Highland Happenings
April 19th, 2024
Open House is Next Week!
This week we our second graders took a field trip to the Tivoli and we held our annual book swap! Thank you to all of our Book Swap volunteers and our Highland PTA for making this event possible! In addition, we wrapped up the last of the IAR testing for 2023-2024 school year. We are very proud of our Huskies for doing their best on this important assessment. We hope to see all of our families at Open House next week. Open House is next Tuesday, April 23rd from 6:00-7:30 p.m. We also hope you can join us for the Education Foundation's newest event, Bougie Bingo! More information about this exciting event can be found below. Please feel free to reach out to me at zcraft@dg58.org, or our main office at 630-719-5835 if you have any questions or need any assistance. Take care and have a wonderful weekend!
My Best,
Zac Craft
Principal, Highland School
Join us for Education Foundation Fundraiser
Have you heard? Bougie Bingo is coming to town and you're invited! Bingo is getting a glamorous makeover with the perfect blend of fun and philanthropy – supporting the Education Foundation of Downers Grove District 58. We hope you'll join us! Buy your tickets here.
Weekly Preview
- 04/22: Learn Not to Burn w/DGFD
- 04/23 Board Game Club
- 04/24: Author Fest
- 04/24: April All-School Meeting
- 04/25: Author Fest
- 04/25: Art Club
- 04/26: Author Fest
Later On
- 04/29: Learn Not to Burn w/DGFD
- 04/30: 3rd grade orchestra demonstration
- 04/30: 4th grade band demonstration
- 05/01: Student Council meeting
- 05/02: Art Club
- 05/02: Scoop Meeting
- 05/03: Kindergarten field trip to Brookfield Zoo
- 05/03: Treat Day
Spring MAP Testing Begins April 30th
Our Spring MAP benchmark testing will begin the week of April 29th. This is an exciting opportunity for our students to demonstrate the knowledge they have built all year, as well as for our teachers to collect data to inform their instruction and plan for next year. Below is the MAP testing schedule. We would appreciate it if you remind your student to try their best on the test, get a good night sleep before the test, (and everyday), and eat healthy breakfast!
2024-2025 Band & Orchestra Information
Downers Grove District 58 has a strong commitment to music education in all of our schools. We are exceedingly proud of our students and the people they become through their involvement in studying music. Participation in beginning band or orchestra is the first step in learning a unique skill that will last a lifetime!
It is time for us to begin the process of planing for band and orchestra for the 2024-2025 school year. Please find more information about band and orchestra for next year by clicking here.
Construction Continues in District 58
Construction began at many District 58 schools over spring break, including work at our school. To keep parents apprised of construction progress, updates will be provided on the District website, including progress dashboards of our middle schools.
In addition to the middle schools, over spring break on Saturday, March 23, the District began preliminary construction work at the Phase I Elementary Schools (Henry Puffer, Highland, Hillcrest, and Whittier). In small areas at each of these four schools, asbestos was abated using a licensed and trained Asbestos Abatement Contractor utilizing workers trained, accredited, and licensed to perform asbestos abatement in Illinois public school buildings. In addition, the project was monitored at all times by TEM Environmental, Inc.
This limited work allowed us to get a jump start on larger projects. Since the District needs to begin work immediately after we end school in late May, we want to use every opportunity we have to be ready to go. If we put off abatement until June, regular construction work would be delayed by two more weeks. The following areas were abated over Spring Break:
Henry Puffer – Abatement will occur above the primary hallway ceiling
Highland – Abatement will occur in ceilings above two classroom bathrooms
Hillcrest – Abatement will occur in ceilings and walls of primary bathrooms
Whittier – Abatement will occur in ceilings above the primary bathrooms
All schools will underwent environmental air testing following the work. Contractors covered any masonry units or holes created from the abatement work before school resumed.
Registration Update
Thank you for registering your child(ren) for the 2024-25 school year! We still have a little ways to go to reach 100%. If you still need to do so, please register this week!
Special Education Information Session!
Varsity Tutors
Does your child have an interest in cooking, chess, dinosaurs, coding, or math magic? Varsity Tutors, an online resource the Downers Grove Grade School District and the DuPage County ROE have made available to all students for free offers celebrity-led StarCourses. Log in to Clever on your child's device and sign up for classes of interest...it's that easy!
The Highland Scoop!
PTA All Day
Book Swap
Thank you to Katie Troelstrup and all of the volunteers for another successful Book Swap! There were so many happy faces while picking out their new book treasures! We love this tradition and love giving new homes to these books. Thank you for all of your donations, too.
End of Year Family Party
Please help us celebrate the end of another great year at Highland!
Join us Sunday, May 19 from 1pm-3pm at the Highland school yard. We will have games, balloon twisters, face painters, snacks, drinks and ice cream. The ice cream truck will be self pay, so please bring cash or a credit card. The options range in price from $3-$6 a piece.
Please sign up here to help out!! We need people to bring tents, snacks, coolers, monitor activities, set up and clean up!!
Contact Suzanne Mraz with any questions. (773)-870-1213 or suzanne.mraz@gmail.com
Open House
Hey Huskies! The PTA will be serving popsicle treats in the gym during this year’s Open House on 4/23 from 6-7:30pm. We are looking for a few extra hands to help distribute. Please refer to the SignUpGenius here for volunteer opportunities!
Highland kindly asks that families with last names that begin with letters M-Z attend from 6:00-6:45, and families with last names that begin with letters A-L attend from 6:45-7:30.
#OnePackOfPackersReadyToPack
As you all know, Highland’s Teachers and Staff are entering their “Packing Era” and we’d love your help! We recognize that each teacher and staff may be on a different schedule when it comes to packing. The PTA would like to get a list of volunteers who are willing to be “on call” or available in/when a teacher/staff may need packing assistance. When you sign up, you are simply signing up to be on the list of potential helpers. We know schedules vary daily but we are compiling a list of potential helpers! Sign up here!
If you’d like to help but don’t have time- no problem! We are planning to keep the staff and volunteers fed with snacks and drinks. Feel free to donate via MemberHub as a general donation and we’ll put it to good use for motivation to get the entire school packed!
If you have questions please contact Monica Zycinski @ monica.zycinski@gmail.com
PTA Board Nominations
The following individuals have been slated for nomination to the 2024-25 Highland PTA Board:
Co-President: Hope Vecellio
Co-President: Melissa Mitra
Vice President: Julia Maschek
VP of Finance: Cara Baran
Treasurer: Monica Zycinski
Secretary: Amy Roe
Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination and all who participated in the process, including our nominating committee (Jenny Bain, Amanda Wiley, Nikki O'Farrell, Carie Blonn, & Mr. Craft).
Elections will be held at the May 14th PTA Meeting, which will start at 7p.m.
If you have any questions about the elections process, please feel free to contact the PTA Board at highlandpta58@gmail.com
Dining for Dollars
Thank you to all the Highland families for supporting Dining for Dollars! Whether you had ice cream for breakfast, malts for lunch, or burgers for dinner, we had another successful evening and we thank you!
Always Here!
Item's that can be found in every edition of the Highland Happenings, such as the Highland Playbook and our student attendance form can be found below. We want to ensure that these resources are always available to our families while also making each week's Happenings as reader-friendly as possible!
School Health Requirements
Please click below to see the most up to date school health requirements. If you have any questions regarding health requirements for your student, please reach out to one of the members of our school nursing team.
Community Resources
New service on mental health resources
District 58 strives to create a culture of well-being for students, parents, staff and community. To further support this endeavor, the District has invested in an additional support service through ReferralGPS.
ReferralGPS is a service providing assistance to our community in finding local mental health and substance use-related treatment resources. The service compliments the District’s existing systems of support as a tool for student service teams and families to connect with treatment. Along with a searchable database of treatment options, ReferralGPS assists families in triage and appointment setting.
School district staff and families may access ReferralGPS in two ways:
Contact Student Services (social workers, psychologists, counselors) to seek out treatment options
Visit this link at https://referralgps.com/find-help/DG58 to search for treatment resources or connect with a Care Navigator anonymously
The platform has the ability to filter by mental health concern, clinician gender/specialty, location, and insurance acceptance. The service is available for all types of private and public insurance options including PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and families that are uninsured or underinsured.
ReferralGPS is available for use by district students, staff, and families at no cost. All information entered on the ReferralGPS tool is completely confidential and securely stored.
Personal Electronic/Technology Devices Policy in DG58
It is amazing how far technology has come over the last decade and continues to advance. We recognize the value technology has not just in education, but our world. However, we hope that we can work together to remind students that during the school day, personal electronic devices should be turned off or silenced and out of sight. This includes wearable devices if they become distracting to the learning environment. Students should not be using phones, Apple Watches, or other devices to send or receive text messages or phone calls during the school day.
The 2023-2024 Highland Playbook
The Highland Playbook is your destination for all things Highland. The Playbook includes information about arrival and dismissal procedures, our lunch schedule, and much more! If you have any questions about any information in the Playbook, or have suggestions for additional information that should be included in the Playbook, please reach out to the main office.
Click below to read the 2023-2024 Highland Playbook! You can also find the Highland Playbook on our website: https://www.dg58.org/hg/the-2022-2023-highland-playbook
Keep In Touch
Email: zcraft@dg58.org
Website: DG58.org/HG
Location: 3935 Highland Avenue, Downers Grove, IL, USA
Phone: (630)-719-5835
Facebook: facebook.com/HGHuskies
Twitter: @HGHuskies