An Update from Principal Drummond

Dear Hill Community,
We hope everyone is having a nice week of summer. We will plan to give a weekly update through your email and the PTA newsletter each week for the remainder of summer so all of our families have the most up to date information.

Hopefully everyone was able to view Dr. Cruz’s video with some updated information on school reopening. Since then, we had the announcement that learning for all students will begin online for the first 3 weeks of school, with no in-person learning on any campus during that period. This decision is based on the health order from the Austin-Travis County Health Authority which prohibits in-person instruction or student activities on campuses for any public or private school through September 7th. We know this creates hardship for some families during an already tough time. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and flexibility. This is an opportunity for us to ensure the safest possible start to school with more time to prepare for students on campus, as we see decisions and changes still being made weekly at many levels.

With this decision, we were also updated this week that the district is continuing to move forward with securing 24,000 Ipads to distribute to any PK-2nd grade students who need them for at-home learning. The distribution method is still being developed with more information to come soon.

The data from the district’s June Family Pulse Survey has been made available to help us with planning for the upcoming semester. Based on responses, 42% of families reported they intend to send their student(s) to campus for learning, 41% reported they intend to send their student(s) to campus conditionally, and 17% reported they would not be sending their student to physical campus as we begin the semester. Obviously, we know these numbers are not final and will change based on many factors. A second Pulse Survey will be sent out in the coming weeks. Thank you for taking the time to give us this crucial information on your intentions for when in-person learning is possible!

We look forward to seeing anyone who can make it at our first Principal Coffee coming up this week on Thursday, July 23rd, at 10:00 am. Here is the Zoom information:

Hill Principal Coffee 7/23
Time: Jul 23, 2020 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 837 7632 2672
Password: dillos

In order to help us prepare, you are invited to complete this Google Form to submit your top questions you currently have. While every question may not be answerable at this time, it will help us prepare for the most common questions and to see what further information we need to gather. Thank you for helping us to make this Principal Coffee as useful as possible for our families. We will plan to have an August Principal Coffee prior to school beginning as well.

While the unknown right now is not comfortable and not ideal, the one thing we do know is that our staff cannot wait to connect with your students again. Enjoy the last full week of July and see you on Thursday!

Principal Drummond