Dillo Details

Reminder that nominations for the Gifted and Talented Program are due Friday, October 2nd for ALL grades K-5.

Nomination Process (For Parents):
1) Please complete the GT Nomination Form.
2) Complete the Parent Checklist and email to chelsea.stover@austinisd.org and stephanie.winfrey@austinisd.org. This will come in an email when you have completed the Nomination Form.

For more information about the Hill Elementary GT Nomination Process, please visit our Hill GT Newsletter.

For more information about the Austin ISD GT Program, please visit the Austin ISD Advanced Academics website.

Hill GT Advocates:
Chelsea Stover, chelsea.stover@austinisd.org
Stephanie Winfrey, stephanie.winfrey@austinisd.org

Are you interested in your child participating in a Counselor Small Group this fall?
In our grade level small groups we will address several topics throughout the semester. Our small groups will take place on Zoom. Small groups are a great way for your students to be in a safe place with peers and share common experiences, questions, or concerns while we are all working to better ourselves. Students will find that they are not alone with their feelings and experiences.

Please complete this Small Group Interest Form if you are interested. 

Reminder to visit the Community Counselor Newsletter for more information from your school counselors. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Chelsea Stover, or Stephanie Winfrey.

While the phrase “college days” may spark many memories, it is an opportunity for our Hill parents to share their career and educational experiences with our Dillos.  And we are looking for parents to volunteer or to nominate someone who may have an interesting story to tell.

The goal behind College Days is to get our Dillos thinking about what they want to do and be when they grow up — and most importantly what type of education, training, and experience is needed to get there.  Traditionally, we have invited guests to speak, each month, during the morning assembly.  However, this year, we are shifting that format to virtual interviews.  These interviews will last no longer than a few minutes.  Each will be recorded/edited and will include four main questions:

• Tell us a little bit about your job and what’s a typical day for you?
• What type of formal education do you have and how has it prepared you for your career?
• What’s most rewarding about your job?
• What advice would you give any Dillos who are interested in pursuing a career similar to yours?

If you’d like to participate or nominate another parent, please reach out to Austin Holder. Thank you!

September is almost over, but there is still time to start planting some winter vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, kale and spinach. Also think about planting some great smelling herbs like oregano, thyme, and lavender.

Gardening and connecting with nature can be done indoors and out. The home gardening project of the week is a Kitchen Scrap Gardening. Sometimes the best seeds are free seeds. Click here for more info to have your little Dillo planting all new veggies.  A few Hill community beds will remain, if helping there is more your style. If your family is interested, please contact hillschoolgarden@gmail.com.

Click on this link to view the Hill Principal Check-In video recording from Thursday, September 24th.

Dear Hill Community,
Time is flying as we have wrapped up our first full week of instruction for the school year. Thank you for the support and feedback the last few weeks! There is a lot of information to share so we will try to keep this update as concise as possible.

The biggest news as of Wednesday was the announcement of the district and Hill campus plan for the reopening of our building. Here are some bullets so everyone has clarity on the basic logistics:

• The phasing in of students will begin on Monday, October 5th. This will be the 5th week of school. The phase-in process will take place between weeks 5-8 of school.
• For the 5th week of school on October 5th, we will limit our capacity to 258 students at most. We do not anticipate coming close to this number based on the groups of students coming back that first week. We will have less than 25% of our capacity on campus as needed.
• A comprehensive list of the phase-in groups by week was published by the district this week. On October 5th, the first students allowed to phase-in on campus will be:
  Pre-K
  Kindergarten
  Students of staff returning to their home school
  Students receiving these specialized services: SCORES, early childhood special education
  Siblings of any students in the groups above
  **If you are in any of the groups above and intend on returning to campus October 5th for blended learning, please notify your teacher in the upcoming week if you have not done so already. Thank you! They may be reaching out as well so we have the best possible picture.
• Students will stay in one room for the day to maximize safety. Desks/tables will be spaced 6’ apart as a norm set by the district.
• The model of instruction for the phase-in weeks will be a “blended model”. This means we will have students completing virtual learning in the classroom with their teacher. This could look like a whole class meeting with students at-home and in the classroom on a device on Zoom. The teacher in the classroom will facilitate both face to face and virtual learning during this period. Teachers will be wearing masks at all times during the day while instructing as safety and protocol dictates. We will learn a lot during this time on what will work well and what will need to be adjusted in this model. We are happy that overall, our schedules and class assignments should be able to stay in-tact with some shifts for lunch and recess that may be needed. Please also know that for those first couple of days, especially for our Pre-K and Kindergarten students, our number one priority will be teaching our students expectations and our systems on-campus as safety is paramount and many of these students are coming to school for the first time. We appreciate everyone’s patience as this will be a process.
• Recess will take place on campus in designated areas with single classes in a given area for safety. We will work on rotations to ensure students are able to see different areas. Interactions between students will be limited as 6’ distancing will still be monitored and expected during this time.
• Lunches will take place in the classroom as well. For students who receive lunch from our cafeteria staff, they will be brought to the classroom by staff and left outside the door. Lunches will then be eaten at desks. As seen in the video below, we anticipate providing desk shields for students as they will be removing their masks to eat. Eating and drinking will be the only time of the day when students may remove their masks.
• Arrival and dismissal plans will be shared next week as we finalize our working draft of those with our leadership on campus. Just know it will be a slower process than normal with safety being ensured in both instances. Thank you so much for your patience during these weeks with brand new systems being tested out for the first time as well.

There are also a couple of good video resources that may help you in filling out the final district survey on your intentions for in-person vs. virtual learning. Our Hill Principal Check-In this week focused entirely on the phase-in plan and may answer a lot of wonderings you have. Also, the school district shared a short video on the phase-in to campus as well that may be helpful. We thank all of our families for completing the Final District Survey by this Monday to give us the crucial information we need to plan at each grade level. While it is not a commitment, it is so helpful!  Thank you in advance.

Our next Hill Principal Check-In will be this Thursday, September 24th, at 4:00. Zoom information is below. We are excited to welcome Board Trustee Kristin Ashy to our meeting! The Hill Reopening Plan working draft will be shared as well. We hope everyone can make it!

Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 894 3084 2215
Passcode: dillos

We met with Hill parent and awesome AISD tech design coach Laurie Beaman as a staff this week to problem solve some common problems our families are having to best support them as we are constantly learning. She also kindly invited all of our Hill families to join the “Unofficial” Tech Support Facebook Group she started so people can swap tips and share ideas. Feel free to join if you feel this is a good fit for you.

On a different note, we encourage everyone to check out the calendar on the Dillo Details this week for a few fun events. On Wednesday, your family can eat at Top Notch for Hill Spirit Day beginning at 11:00 am that will also help support our school! Then on Thursday, it is Sock Hop dress up day. We will get our 50th anniversary theme going here as your students can dress in 50’s themes as we always do this time of year. While we can’t hold our traditional sock hop, we hope this at least provides a fun day at home. More to come on Hill’s 50th anniversary celebrations later this fall! And if you haven’t yet, please join our Hill PTA! We always aim for 100%.

As you can see, there is much more information to come soon, and we will keep our community updated. Enjoy your weekend, Hill families!

Principal Drummond

Make sure to check out Marketplace to view the NEW Dillo Gear for sale along with the 50th Anniversary merchandise!

50th Anniversary Merchandise for sale:
Anniversary T-Shirts: Celebrate Hill Elementary’s 50th-anniversary all year long with a t-shirt designed exclusively for Hill’s 50th year!
Anniversary Boxes: Buy a Hill Anniversary box and get everything you need for a Dillo-pride celebration.
Yard Signs: Show your Dillo pride and help us celebrate Hill’s 50th Anniversary with a yard sign with Hill’s custom 50th logo!

And don’t forget to MARK YOUR CALENDAR for the 50th Anniversary Car Parade on Saturday, November 7th! More details to follow, but we hope our entire community can join us to celebrate safely!

Dillo Gear for sale:  
Don’t forget to order your 2020-2021 Dillo Gear including T-Shirts, Hats, Kolder Kaddies and Stickers.  Check out a few NEW color choices and a long-sleeve T-shirt option!  This is the FINAL re-order, there will NOT be another chance to purchase.

All merchandise makes EXCELLENT GIFTS – neighbors, friends and family, Hill-Alumni, and teachers can show their Dillo Pride and support for our first 50 years! Support Hill and ORDER TODAY!

Deadline to order is Sunday, October 4th.  *All Dillo Gear and 50th Anniversary items will be available for pick up on Saturday, October 24th.  More details to come.

Top Notch Hamburgers will be hosting a Spirit Day this Wednesday, September 23 from 11am – 9pm.   Order online, at the carhop stations onsite or call for takeout.  Top Notch will save your receipts and donate 15% of sales back to Hill Elementary PTA!  Click here for more information. Thank you Top Notch Hamburgers!!!

Wear your Sock Hop gear and show Top Notch some love by tagging any social pics #topnotchaustin and don’t forget to send pictures to the Yearbook Committee.

Our next Hill Principal Check-In will be this Thursday, September 24th, at 4:00. Zoom information is below. We are excited to welcome Board Trustee Kristin Ashy to our meeting! The Hill Reopening Plan working draft will be shared as well. We hope everyone can make it!

Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 894 3084 2215
Passcode: dillos

A few teachers are still in need of a Homeroom Parent.  If interested, please click here to sign up to help out this year!