Friday News - January 8, 2021

Hillcrest Elementary School

Friday News

January 8, 2021

Dear Hillcrest Families,

Welcome back to school! I hope that you all found opportunities to relax, refresh and have plenty of off-screen fun during the school vacation week. At my house, we had fun with board games, puzzles and lots of Harry Potter movies.  It was a welcome change of pace and left me feeling re-energized to return to school this week.  Now that we’re back into the swing of things, we’ve been focused on getting our new reading intervention groups up and running in kindergarten and first grade.  We are incredibly lucky to have two full-time reading teachers at Hillcrest this year: Ms. Laura Brown and Ms. Katherine First. If your child is in need of an extra boost of reading instruction, you will likely get to know Ms. Brown or Ms. First soon!

In other important news: 

• You may occasionally notice new faces on the screen when your child is engaged in remote learning.  In addition to your child’s classroom teacher, you may see a Hillcrest paraprofessional, one of our reading teachers, a special education staff member, or our English Learning teacher. On occasion, I may also join a classroom.  These people are all members of our Hillcrest community who may be supporting an individual student’s learning, collaborating with the classroom teacher to deliver instruction, or conducting educational observations.  This shared approach to teaching and learning occurs regularly during in-person learning and continues in remote learning as well.  Please be assured that our Google Classrooms are closed domains which are quite secure. 

• I am excited to announce the first Friends of Hillcrest meeting of the school year! Friends of Hillcrest, also known as FoH, is our parent-teacher organization and has made so many wonderful contributions to the community such as free family fun events, enrichment activities, field trips and fundraisers.  This meeting will take place virtually on Wednesday, January 20th at 5:30.  I will include a meeting link in next week’s newsletter and will also share the link via email on January 20th. Please consider joining us to learn more about Friends of Hillcrest and to offer your energy and ideas.  

• You should have received your child’s report card in late December.  If you have not yet received it, please call Mrs. Prokowich in the main office at 863-9526 and she will send you a new copy. 

• And, please remember to call Mrs. Prokowich whenever your child may be absent from class.  You can always leave a voicemail message if an illness or unexpected event occurs during non-school hours. 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ---

Sarah Burstein

Sarah Burstein, Hillcrest Principal