core subjects while developing empathy, self-confidence, interpersonal skills and mechanisms for self-regulating emotions and behavior.

We know that student behavior and academics are intertwined. The data that KUA leadership will gather from Ripple Effects help us to identify what every student needs at an individual level and also how we can uplift whole families and the entire school community.

A smaller enrollment in 2025-26, with three classes per grade cohort, is an intentional strategy to better serve each and every one of us at KUA. Because “we all matter.”

Attendance matters!

Regular school attendance promotes school success and is required by Oregon Law, which mandates that students miss no more than 15 school days each academic year. Any student absent for 10 or more consecutive days will be dropped from KUA enrollment. Your child may lose his/her spot at KUA.

The loss of learning that takes place when your child is absent cannot be replaced. Chronic absenteeism in kindergarten can predict lower test scores, poor attendance and retention in later grades. If you need help getting your child to school on time, please reach out to us!

Always notify the school, by calling the office at 541-774-3900 between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., when your child is absent or going to be absent for any reason. Please provide the student’s full name, grade and reason for absence. A doctor’s note is required for absences of longer than 3 days.

Attendance matters!

Why year-round school?

We can’t speak highly enough of our year-round academic calendar, which is overwhelmingly supported by our families. Below are a few key reasons why we decided in 2021 to become Oregon’s first year-round public school.

Students retain what they learn all year, rather than experience summer learning loss.
Additional time for authentic hands-on learning opportunities, excursions and field trips.
Additional school days help to close the achievement gap.
Increased opportunities for extra help and tutoring.
Consistent routines lead to better-adjusted students — and teachers
Easier access for vacations during the school year.
Decreased teacher and student absences.

What’s cooking?

Our new Food Program puts more variety on students’ plates.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner menus incorporate more locally produced ingredients, including seasonally fresh fruits and vegetables. Beef and veggie Stroganoff and chicken, sausage and veggie jambalaya are new recipes to complement favorites like carnitas tacos and green pozole. Check out the menu at kuaoregon.org/menu

All KUA students are eligible for free breakfast, lunch and dinner — cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients in our on-site kitchen. We are an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Our nationally recognized, award-winning food program is unique in the Medford school district, and we take pride in providing students’ daily nutrition. Build your kids’ healthy habits at home with whole foods instead of processed ones.

Instead of stocking up for the new school year on packaged snacks, fill up kids on fresh fruit and whole-grain carbohydrates. These fun Fruit Tarts take full advantage of summer’s peaches, plums, berries, grapes, melons, even figs. Feel free to use your family’s favorite combination of fruits, and encourage kids to try a new one by arranging slices in colorful, creative patterns!

Find more family-friendly, quick-fix, wholesome recipes at cookingmatters.org

Fruit Tarts

Ingredients:

4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
6 slices whole-wheat sandwich bread
1 1/2 tablespoons skim milk
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cut-up fresh fruit

Instructions:

About 30 minutes in advance, remove the cream cheese from refrigerator and allow to warm to room temperature on countertop.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Slice crusts off the bread. Flatten bread with a rolling pin or bottom of a heavy skillet to about 1/8 inch thick. Place on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven until crisp, for about 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.
While bread is baking, in a small bowl, blend the cream cheese and milk with a fork until smooth. Stir in the honey and vanilla.
Spread a generous tablespoon of cream cheese mixture on each piece of cooled bread. Arrange about 1/3 cup of the sliced fruit on top of each tart.

Makes 6 servings.

Table Talk

Family conversations during meals or before bedtime are a great way to reconnect, help younger kids to develop language skills and help parents to stay informed about happenings at school.

If kids are reluctant to talk about events of the day out loud, encourage them to explore their feelings by drawing or — for older kids — writing some thoughts on paper. Use the Table Talk flyer sent home with students as a guide and return it to the front office for credit toward fulfilling monthly volunteer hours.

“What is your favorite part of being back in school?”

“Who do you look forward to seeing when school starts?”

“Describe the taste of a school meal that you like eating.”