From Principal Drummond

Dear Hill Community,

The first day of the 2022-2023 school year is Monday! It was wonderful to see all of the smiling faces that came through the door on Friday for our Meet the Teacher event. This first week letter is very lengthy but hopefully provides helpful information as we transition to the fall semester. You can also click here for the Parent Handbook with a lot of the same information.

Here are some basics for this school year. Our doors will open Monday at 7:15 am and students will be walked straight to their classes. Staff will be stationed around the campus to support you. For our Kindergarten families, we invite you to our Tears and Cheers Parent Coffee in the cafeteria once your student is safely in their classroom. Beginning Tuesday, our morning assemblies will begin at 7:30 am in the cafeteria/small gym area. We will assist all students into assembly as parents/guardians will not walk students into the building beginning Tuesday. Our doors will start to open at 7:00 am for the rest of the school year. Again, we encourage all families to have their students attend assembly by 7:30. The official attendance bell will ring at 7:40. Please see the Arrival/Dismissal letter from Friday for more information.  [also included in a post below]

We also wanted to remind families about some changes to our master schedule this year. All students K-5 will have PE class each day this year. This will take place at every elementary school in AISD. They will still attend the same amount of art/music classes as well. This change will also support our teachers receiving more planning and preparation time throughout the school year. With increased Physical Education classes, we also require more support and are currently looking to fill a PE Teacher Assistant position. We are seeking applicants! In the meantime, please consider signing up to support our coaches through this sign-up genius to volunteer some time.  This support is for the first three weeks, 1-2 parents each day, helping outside to support our Kindergarten students in their rotation. You will encourage kids, escort students to the building if needed, and ensure students are safely where they need to be. The link takes you to a sign-up genius and can be a very small, one time commitment! Thank you for your consideration. Our coaches do so much for us throughout the year, and we are here to support them.

Incoming and interested Pre-K4 families: We want to assure everyone that there is space at Hill for your Pre-K student! There have been some challenges with the registration process centrally this year that we apologize for. Many of you have acceptance letters. We are now only waiting on a final approval step. We appreciate your patience and want to reiterate that we can accommodate any student still waiting to be registered and accepted. You can reach out to us in the front office at 512-414-2369 with any questions this week or by email.

Health and safety protocols to begin the fall semester look very similar to when we left for the summer. Masks continue to be optional. Masks will continue to be made available for students, staff, and visitors who request one. We will not be contact tracing on campus. District COVID-19 testing hubs are not currently available. If your student does test positive, we ask you to report it to Principal Drummond. Positive cases will continue to isolate from campus for 5 days from the day of a positive test. Students would then wear a mask for the next 5 days when back on campus. Please reach out to Principal Drummond with any questions.

As we begin the 2022-2023 school year, there will be a few changes to school devices. For lost chargers and student devices, there will be a fee. We are aware of the age of many chargers. If they have old ones that are not charging, we will replace them. A student device will cost $50, and a charger will cost $15. Any inquiries about technology must be submitted to Mrs. Martinez. Hill Elementary will receive all payments. For every replacement that is required, Mrs. Martinez will provide a receipt. Additionally, we ask that the devices be free of stickers. This will make the transition to another student, if necessary, easier. Before exchanging it for another device, if your child already has stickers on it, please take them off. To request a device or charger for a student, all teachers must submit a google form. If you have any questions, please e-mail Nancy Martinez at nancy.martinez2@austinisd.org.

As we look ahead to a fresh start, we thought it would be fun to share some successes we saw in AISD during a very difficult time last year. We encourage you to click and read an article highlighting the big gains and student growth our 3rd graders showed on their STAAR tests last year! More to come this year as well. Have a restful weekend! We will see you first thing Monday.

Principal Drummond