Families with students in 1st through 5th grades, join us for Back to School Night on September 7th.  This is a parent-only evening.

5:30-6:00pm.  Cafeteria.  Short presentations from Hill administration, Essential Areas, and PTA.

6:00-6:45pm.  Classrooms.  Presentations from your classroom teacher(s).  Families who need to visit multiple classrooms are invited to move in and out as needed.

Do you have gently used or new clothing items you can donate to the school? The Hill Health Office is dire need of the following items, in all sizes, for both male and female students to have available for bathroom accidents, or other mishap changing needs for the 2023-24 school year.

• NEW boy’s underwear, ages 4-8
• Girl’s shorts/pants 6+, gently used (no underwear needed)

Please no clothes with holes and no dresses,  or costume like clothes. We appreciate donations but have limited space. Please only provide the items requested. Thank you!

New to Hill? Retuning Dillo who has made a new friend? Come join us for Swings and Stories Sunday September 10th at 9am on the Big Playground. The theme is “All are welcome” and we will read the book by the same name.

Questions? Email Anna Ansari and Emma Ross (New Parent Co-Chairs) newparentcoordinator@hillelementary.com

Interested in cub scouts for your son or daughter? Cub Scouts is for boys and girls from kinder – 5th grade. Pack 511 meets about twice per month (once as a Pack, and once as a grade-specific Den), goes on 4 Saturday night camping trips per year, and hosts other fun activities such as Pinewood Derby, BB-gun practice, archery, broomball, and Rain gutter Regatta.  The family-oriented group allows children to experience adventure, nature, science, community service, sports, and of course fun and friendship.

Cub Scouts Dillo Pack 511 Invites Hill Families to Opening Night LIVE Birds of Prey Show! (note new date). Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, 6-7:15pm (changed from Sept. 7 to avoid Back to School Night conflict), St. Matthews, Huffman Hall (8134 Mesa Dr). Birds of Prey show from Wildlife Revealed followed by short info session and registration for 2023-234 school year. Please RSVP: Scouts.Pack511@gmail.com.

Families with students in First through Fifth grades, join us for Back to School Night on September 7th.  This is a parent-only evening.

5:30-6:00pm.  Cafeteria.  Short presentations from Hill administration, Essential Areas, and PTA.

6:00-6:45pm.  Classrooms.  Presentations from your classroom teacher(s).  Families who need to visit multiple classrooms are invited to move in and out as needed.

Dear Hill Community,

We are excited to move into the month of September this week with hopefully cooler weather on the way soon. Thank you all for continuing to send water bottles each day and beginning hydration at home!

An Important Note from AISD: Last spring, the Texas Legislature passed a new law, HB 3, requiring all Texas school districts to have at least one armed security officer at every campus during school hours.

• Austin ISD is NOT considering arming teachers or other district employees outside of Austin ISD Police Department to comply with the law.
• We are planning to hire more than 70 new SRO’s to cover all 78 elementary campuses, plus associated support staff, to meet the new requirements.
• The board is required to approve the required number of SROs per campus. They are anticipated to adopt this plan at their August 31 voting meeting.

Hill Volunteer Training and Homeroom Parent Meeting from PTA: Did you sign up to Volunteer or be a Homeroom Parent? Or maybe you are interested in Volunteering? Please Join us for Volunteering Training followed by a Homeroom Parent Meeting/Q&A on ZOOM, August 30th (2 sessions available): 8:30am or 2pm. Zoom Link: https://austinisd-org.zoom.us/j/84874901787?pwd=TGpQbUExMmZUNmFLWk1OcnB4MVFCdz09

We also added Homeroom parents for our essential teachers this year to help with various projects throughout the year. Please consider helping one of those groups as well!  Homeroom parent sign up here. Register as a volunteer here. Questions? Reach out to the Volunteer coordinator, Kristen Trout at volunteercoordinator@hillelementary.com.

Click on this link for the Hill Counselor Newsletter we want to share this year. Ms. Curran and Ms. Winfrey look forward to working with your students! You can check out what they will be learning about here throughout the year.

As is possible, we wanted to encourage our parents/guardians to avoid early pickups in the afternoon as much as possible. We want our Dillos learning in their classroom until the end of the day. Picking up early after 2:30 also puts a strain on our office staff. We appreciate your thoughtfulness in helping with this! If your student is going to be picked up early or dismissed in a different way, please communicate this as early as possible to your teacher.

We wanted to make everyone aware that the leveling process in AISD will begin in the coming weeks. Leveling is the process of equalizing staffing across the district. Teachers from under enrolled schools are moved to schools that have exceeded projected enrollment. We do not know if leveling will affect Hill. We did want to assure everyone that any affected family would be contacted in a timely manner if Hill is involved in any way. We just wanted to ensure we made our community aware that the process does take place each year throughout our district.

We have had some questions recently on our policy for Apple/Google Watches. Just as a reminder, we do treat these as cell phones if students are texting on them at school or using them as devices at school. Per our cell phone policy, we always give warnings on this first, then begin taking them up. If students bring them in school, they should be in their backpacks during the school days, just like cell phones. Thanks for ensuring your student knows not to use their Apple/Google Watch at school.

Have a nice week, Dillo Families!

Principal Drummond

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Hill faculty and staff celebrating birthdays this month!  We are grateful for you and wish you the best!   8/8 Maddy Brooks.  8/10 Jacob Mayer.  8/11 Kelly Von Kreisler. 8/18 Erica Mullen.  8/25 Jenny Burke. 

A BIG DILLO CHEER to our excellent teachers and staff for all they have done for our students during these first couple of weeks of school.  We appreciate you!

We also would like to give a BIG DILLO CHEER to a few other outstanding groups and individuals who have stepped up to help make Hill shine!

• Thank you to the Hospitality Committee for organizing tacos for our teachers on their first Monday back and for hosting our new families joining our Hill community at Tears & Cheers!
• Thank you to the School Supplies Committee for getting all of our students’ school supplies delivered to their classrooms before Meet the Teacher!
• Thank you to the Workroom Committee for helping our teachers prepare for the school year by copying, laminating, sharpening pencils, and so much more!
• Thank you to the Hill Garden for revitalizing the school garden and showing the front entrance some love before school started!
• Thank you to the Dillo Dads for painting multiple teachers’ classrooms, watering our legacy trees, adding mulch to our newly planted trees off of Tallwood Drive, landscape cleaning, and so much more!
• Thank you to the Open House Committee for organizing our Meet The Teacher event before the start of the school year!
• Thank you to the Merchandise Committee for creating and selling our 2023- 2024 Spirit Gear!
• Thank you to all our parents who helped our kindergarten teachers with dismissal and those who have helped in the lunchroom!
• Thank you to our New Parent Coordinator for organizing our Tears & Cheers event for our new families to Hill and for organizing and hosting our New Student Playdate before the start of school!