An Update from Principal Drummond

Dear Hill Community,
It was great seeing many of you for the second time this summer on Thursday at our Principal Check-In that is linked here. For those who were not able to attend, we discussed draft scheduling as we are currently working through the process with our grade level teams, updates on the next few weeks, and answered thoughtful questions from the community you may have as well.

As you have probably heard by now, the beginning of school just changed greatly with the AISD School Board meeting on Thursday where our trustees voted to move the first day of school to September 8th. This delays the beginning of our school year for students by three weeks. Our teachers will now begin their contract year on August 18th to begin planning and preparation for the fall. Please know our staff will work very hard during this time to ensure we are ready to provide enriching virtual experiences to our students while also building connections with our Dillos and families prior to school beginning. We acknowledge the hardship this puts on many of our families as virtual learning is possibly extended as well. For now, you can anticipate the first four weeks of school being all virtual. Please reach out to us for supports you need so we can best assist you as the crucial educators at home. We appreciate all of our stakeholders and the work you are doing for our students.

With the September 8th start to school, we will push back the “posting” of class rosters and sharing of finalized schedules with the hopes to have both of these communicated to all families the week of August 24th. We will publish those dates soon as our calendar and work schedules become more concrete. We do plan to move forward with several events this upcoming week we hope you can join us for:

Parent BLEND/Seesaw Training (Tuesday, August 11th, at 4:30 pm):  We are excited to offer all of our Hill parents and guardians the opportunity to have our district technology department lead you through the basics of BLEND and Seesaw, the two learning platforms we will be primarily using this year. The goal is to support our parents so they can best support their learners.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 896 2991 8080
Passcode: dillos

New Parent Night/ Pre-k & Kindergarten Back to School Night (Thursday, August 13th, at 5:00 pm):  We want to welcome all of our new Hill families to learn more about Hill, our staff, and our traditions. The first 30 minutes or so will be for all new Hill families. After this introduction, we will have all of our incoming Pre-K and Kindergarten families stay on for introductions and information pertinent to those grade levels. We encourage you to bring your questions as well so everyone feels ready for the first day of school!
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 830 0630 0645
Passcode: dillos

Dillo Pickup Day (Friday, August 14th, from 10:00 am- 4:00 pm):  This is an opportunity to pick up your Hill marketplace merchandise, Spirit Gear, 2019-20 Yearbooks and Pre-purchased Sprout school supplies.

We also want to keep everyone updated on our staffing for this school year. Melanie Brown, one of our amazing 4th grade teachers, has left Hill to focus on family. We want to thank Melanie for her years of service to our families and wish her the best of luck. We are excited to announce that Erin Bostick will be joining our 4th grade team as a language arts and social studies teacher. Erin most recently served as a certified teacher and long term substitute on our 4th grade team in the spring, and we are happy she is now joining our staff full time. In our office, we are happy to announce we have added Linda Glass to our team as a new clerk. She brings years of customer service and administrative experience with her and is ready to support our Hill community.

You can plan on another Principal Check-In being announced for the week of August 17th to keep everyone updated on the newest information and to listen to our families. I hope to see some of you in person for the Dillo Pickup day during my shift! We appreciate all of our volunteers who are making next week possible. Have a beautiful weekend, Hill community!

Principal Drummond

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