Greetings,

It’s hard to believe, but we are down to the last, busy, four days of school. I’d like to start by thanking you all for entrusting us with your child’s education. I feel certain I can speak for us all, when I say that we love our students and so appreciate having them here. I would also like to thank our teachers and support staff. They are all amazing and work hard care for our students and to provide interesting and engaging work. I also thank you, parents and community, for  your support throughout the year. It takes all of us working together to provide our students with an excellent education.

This week we will have a Kindergarten Promotion (Tuesday), as well as promoting our 5th Graders. It’s an opportunity for us all to reflect upon where we’ve been and where we are headed. Kindergartners have adjusted to being in school, while our 5th graders are prepared to go on, only to begin their transition into Middle School. The truth is, however, as students finish one grade, they will all feel a bit apprehensive and excited as they look forward to the next.

As we look to next year, I am hopeful that we will be able to gather more parent input through a more active Site Council which typically consists of both parents and staff. In the fall, I will ask for parent volunteers to serve on the Council. We will meet once a month and members will have opportunity to provide input and better understand the programs and projects we are working on as a school. Please consider whether this would be something you’d be interested in doing. More information as to when we will meet etc., will be communicated in the fall.

Next year, we will dig further into our PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System) work. In the next phase we will push to have more involvement from parents, as our work evolves around systems in the school that serve to grow positive behavior from all students. We will also continue our work on using Restorative Justice processes with our students in order to deal with conflict in an increasingly positive way.

 As we close out the year, I’d like to publicly thank Vermont Hills for their work this year. They have done much to serve our community. There is no longer a “wait list” for after school care, morning care is available, and they will operate their summer program here at Capitol Hill. I really appreciate their willingness to change their “Use of Building” time to 2:30, so that we could once again, allow parents to be on the playground until 2:30. (I welcome feedback on how that is working. As long as we keep families separate from bus riders, it should be workable.)

 Finally, I want to let you know again that as we end the year, our staffing looks good for the fall. At this time, we are staffed for 3 sections at every grade except 5th, which will have two. We will continue to have a complete program of PE, Art, and Library, as well as the support of Special Ed. We are not scheduled to have any blended classrooms.  

 Again, thank you for your continued support. It’s been a crazy year with snow days, etc. but we’ve made it through. Please feel free to come to me with any questions, concerns and/or suggestions. Your involvement helps to make Capitol Hill a Great Place to Grow.

Have a wonderful summer break!

Sincerely, Principal Williams