Hilliard City Schools | Ready for Tomorrow 
Hilliard City Schools will also be hosting an evening webinar on Thursday, January 21st at 5:00pm with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. She is a professor at Georgia State and author of the book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. This event is open to the entire community.
Please join us in celebrating diversity and inclusion in the Hilliard City Schools. For the week of January 18-22, we will celebrate the diversity of Hilliard City Schools students, staff, and community with a focus on what it means to seek equity, celebrate diversity, and be inclusive. Each day has a different focus.
We encourage you to join and post your own inclusion messages. #InclusionHCSD
We will also be hosting an evening webinar on January 21st at 5:00 pm with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. She is a professor at Georgia State and author of the book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. This event is open to the entire community. Here is a link to join the webinar.
The Ohio Department of Health has released new guidelines regarding quarantine rules for both students and staff regarding exposures in a school setting. It’s important to note these new guidelines only apply to in-person learning and on buses, not after school activities.
If there is a positive case in the classroom, we begin contact tracing as we currently do. If a student or staff member is exposed to COVID-19 in the classroom, and wearing face masks that cover the face and nose at all times, those exposed will not be quarantined. Only the positive student or staff member would need to stay home. Everyone exposed will still be considered “in close contact” and will be required to follow quarantine procedures outside of school. However, they are basically being deemed “essential workers” and allowed to attend school or work. They would not be able to participate in extracurricular activities during the quarantine period.
We will still require students and staff to follow all mask and six feet of social distance protocols at this time.
The above guidelines only apply to classroom and bus settings. Students and Staff should not attend in-person school/work if they are exposed to COVID-19 outside the school setting, including during sports and other extracurricular activities, regardless of masking.
Please discuss any questions you have with your school nurse.
We want to congratulate our Online Academy students who participated in the AstroArt Contest through The Ohio State University. This was a unique opportunity to extend gifted students’ thinking and creativity.
The AstroArt Contest was an international competition receiving entries from five countries and three continents. People of all ages participated. Three Hilliard students received placements in their age bracket.
Third-grader Doniyor won first place in his age bracket. His artwork, “The Great Conjunction,” is featured on this page. The piece was described as when the ‘Great conjunction’ of Jupiter and Saturn formed a ‘Christmas Star’ on the winter solstice. Jupiter and Saturn had their closest encounter in almost 400 years on the solstice, December 21. On the last solstice of 2020, December 21, Jupiter and Saturn appeared the closest together in the night sky in 4 centuries.
Fifth graders Xohana and Kawin received Honorable Mentions.
These Online Academy students are engaged learners that participate in class as well as gifted extension work.
Watersheds, nutrient cycles, and causes/impacts of water pollution are all part of the 7th-grade curriculum for the State of Ohio and the Hilliard City Schools. Through a mini-grant received from the EPA, water quality testing materials, and the necessary supplies for 3 Project WET activities were purchased. Participation in these activities led to increased student understanding of these environmental concepts, as well as, increased student engagement. Working independently, students were safely able to test the pond water from Hilliard’s Latham Park using probes and disposable test strips. Several tests were performed: dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, pH, nitrate levels, and phosphate levels. Thankfully, all values tested were within normal range and the pond seems to be free from nutrient runoff! Additionally, the “Seeing Watershed” activity from Project WET was also able to be performed in a Covid-safe manner.
Having this opportunity to perform real and relevant water quality tests as well as a hands-on learning activity was a highlight for many of our science 7 students this past November!