Welcome Back for the 2022-2023 School Year!

Hillside Elementary PTO

Parent-Teacher Organization for Hillside Elementary School

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Children and moving cars are a very dangerous combination:

The car line will be long, but it will be longer if there are fender benders or worse if there any injuries. Rushing and speeding result in accidents. Everyone has somewhere else to be. Model patience for your child.  Meditate. Enjoy your coffee and an audio book. Or just enjoy a silent car for a few minutes. Whatever you do, please BE PATIENT.

  • Please do NOT pass cars in the driveway after you have dropped off your student. I have witnessed a few near misses in the last two days at both drop-off and pick-up time and my heart stops each time—and this is with half of the car line we will have next week. Cones have been placed in the driveway to prevent this issue.
  • Please wait for children to be safely on the sidewalk and for the first car to pull forward before pulling out.
  • Please do not get out of your car with your child. Staff will assist when necessary.
  • Please move child seats whenever possible to the passenger side of the vehicle so staff can exit students out of the car on the sidewalk side.
  • Please try to have masks, backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles ready to go when entering the car line. A water bottle hunt at 9:02AM is not as much fun as it sounds.
  • I understand that backpacks are heavy, and while we try to instill independence in our scholars, staff will lend a hand whenever possible. Teachers are working on strategies to reduce backpack size.

Please have your daily health screener ready on your phone in the car line just in case we need to check it:

  • If your screener is completed prior to 8:30AM, you should not need to show any certification in the car line.
  • A video tutorial on how parents can show the “green screen” for the Symptom Screener in the car line has been created and can be accessed here: https://www.wevideo.com/view/2086876356  This video also addresses how to show the screen for multiple children (if that applies).

District bus assignments:

Your bus assignment should be posted in PowerSchool by the end of the week. With the number of changes occurring, consider March 15th like the first day of school and expect some delays.

Changes to pick-up plans:

We ask that you email the main office if you have any changes to your pick-up plans prior to 2:30PM. This gives us enough time to relay the message to the teacher and to be sure students are in the right place for dismissal.

If you are NOT PLANNING to use the bus, but have requested for transportation, please email Beata Szekeres szekeresb@tesd.net as soon as possible to avoid confusion and delays in dismissal.

Be good neighbors:

Please remember to be good neighbors as you wait in the car line. Be aware and do not block driveways of residents on Howellville Road. Our positive relationship with our neighbors is very important to us all!

I appreciate all of the kind offers of help, and the best help would be to have a safe and efficient arrival and dismissal of all of our students by car and bus each day.

Thank you for entrusting your children to us.  See you in the car line!