A Letter from Principal Drummond

Dear Hill Community,

It is hard to believe but this week we wrap up our 2019-2020 school year. We have missed our students greatly. Normally this upcoming week is full of fun events, connecting, and providing closure for our students on campus. Obviously, it will be a mix of emotions as we say goodbye for the summer. Just know our staff will work hard to make the week feel special and positive for our Dillos.

As we finish an unprecedented spring, we again want to highlight the perseverance and flexibility our amazing students have shown during this time. They modeled their Hill Agreements and SEL skills daily during Zoom calls and independent work. We are truly proud of how they represent our school, even while not on campus. Our staff has been so impressed and truly thankful that we get to work with your amazing kids. We look forward to the day in the near future when we can all be together again and give a big Dillo Cheer!

As we close out the school year, we do look forward to several special events this week:

• On Tuesday at 9:00 am, Hill alumni who are graduating seniors are invited to a special Zoom to celebrate them, connect, and announce our three winners of the Suzanne and Vincent Torres Hill Elementary Alumni Scholarship. Zoom information has been sent out to the high schools and will be in our Dillo Details PTA email as well this weekend.
• On Thursday at 10:00 am, our 5th graders are invited to a special Zoom meeting where we will say goodbye as they move on to middle school. Details for the Zoom are being sent out through the 5th grade email for those families to join.
• On Thursday at 4:00 pm, our 5th Grade Car Parade will take place around Hill School. We will have staff positioned on Tallwood to say goodbye and see some smiling faces. Again, this is special for 5th graders and appreciate only their participation to make the event and traffic manageable. Details for this are in the Dillo Details this weekend as well. Note: While we love the thought, please do not plan on lining the parade route and getting out of vehicles. We are planning on staff only along the sidewalks as we don’t want any risks or issues that could hurt the event. No one is allowed on campus. Thank you for your understanding and staying in your vehicles!

Another event we are excited to host next week is our Incoming Pre-K and Kindergarten Parent Information Night this Tuesday, May 26th, at 6:00 pm. This is for our future/current parents who will have a student entering these grade levels in the fall. We will give a quick presentation and leave time for questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you there and know that in the fall, we will hold our more traditional orientation in some format.

This is also the time of year where we update our community on staffing as we begin planning for the next school year as well:

• Sherrie Shaver in 2nd grade is retiring after a 35 year career in education and 15 years at Hill. We thank her for her many years of service to the children of Austin! Kaci Moore, current 3rd grade teacher, will be moving into that 2nd grade position next year.
• Erin Webb, current Pre-K teacher, will be moving to an additional 1st grade position this year as we add a class at that grade level.
• Marci Adkinson, current PPCD teacher, will be moving into the vacant Pre-K4 position.
• Karol Hobbs and Elizabeth Smith will both be leaving Hill as literacy interventionists. We appreciate their service to Hill! Both are retired educators who will now be re-retiring if you will.
• Jaye Burke Bunde, our current bookkeeper and administrative assistant, will be moving over to Murchison to work with Ms. Newton. We are happy to keep her in the vertical team and thank her for her service to Hill!
• Vana Rosenblatt, one of our clerks in the office,  will be leaving Hill to pursue her next adventure. We thank her for her service to the Hill community!
• Krishna Sauceda, one of our childcare workers, will be leaving Hill to pursue her certification as a future teacher. We are proud of her and thank her for her service to Hill Elementary!

As always, we will continue to keep our community posted on staffing updates as we move closer to the fall semester.

Lastly, I wanted to update everyone on summer learning. There will be a 5th grade summer school available by invitation from the district. Students invited will meet certain criteria and will be notified in the next few weeks. There is discussion on a summer school for other grade levels as well but those decisions have yet to be made. We are excited to share that from our understanding, the Learning at Home website, Istation, Dreambox, BLEND pages, and some other district programs will be available for the majority of the summer, closing toward the end of July. While we don’t control this, we are happy this is the word. While new learning will not be added over the summer, this will allow students to still access programs to help them keep growing. These are available in the AISD student portal and again, everything is linked on the Learning at Home website for reference. 

As I conclude my first year as the proud principal of Hill School, I want to sincerely thank everyone for the support, guidance, and feedback this year. It has been eventful, but we are a true community who pull together and solve problems together. I wish you all a restful, recharging summer. Please know we will work hard to prepare for the fall while updating you regularly over the summer as we learn more. One last Dillo Cheer to you all, though you may see me on a lot of Zooms this week. Take care and enjoy the break!

Sincerely,

Principal Drummond