Oak Hills Newsletter
August 31, 2018
Principal's Message
Dear Oak Hills Families,
We have had a very smooth opening to the school year! It has been delightful to see our students engaged and excited about their learning in the classroom again. We have been preparing for our students’ return all summer and are so grateful to have them back! Thank you for sending us such amazing students.
We received exciting news on Monday. Oak Hills Elementary has been selected to be a Teacher's College Lab school. Teacher's College is part of Columbia University and the authors of both the Reading and Writing adoptions for elementary. We have been learning to incorporate the reading and writing workshops, in our classrooms. in the last two years, and we are looking forward to working with literacy coaches to learn more about the best practices in teaching reading and writing. We feel fortunate to be selected as one of three elementary schools in the district to receive this honor and additional resources from the district.
On another note, Curriculum Night is next Thursday, 9/6. Here is the schedule for the night:
5:00pm-6:00pm ELL Parent Meeting
6:00pm-6:40pm 3rd-5th Grade Classroom Presentations
6:45pm-7:15pm Principal’s Presentation in gym (also live streamed into classrooms)
7:20pm-8:00pm K-2nd Grade Classroom Presentations
I encourage you to join us at Curriculum Night as it is a wonderful way to learn about the curricular focus for the year and get to know your child’s teacher. This is a parent meeting and we ask that you keep your children home. I look forward to seeing all of you on this special night.
Warm regards,
Sheila Baumgardner
Updates on Volunteer/Background Check and Absence/Tardy Policies
I wanted to update you on a couple of changes in volunteer guidelines. Sometimes you may wonder if the principal makes the decision around when and how parents can volunteer. Please know I do not make those decisions. Rather, my job is to follow district guidelines so we have equitable practices at each of the buildings. Here is the District's Administrative Regulation that describes the background check and volunteer guidelines. I know many parents with younger siblings wonder why they cannot bring their younger child when they volunteer. The paragraph below is taken directly from the administrative regulation:
Volunteers should not bring younger siblings or babies to school when they are scheduled to volunteer. It is a safety issue. It is distracting in the classroom and other areas and causes disruption when there are additional children in the learning space.
In staying with this guideline, we do not allow parents to volunteer with their younger sibling during the school day. However, at Oak Hills we welcome younger siblings when you attend any parent only meeting. We are also looking into possibilities of working with our PTO and other outside agencies for possible babysitting co-ops and/or using the Oak Hills Rec Center for work parties so parents with younger siblings can volunteer. We will keep you posted on our progress on this matter. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.
Additionally, we will be allowing parent visitors without background checks and younger siblings at the Jog-A-Thon and Field Day. The PTO will assist the school in finding volunteers to monitor all exits and entryways into our field. Parents volunteering at these events will need to continue following district policy of background checks and no younger siblings.
We also have an update with the district guideline on absences. There has been an adjustment made to this policy. We will now make doctor's appointments, during the school day, an excused tardy or absence. I am so glad this change was made with the updated regulation.
Picnic a Success!!
Meet Lucky the Otter!!
Thank you for the Meals!!
Hooray for our new filling station!
For back-to-school night, school lunch time and any time you are in the building, please bring your reusable water bottle to refill at our newly installed water bottle filling station in the cafeteria!
The Green Team held several fundraisers for this project over the past two years, along with bottle deposit refunds from Bale's Thriftway. Thank you for helping out!
It is the third filling station installed at Oak Hills, aimed at eliminating the need for disposable plastic water bottles.
So Much Learning Going On at Oak Hills
K-2 Hula Hoop Winner
3-5 Hula Hoop Winner
Tentative Dates for 2018-19
(Please check newsletter weekly as dates/times may change)
9/3 SCHOOL CLOSED
9/6 5-6 pm ELL Night and 6-8 pm Curriculum Night
9/10 6-7 pm Global Citizenship Meeting and 7-8 pm PTO Meeting
9/25 8-9 am - All Parent Workshop - Regulation
9/28 6-8 pm MOVIE NIGHT!
10/5 JOG-A-THON
10/9 Picture Day
10/15 3 pm PTO Meeting
10/16 8-9 am - All Parent Workshop - Health
10/24 3:30-7:30 pm - CONFERENCES
10/25 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - 7:30 am - 7:30 pm CONFERENCES
10/26 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
11/7 8:00 am - Global Citizenship Mtg.
11/8 6-8 pm MOVIE NIGHT!
11/9 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - Grading Day
11/12 SCHOOL CLOSED - Veteran's Day
11/15 8:15-10:30, 4th & 5th - Career Fair
11/15 6-8 pm Family Fitness Night
11/21-23 SCHOOL CLOSED
11/27 Picture Retakes
12/3-12/7 BOOK FAIR
12-24 thru 1/4/2019 SCHOOL CLOSED
1/7/19 WELCOME BACK!
1/14 6 pm Global Meeting and 7 pm PTO Meeting
1/15 8-9 am - All Parent Workshop - Writing
1/21 SCHOOL CLOSED
1/28 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - Grading Day
2/4 Report Cards Go Home
2/8 6-8 pm MOVIE NIGHT
2/11 3 pm PTO Meeting
2/12 8-9 am - All Parent Workshop - Math
2/14 6-8 pm PTO Global Dance
2/18 SCHOOL CLOSED
3/12 8-9 am Global Citizenship Meeting
3/14 6-8 pm STEM/Future Ready Night
3/25 thru 3/29 SCHOOL CLOSED
4/4 1:15 pm VOLUNTEER TEA
6-8 pm - MOVIE NIGHT
4/5 NO SCHOOL - Grading Day
4/8 thru 4/12 BOOK FAIR
4/15 7 pm PTO Meeting
4/17 3:30-7:30 pm CONFERENCES
4/18 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS - 7:30 am - 7:30 pm CONFERENCES
4/19 NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
4/25 6-8 pm Earth Night
4/26 8:30-10:00 Kindy Round Up
4/27 Oak Hills Auction
4/30 8-9 am - All Parent Workshop - Reading
5/6-5/10 Staff Appreciation Week
5/10 5th Grade Wax Museum
5/13 6 pm Global Meeting and 7 pm PTO Meeting
5/16 6-8 pm Art Night
5/27 NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
6/3 3 pm PTO Meeting
6/7 Field Day
6/13 Fifth Grade Celebration
6/14 Last Day for Students