As a reminder, there will be NO SCHOOL on Thursday or Friday this week due to conferences.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are an important way to strengthen our home-school connection. Conferences will be held during the week of October 26. We look forward to this opportunity to discuss your child's experience at school and continue building an effective relationship with you!

Go to www.ptcfast.com/schools/HilltopLearningCenter and look for your child's teacher. Follow the teacher's directions via SeeSaw to choose an appropriate conference time.

Some tips to have a successful conference experience:

All conferences will be held via zoom. Once you sign up for a conference time, your child's teacher/team will send the zoom link and password.

• Think about the questions you have before your conference. Write them down and have them with you -- or better yet, email them to your child's teacher so she can be prepared with the information that is important to you.

• Make arrangements for the care of your children. You will more likely be able to engage fully if your child(ren) are engaged in other activities. This will also allow both you and your child's teacher(s) to speak freely.

• Help us keep all families on schedule by ensuring your computer and internet connection are working correctly and by joining the zoom call a few minutes ahead of your appointed time. Your teacher will "let you in the zoom room" at the appointed time.

There is no school on October 29 or 30 so that teachers may conference with you. Early childhood students will attend on October 26-27.

If you find that your family is in need of this kind of help at this time, please make a confidential contact with DeLynn Jenkins, School Social Worker, by clicking here or calling 913-624-2900 and asking for DeLynn.

If you would like to offer your support for this organization, click the image to visit their website.

I have been so pleased with how easily you have all adapted to our new arrival/dismissal procedures. Thank you for making this such a success! This is a much safer practice that allows us to minimize exposure between students from different parts of our school.

A few helpful hints that will make a smoother process for all:

• We prefer for all families to use our driveways to avoid congestion around our entryways.
• Thanks for keeping your car tag visible, even as you stand with your child.
• We appreciate that you are leaving your masks on throughout the arrival/dismissal process.

I'm especially grateful that nearly everyone has respected our time window for arrival and dismissal. This ensures that staff can remain focused on their duties before, during, and after those windows, including careful cleaning of the classroom between sessions. If you know that you will be late, please call ahead, and then let us know when you arrive by calling 913-624-2900. We will free someone up to come out for/with your child.

Thanks for traveling carefully around our campus among the many other vehicles including BVRC patrons, BV district staff, school buses and another transport vehicles. I'll try to make you aware when I know that we'll have other times of increased traffic, such as advanced voting or student testing in the Conference Center.

• we continue to experiment with clips or other ways to keep masks handy if they slip off -- stay tuned!
• since they are being worn for longer durations, thanks for washing masks daily, or at least every other day.
• thanks for all you are doing to support and promote mask wearing -- it makes a difference!

Want an overview of the Pyramid Model we use? Click here!