Highland Happenings

Good Afternoon Highland Families,

I hope you have had a great week and are looking forward to the holiday season kicking into high gear next week! This week we held our November All-School meeting and the White Team took home the minute-to-win-it championship belt. This week our first graders went on a field trip to see everyone's favorite character's, Elephant and Piggy, in a play at the Tivoli theater. Thank you to the Highland PTA for making that field trip possible! As a reminder, trimester 1 report cards are now available on PowerSchool. More information on how-to login and access your student's report card can be found below. The 12 Days of Highland are back and begin the week after Thanksgiving break! More information about the 12 Days of Highland can be found below. As a reminder, there is school on Monday and Tuesday of next week, but no school Wednesday-Friday because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Due to the short week next week, there will be no edition of the Highland Happenings net week. If you have any questions or need any assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at 630-719-5835. Take care and have a great weekend!

My Best,

Zac Craft

Principal, Highland School

• 11/26/24: 3rd Grade Learn Not to Burn
• 11/27-11/29: No School - Thanksgiving Break

• 12/03/24: 6th grade intramurals
• 12/04/24: Student Council meeting after school
• 12/05/24: Grades 4-6 Art Club after school
• 12/06/24: Fun Lunch - Vegetarian Chili

In order to make sure PTA meetings are accessible for as many people as possible, the PTA would like your feedback on what time meets are held. Meeting times may alternate in the future to allow the maximum amount of people to attend throughout the year, depending on meeting time prferences. Thank you for taking our one-click poll below!

Moving forward, District 58 schools will share student report cards with families by posting them in the PowerSchool Parent Portal. Trimester 1 report cards are now posted and available! Please use these instructions to learn how to find and view report cards.

Congratulations to the six Highland students who advanced to the Council level of the PTA Reflections Art Program!

• Sophie A.
• Sydney M.
• Addison O.
• Maya M.
• Ariya M.
• Maci P.

These students will be formally recognized at the District 58 PTA Reflections Ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at O’Neill Middle School. The public viewing of artwork will begin at 6:30 p.m., and the program starts at 7 p.m.

Please note: this week’s issue of Communicate 58 newsletter mentioned that all students who participated in Reflections would be recognized at the Reflections ceremony. The newsletter meant to say that individual school PTAs will recognize all student participants, but the Dec. 3 Reflections ceremony is intended specifically to celebrate students who advanced to the Council level. We are sorry for this mixup.

Through the Reflections program, young artists can create original artworks in a variety of mediums. Artwork submissions are judged and the finalists will advance to the regional level. Beyond the regionals, the top artworks advance to the state and national levels.

This year's Reflections theme is "Accepting Imperfection."

The Education Foundation invites you to thank a special District 58 staff member with a Green Apple Award and donation to the Foundation, which supports many student and staff programs. Learn more. Give a Green Apple.

If winter weather requires schools to close, District 58 will promptly email and call all families and staff. The District will also post school closure information on the website, www.dg58.org, and social media channels.

District 58 has the option to use an e-learning day or an emergency day (also called snow day) during bad weather.

This year, District 58 will likely use e-learning days. E-learning days do not need to be made up at the end of the school year. District 58 needs to maximize the summer for referendum construction, so e-learning days would allow District 58 to keep on its construction schedule.

Learn more about District 58's winter weather procedures.

Read District 58's e-learning plan.

Each week, a member of the Highland staff will be highlighted in the Highland Happenings! This is a great opportunity for our Highland community to learn more about our staff members and all of the information featured in the Happenings can be found in the staff directory on our website. This week we are highlighting Mrs. Walters!

Holiday Shop

The Holiday Shop is returning to the Highland Gymnasium

Saturday December 7th from 9AM to 12PM

• This is an opportunity for students to shop from a huge variety of fun and affordable gifts for family, friends and even pets

• An envelope will be sent home in the coming weeks to help students prepare prior to shopping

• NHS volunteers will be onsite to assist shoppers with budgeting, checking out and wrapping

• Donuts and beverages will be available for purchase for $1 each- cash only!

• All sales are cash only!

• Volunteers are needed to make this event possible - please visit the sign-up link here

• Contact Krystal Lovitsch (Kcamalic@yahoo.com) or Jenny Bain (jenny.gallagher.bain@gmail.com) if you have any questions.

Holiday Husky Huddle

Tis’ the season for the annual Holiday Husky Huddle!

Let’s all huddle together to provide meals and necessities for our fellow huskies this holiday season! Your generous donations will help specific needs of our families, along with the ingredients for holiday meals.

Please sign up using this link by Friday, December 6: Highland PTA: 2024 Husky Huddle

Please contact Nicole Bernard at 312-961-4388 with any questions, and for any donation items requiring refrigeration or freezing for a specific drop off window.

Yearbook

The Deadline for 6th Grade Shout Outs is Less Than One Month Away!

• Parents and relatives of 6th Grade Students have the opportunity to purchase 1/8 page or 1/4 page “Shout Outs” in the 2024-25 yearbook to celebrate their student’s promotion to Middle School!

• All “Shout Outs” are full color and are $5.00 for 1/8 page, $10.00 for 1/4 page.

• For more information and detailed instructions on how to purchase your "Shout Out" please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gtkd1rykOaSBomUJI9sMd16Vnyn9xYEv/view?usp=sharing

• The deadline to design and purchase “Shout Outs” is Friday, December 20 - This is the day before Winter Break!

Dining 4 Dollars

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Chipotle last week!

As we plan the Dining 4 Dollars events for the remainder of the year, we would love to hear from YOU! Please use this survey [link] to share your thoughts and suggestions.

Our next dinner is Panera on 12/12 & we'll earn 30% from sales - more info to come after Thanksgiving!

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!

The Highlanad Playbook is your place to find important information about Highland including a staff directory, arrival/dismissal procedures, informaion about social-emotional learning, and much more. Click the image to the right to access the 2024-2025 Highland Playbook.

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.

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