Good evening Hillandale Families,

This is Dr. Hart-Olivis, proud principal of Hillandale Elementary School with this week’s Monday Message.  You should receive this message in both English and Spanish.

Today starts National Teacher Appreciation Week, and we’re celebrating the phenomenal educators at Hillandale in partnership with our super PTA.  They’re joining us this week to help with morning carpool and delivering special treats throughout the week.  The administrative team has a few special things planned this week as well, but I want to share with you, Hillandale Family, something that is more meaningful than anything to a teacher: SPECIAL THANK YOU MESSAGES!  One of our favorite things about Hillandale is that our students move on to middle school, high school, college, and beyond and still remember their days walking our halls.  Do you have a Hillandale alum, or a current student who would like to send a message to a Hillandale teacher?  Please encourage your elementary students to write a sweet note, and your older students can even send an email.  You’d be surprised how much a simple little “thank you” means to an educator.  This week, join me in celebrating the professionals who not only helped me raise my own children, but make me proud to be part of The Hillandale Family.

At Hillandale, it’s important to us that we regularly communicate with you about how you can help boost your child’s achievement at school and how important your support is from home. This year our students have shown tremendous growth, and we’re on a path to move the needle again, just like we did before the pandemic.  We’re focusing on ways to help our students learn and grow better than ever.  Parents, have you seen “new math” coming home, making it a challenge to help your child?  Guess what…the numbers do the same things they did when we were young.  Especially as we get into more complex mathematical equations, if you help your child get to an understanding of how to get to the correct answer, it doesn’t hurt at all.  Some of our students know the way we solved addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as “the standard algorithm.”  A good way to help your child practice is to see if they can solve the problem quicker than you can using the “old school” way, or you can compare answers once you’ve both solved the problem.

Join The Hillandale Family at Red Robin for a PTA dine out night TOMORROW, May 9 anytime from 4-8 pm.  Be sure to mention that your part of The Hillandale Family for 20% of the proceeds to come back to your child’s learning at Hillandale.  We’ll see you at the New Hope Commons Red Robin.

Stay up to date about what’s happening at Hillandale on our school website, hillandale.dpsnc.net and on Twitter and Instagram @HillandalePOWER.  You can also respond to me directly from this email, but your child’s teacher is the best first contact.

At Hillandale we strive for everything we do to be results-focused, data-informed, and student-driven.  We want to empower your child to excel in the academic and social skills required to be a leader in our community.  As always, thank you for your support, your partnership, and most of all, thank you for being part of The Hillandale Family.

At Hillandale we are #HESFullSTEAMahead!