Author: Tanner Atha

We are excited to begin the 2022 – 2023 school year. As a parent of three students in the district, I know this time can be filled with many activities, from finding teacher assignments to organizing bus pick-up times. Yet, in all of the excitement, there are other items on our minds, including the safety of our schools.

This past school board meeting, we had a presentation from the HCSD Joint Safety Team. In addition, representatives from the Hilliard Division of Police and Norwich Township Fire Department joined us. We received an overview of how we partner as a community; School Resource Officers in our secondary buildings, emergency radios in each school, tabletop training with building staff, fire prevention week activities, student lock-down simulations, etc. This partnership is unique and has been strong for over a decade.

There are many examples of this partnership and how it has grown over the years. There is a strong commitment from each member of the team. I want to acknowledge the hard work of this team and thank each member for their dedication.

Seeing this team in action brings me back to preparing to go back to school. As parents and community members, I ask you to think about how you can support this critical work. It could be discussing safety protocols with your child following a simulation in the classroom and encouraging your student to learn more about HOPE Squads, and sharing the excitement with your child when a police officer comes to read a book in the classroom.

I challenge you to put one more thing on your list of having a conversation with your student about safety. If this conversation brings concerns, please know we are here to support you. Reach out. Similar to the message that will be shared from Student Resource Officers in the schools to our students, “See Something, Say Something.” As parents and community members, we are asked the same.

I wish you the best 2022 – 2023 school year.

Sincerely,

Nadia Long

HCSD Board of Education, president

On August 8th, the Board of Education celebrated the expansion of the Hilliard Preschool. The expansion includes 8 new classrooms allowing 64 new spots for our youngest students.

Hilliard Teachers Amanda Schaeffer and Beth Boza are participating in an amazing opportunity abroad, investigating how Lisbon & Madrid street art reflects the voices of the community. Thanks to the grants they received through the Fund For Teachers and Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, they’re able to spend their time investigating, partaking in workshops and guided tours, and interviewing artists to create an interactive street art map that inspires a student-led street art project focusing on making marginalized voices heard in our very own community!

Our very own Ms. Hall from Weaver Middle School recently participated in the Ohio Sea Grant’s Water and Wildlife Training for Educators at OS’s Stone Laboratory in Lake Erie. This seven-day workshop provided educators with practice using lessons from five national curricula: Project WET, Healthy Water, Healthy People, Project WILD, Project WILD Aquatic, Science and Civics.

Participants were immersed in the scientific practices of inquiry, questioning, and experimentation while working alongside Great Lakes researchers; practiced lessons to integrate Great Lakes science into their educational settings; participated in shoreline stewardship projects, and networked with colleagues to share and learn best practices for improving Great Lakes literacy.

Brown Elementary stumbled upon an opportunity to offer vertical alignment of curricular content to fix a problem. In September, the sidewalk for the bus riders’ entrance cracked and needed to be fixed. Two Brown teachers discussed how this would be a great example for the fourth-grade to learn about weathering and erosion in real life. The project grew to include and offer grades 2 – 5 as a living example of the science and social studies curriculums.

The Rain Garden Project serves to educate elementary students in responsible citizenship and scientific evidence of correcting issues surrounding their outside environments. This hands-on experience teaches students how natural elements can provide solutions to problems and esthetic value to landscape by improving the erosion of soil caused by our buildings’ roof drainage. Sharing with students the natural, effective use of plants not only corrects an issue caused by architectural design but also provides a habitat for pollinators and butterflies while beautifying their surroundings were the goals.

Vertically aligned grade levels in this project bring to life the standards and concepts taught in students’ grade levels and give practical meaning to all levels of learning they will receive in elementary school. Second grade will learn and provide soil information, third grade will provide life cycle/butterfly information, fourth grade will provide erosion and weathering information, and fifth-grade studies ecosystem learning and information.

We brought our school educational programs taught by staff at Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District (FSWCD) to extend and enhance the curriculum students are responsible for. These programs will expose services that are available to residents to improve their community. This is a life lesson that will carry through to their adulthood.

To maintain a mindful budget, second and third graders will embark upon a grow lab in our Innovative Discovery Center (IDC) with our IDC Specialist to plant seedlings and support their growth through spring. They were planted in the rain garden recently, which promotes resourcefulness in students’ ability to make a difference in their community and environments.

This project serves as real-life work that positively affects an environment and its community. This learning will offer all levels from the model, Bloom’s Taxonomy: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. Students will be able to revisit and review the knowledge each time they pass by their rain garden creation. Finally, Hilliard City School District and Brown Township will benefit from the habitat garden and beautification of their school premises.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by executive order of the President, to recognize and honor some of our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Each year, up to 161 students are named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.

Davidson graduate Alex Torres was recognized by the Board of Education tonight for being named a Presidential Scholar. We can’t wait to see where this young man goes from here. #ReadyforTomorrow