Husky E-News

Hillendale families,

4th grade teacher, Mrs. Jen Callinan, will be taking over the E-News for me over the next two weeks as an experience within her 360-hour Principal Internship as part of her process to complete her Principal Certification. Please reach out to me if you need anything!

Josh Leight

Hillendale Elementary Principal

________________________________________________

Hillendale families,

I hope you’re having a great weekend! I am popping in to talk to you about a couple of great Hillendale events over the next couple weeks in these “Notes from the Principal”. Coming this Friday is our annual Bingo Night from 6:30-8:30. This is an excellent event for families to get together and build community and win some awesome prizes! Our staff has been very generous with their time this year to provide some clutch prizes your kids are sure to love.

Thank you to all of our students and families for their Penny Drive contributions over the past two weeks. This provides the funds necessary to provide lunches for our Bagged Lunch program. Over the next few weeks, students will continue to provide a service to our community when they decorate bags and pack lunches for local food kitchens.

Congratulations to the three finalist of our Scripps National Spelling Bee (Sam Kates, Jasmine Zhang, Aadhi Kauta), and our winner, Declan Peno! Declan will go on to the county Spelling Bee competition to represent Hillendale. Good luck, Declan!

Next week also marks School Counselors Week! Thank you to our wonderful school counselor, Rachel Hanes, for the continued support she provides our huskies.

Have a great week!

Jen Callinan

Hillendale Principal Intern/4th Grade Teacher

Eagles Spirit Day Friday, February 7th!

Wear your gear to support our team in the Super Bowl next weekend! Fly Eagles, Fly! 🦅

Our Heart of a Husky Club has been a tremendous success! Students have been putting in the effort to be recognized for “showing they care, doing their best, and being kind to everyone.” Staff members have been awarding tickets to highlight students who demonstrate these positive behaviors.

We’ve almost filled our 200-slot board for the third time since the New Year! When the board is full, a randomly selected group of 10 students wins a small prize. Our 5th Grade Student Council has taken the lead on this initiative, managing the board, recognizing students on HETV news, delivering prizes, and more.

Be on the lookout for our next step in our Heart of a Husky Cub - postcards of praise! More to come next time!

Congratulations to our first 20 winners listed below!

February

5 - Bagged Lunch Starts (every Wednesday for 6 weeks 2/5-3/12)
7- Bingo Night 6:30pm-8:30pm (see details below)

17 - School Closed
20 - 5th Grade Lip Sync Try-Outs (4pm-5:30pm)

25 - Snow Date: 5th Grade Lip Sync Try-Outs (4pm-5:30pm)
28 - 5th Grade Oldies Dance

28 - Rare Disease Day

Penny Drive is coming to a close tomorrow, Feb 3, and Bagged Lunch begins this Wednesday Feb 5. Students will decorate and fill 80 lunches for those in need in our community each week through Wednesday 3/12/25. Sign up to help our students spread joy and feed friends!

Buy your tickets now and save!

Pre-Sale price: $5/person or $20/family

At the door: $10/person or $40/family

Buy your tickets Here

(Pre-sale ends Wednesday)

Sign up to volunteer here

(Volunteers receive 5 free raffle tickets for your student!)

The Penny Drive collects your loose change - any coins or spare dollars are welcome! Money raised goes directly to purchase food for our Bag Lunch program which provides bagged lunches (packed by our students) to local food kitchens.

Sign up here to help students count donations

The homeroom classes with the highest 3 donations will be recognized - a special day to choose from in coordination with their teacher (e.g., pajama day, popsicle day)! Principal Leight will celebrate Huskies meeting their $2000 donation goal by letting a couple students from each class spray him with Silly String!

After the initial trial period, NEW DATES have been added for grades 3-5 only. We kindly ask that you initially chose only one library date per child. Once everyone has had a chance to sign up - after January 2nd - we encourage you to check back and signup for more if slots are available.

Volunteers will help to check books in/out and shelve returned books during your 3rd-5th grade child's library class.

Send any concerns or issues to Janette Grieb at janettepgrieb@gmail.com

FOCUS is a committee in the Unionville Chadds Ford School District, organized by parents in collaboration with UCF District administration. FOCUS provides information and education to parents and the community through seminars, workshops, webinars, and posted resources. For more information, please see district website. If you would like to join this committee as the HIllendale representative, please email heptopresident@gmail.com

Questions or comments for the PTO? Email us at HESPTO@ucfsd.net