Principal's Blog – Red Hill Elementary

Dear Red Hill Families,
It’s finally here! Tomorrow is the first day of the 2020-21 school year. Our teachers have worked hard to plan and prepare to welcome your children to their virtual classrooms. We are anxious and excited to begin.

While students will be interacting remotely with the teachers and their classmates, it is essential to remember that they are in school. School rules and school division policies apply while in Zoom meetings and using school and division resources such as laptops, iPads, Google accounts, and licensed software such as Seesaw. Please review both the Red Hill Handbook and the Stage 2 addendum for virtual learning.

While I had hoped to post a recording of our virtual Open House, I have been unsuccessful in getting the video sound to record. As an alternative, I am sharing the slide deck.

If you are experiencing technical difficulties with an ACPS device or the applications on the device:
ACPS students and families have multiple options for receiving technical support:
1. Call the school and report the problem. We will communicate the issue to a technician who will follow up to assist you.
2. Use the online Student Technology Support Form to submit a service ticket.
3. Call the ACPS Service Desk at 434-975-9444, Monday through Friday, from 7:30 AM to 5 PM.

While most of you have picked up devices and learning kits, we have school items for some families who haven’t had a chance yet. Please stop by between 7:30 AM and 4 PM to pick up.

Lastly, art classes will not begin this week. Our new art teacher, Katie Ford, is eager to get started. She should complete the hiring process this week. Teachers will add her Zoom link to the Essentials schedule once her classes are available.

For weekly communication from the school and the PTO, subscribe to the Moosletter by emailing redhillmoos@gmail.com. Put the word subscribe in the subject line.

Take care,
Nancy McCullen, Principal

We had 21 families at our first ever PTO Zoom event! During the meeting we spent most of the time discussing questions and concerns related to the school reopening possibilities. Many of the questions were submitted in advance and other came up during the meeting. Click here for a link the questions and responses. In addition here is a table comparing virtual learning in the spring to the plans for virtual learning in the fall. This description of virtual learning for the fall would apply to those who choose virtual learning if the School Board votes to open with the Hybrid model as well as to virtual learning if they vote to open with all students learning from home to start the year. This decision will be made at tomorrow’s School Board meeting.

During the last part of the meeting parents shared ideas and activities for summer activities and discussed concerns and possible solutions to childcare if children are learning at home in the coming school year.

Dear Red Hill Families,

As you consider the options presented on the Return to School Intent Form sent to families on Monday, I would like to invite you to join us in a community conversation. The PTO and I will co-host a meeting next Tuesday, July 28th, 6-7 PM via Zoom. Whether you have made a decision or not, the goal of this meeting is to hear from each other, share information and ideas, and ask questions. I have heard from many of you over the past several weeks. Topics have included challenges with virtual learning as well as positive experiences with virtual instruction and programs. I have heard from both ends of the spectrum (along with everywhere in between) on in-person learning. I have appreciated knowing what’s on your mind as well as your experiences. Your feedback and questions have been shared as input at the division level and used to inform the planning work here at Red Hill.

Whether you would like to share your experiences and perspective or listen in, I hope you join us on Tuesday. Please complete this quick RSVP and questionnaire by Friday if you think you might attend. https://forms.gle/Z2P9AB89scfBX2yC9

I also encourage you to attend one of the School Board Town Hall meetings and refer to the Return to School website for the most current information.

Call the school at 293-5332 between 8 AM and 4 PM or email me with any questions.

Take care,
Nancy McCullen
Principal
Red Hill Elementary
nmccullen@k12albemarle.org

Dear Red Hill Families,

On March 13th, schools in Virginia closed to keep our community safe from the spread of COVID-19. Since then, our school and school division focus has been on supporting students and their families. During the week of March 18th, teachers began contacting students regularly to maintain a connection with the school and to promote at-home learning opportunities. The school division’s Department of Technology increased WiFi access and distributed thousands of laptops and iPads. Children Nutrition has provided meal service for children under eighteen. The Department of Instruction developed plans for virtual learning. Our teachers learned a new learning platform, Seesaw, and made plans to teach in a whole new way. On April 11th, the six-week virtual learning option began. It is hard to believe there are fewer than two weeks left.

While we all wish we knew when school could resume “as normal,” there are some calendar events that I can share with you.

May 22nd – Last Day of Spring Virtual Instruction
The week of May 18-22 will be the last week that teachers will mail packets and post assignments in Seesaw. Teachers will continue to respond and give feedback through the following week.

June 5th – Stepping Up Celebrations
Instead of a Stepping Up ceremony for fifth-graders at school, teachers will deliver certificates and gift bags to students at their homes.

June 8th – Report Cards
The year-end report card will be in the form of a narrative describing your child’s overall performance in language arts and math for the year. We will mail them via USPS.

June 10th – Phase II Construction and Renovation Begins
The project is moving forward! The gym addition will include a new stage thanks to Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Last week, they approved a transfer of the extra funds from the Scottsville project to ours to make this possible.

June 12th (tentative date, time TBD) – Drive-Up, Pick-Up III
Teachers will gather students’ work and belongings from their classrooms and package them for families to pick up at another drive-up, pick-up event. If families have school library books, they should return them.

Throughout this unprecedented time, our teachers, you and your children have been courageous and strong, taking on new ways of connecting and learning. I am grateful for the dedication of Red Hill staff members who have prioritized our students. I wish to thank you, Red Hill families, for sharing your children and your lives with us in ways you never expected.

As we continue to experience the frustrations and the joys of the changes and opportunities of the pandemic, know that we value your partnership with us.

Sincerely,

Nancy McCullen
Principal

April 1, 2020

Dear Red Hill Elementary Students and Families:

This message is to detail the plans to meet the instructional needs of our elementary school students going forward for the 2019-2020 academic year.  The guidelines below are based on those set forth by the Virginia Department of Education with regards to continuity of learning in response to the Governor’s decision to close all schools for the remainder of the school year. The emphasis for Albemarle County Public Schools during this time, as always, is to provide quality equitable access to instruction for all students.

Spring break (April 6 – April 10) will continue to be a period of time without academic work expectations for students. Beginning after spring break (April 13 – May 22), all elementary school teachers will be providing learning experiences and resources for students.  Teachers will be providing materials to address new key content/concepts necessary for completion of the grade, focusing on content that is essential for success with your child’s next year’s standards. Our intent during this time is not to overburden our students and families, but to provide hope, engagement, and a measure of normalcy during this period of unprecedented uncertainty.

What to expect:

Weekly learning time: Students should expect teachers to communicate the number of hours per week of learning in Language Arts and Math.  As you can predict, different grade levels will have different requirements of anticipated time. Typically, PK-2 classroom teachers will provide a total of about 60 minutes per day and 3-5 teachers will provide about 80 minutes per day of instructional activities for math and literacy.   Teachers will include optional and extension activities for Social Studies, Science and Essentials. You should receive a weekly plan from your child’s teacher. There is not an expectation that this is full time school. We are focusing on quality over quantity.

Seesaw – Students will be provided learning experiences through an online platform called Seesaw.  You will hear from your child’s classroom teacher on how your family will be able to access this exciting resource.

Feedback: Students should expect to receive feedback on all assignments.  Teachers will use Seesaw to share lessons and assignments and provide feedback to students.

Virtual Office Hours: Teachers will continue to communicate with students and have virtual check-in times as a class, in small groups and/or individually.

Accommodations and Additional Supports:  Accommodations and additional supports will be provided as required, to students eligible for special education services (and IEP) or for those students with a Section 504 Plan. Additionally, special educators and related service providers will collaborate with teachers, sharing the available options to support students through available resources as well as through phone, email or virtual conferencing.

Assessments: Students should know that SOL tests will not take place this academic year.

Technology: The school division is working on a plan to distribute IPads to all K-2 students who do not have siblings in grades 3-12 who have already received a school computer. This distribution will take place after spring break.

We are both delighted and honored to be able to continue to serve Red Hill students and families.  We miss the daily, personal contact with your children and know this virtual learning plan does not compare to the learning “at school” experiences we typically offer. Until we can all be together again, we will provide responsive and equitable instruction based on the guidelines outlined above. Be safe and stay healthy!

Sincerely,
Nancy McCullen

Principal
Red Hill Elementary

Every Monday throughout the school year, our Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matthew Haas, visits at least one school, center or academy in our school division. He writes about these visits in his weekly email check-in. The email is sent to all 2,647 of our school division employees, as well as our school board and board of supervisors members. On Monday, Dr. Haas spent a good part of the morning at Red Hill Elementary School and his Friday check-in focused on his time with us. I thought I would share the following excerpt with you:

For me, no visit to Red Hill is complete without a quick check-in with the school’s office associates, Casey Powell and Michelle Creasy, and the school nurse, Julie Mendelsohn. I greatly enjoy my talks with these professionals, plus they know the community and have good advice for me on just about any topic.

While I was waiting to visit with Nancy McCullen and Ashley Struzik, a couple came into the school with wrapped presents. We exchanged greetings, but I didn’t ask who they were. I wanted to send them a card, so I asked Casey, and she immediately identified them as George and Gloria Wood from Mount Olivet Church. Our OAs are amazing people!

Nancy and I walked about the school and checked in with several staff and students. During our time, I was very interested in kindergarten/first-grade teacher Beth Kavounas’s problem-solving strategies lesson using engineering and design principles. Students identified a problem based on a story they heard from a farmer (a.k.a., Ms. Kavounas) and then generated and designed solutions. The problem was that a fox was following Rosie the chicken, and the students had to figure out a way to make the fox stop (without hurting him). The lesson was inspired by Ms. Kavounas’s participation in the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning presentation at Making Connections.

We also visited amazing music teacher Tracy Brown’s class. I have stopped by Tracy’s class at Red Hill and Crozet several times, and what I saw on Monday was typical of the upbeat, active, and objective-focused learning that Ms. Brown facilitates in the music room. When Nancy and I observed, she used song, movement, call and response, and plenty of positive reinforcement to teach students how to read music notes and sing a song in two parts.

When we visited Angie Rutherford’s third-grade math class, Mrs. Rutherford, who is also a third through fifth-grade reading intervention teacher, was introducing students to a task that would allow them to practice calculating the area of features on a map. In addition to calculating area, students would use creative thinking and technology skills to produce maps on a grid. It was not surprising to see how eager the students were to begin this task.

My overall impression is that Red Hill is a place with happy and engaged students and staff who take teaching and learning with empathy seriously. Thank you to all the Red Hill staff and students for my visit; I had a lot of fun!

Red Hill staff and students are doing terrific work and I am so glad that Dr. Haas took the time to visit and acknowledge the great things that are happening at our school.

A new school year means that we set goals and priorities to improve our school and learning outcomes for our students.  As a staff, we commit to these goals and identify how we will achieve them in a process that is documented in our 2019-20 School Improvement Plan.  A current draft of this plan is available on our school website.

One of our goals is to develop strong readers who love to read. Some of our strategies include instructional methods that teach specific skills. Others are intended to motivate students to choose reading as a useful and joyful activity. While we work to do what we can at school, we know that the connection between home and school is invaluable.

Year after year, research tells us that having a variety of reading materials available at home, promoting a positive attitude about reading and writing,  as well as spending time reading and discussing reading is associated with reading proficiency. Here are a few specific ways families can promote literacy at home:

• Tell stories. We all love to hear stories about the people we care about. Talk about a funny, exciting, or other memorable event that happened when you were young. Encourage your child to tell stories. Make up stories together. Capture stories in homemade books, scrapbooks and journals. Spend time reading and re-reading these treasured texts.
• Make reading special. Take your kids to the library, help them get their own library card, read with them, and buy them books and magazines as gifts. Have a favorite place for reading materials in your home or, even better, have them everywhere, including in the car.
• Talk about reading. Tell your child about yourself as a reader. Share information that you learned from reading the newspaper or a magazine, paper or digitally. Discuss age-appropriate aspects of books or articles that you are reading. Start a family book club by reading the same book or establishing a regular time to read together. Share your enthusiasm for reading by discussing it over dinner, in the car or anytime you are together.
• Participate in reading-related opportunities at school. Support nightly reading assignments with enthusiasm, attend events where our partner The Free Book Bus is set up offering a selection of free books for students and their families, visit the Red Hill school library and check out books for yourself or other family members, and shop at the Scholastic Book Fair.

Stay up to date with classroom and school-wide reading initiatives through classroom news, student planners, Tuesday Folder flyers and the Moosletter. If you need reading material or specific suggestions for your child or family, contact your child’s teacher.

 

On October 23rd, our Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matthew Haas, served as a substitute for Tyler Croson, one of our 4th/5th grade teachers. This was a special treat for our students and school!

Every Friday throughout the school year, Dr. Haas, sends an email check-in to all 2,647 of our school division employees, as well as our school board and board of supervisors members. Dr. Haas uses these check-ins to keep us connected as a community of learners. In each check-in, he shares about his weekly visits to schools and his interactions with educators, support staff, and students.

One of Dr. Haas’s recent check-ins focused on his day at Red Hill Elementary School. I thought I would share the following excerpt with you:

I didn’t get out to a school on Monday because I was at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents fall conference; however, I had a great experience substitute teaching for fifth-grade teacher Tyler Croson on Wednesday at Red Hill Elementary School.

To my surprise, fifth graders are a lot like high school students, and I thoroughly enjoyed my day. I think that Tyler and her partner Veronica Brennan are very strong teachers, and the students fell into routines that are built around the four Cs: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. We had fun reading together, and I was impressed with students’ writing and story-telling skills. And when I forgot how to calculate the area of a triangle, students showed me how and explained why we use one-half the base. (It’s half of a rectangle, Mr. Matt!)

What a great compliment to our terrific staff and students!

On Thursday evening the School Board approved the schematic design for the Red Hill addition/renovation project and authorized Moseley Architects to proceed to the Design Development phase. The complete presentation and study materials presented to the Board can be found on the Board’s website. Here are a few slides from the presentation: