Volume 1, Issue #2

Greetings and salutations, dear Friends of Hillside High School! We are two weeks into our school year, and it appears as though things are settling down quite nicely in our school and we are getting into a good instructional groove over on Fayetteville Street! I hope that you enjoy reading, because I am a firm believer in communicating with our constituency about the things that are happening at Hillside, and how we are approaching our mission to rebuild and redefine academic excellence at Hillside High School!

In my last entry, I told you that I would share with you the components of the “Year 1 Plan.” It is a four-pronged plan of attack that we believe will help us to shape our Framework for Action, which is the plan of improvement that we must develop and follow to improve the way we do business at Hillside. In a nutshell, here are the 4 components of “The Plan:”
1. Create an atmosphere conducive to teaching, learning, and responsible behavior through the clear articulation of our academic, behavioral, personal conduct, and professional expectations. As we move forward in rebuilding our school, I have gleaned important information from all shareholders about the issues that avail themselves. Common themes that repeat themselves are the chronic and habitual tardiness and absenteeism that plagues a segment of our student body, as well as the chronic and habitual violation of the Durham Public Schools Code of Student Conduct by a small percentage of our student body. We have redefined our tardy policy, and have systems in place that encourage prompt arrival to school and to class. Those students who cannot or choose not to meet these expectations are counseled initially, and then are subject to disciplinary sanctions. We have found already that quite a few students who arrive VERY LATE to school do not live in our attendance zone, so contact has been made with our office of student assignment to redirect them to the school that serves their domiciliary address. We believe that if we can get our students to school and to class ON TIME, then their time on academic task and their contact with quality instruction will enable them to enjoy a greater degree of success on state and local assessments.
2. Create an environment of instructional excellence and alignment with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. At Hillside, we will utilize the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning which features verbs that help to identify the language of learning. When you visit our classrooms, you will see “essential questions” written on the board which tell the students what it is that they are learning today and what it is that they will be able to do when they leave the classroom at the end of the instructional period. The state standard is written in such a way that certain verbs are used to describe the skill or competency that the student should be able to display when they’ve completed the unit. The goal for us is to take that verb, such as “analyze,” and align that skill with the knowledge dimension that the skill requires, and then present and assess the material at that level. In essence, what we will do at Hillside is teach and evaluate the material/skill at the level at which it will be assessed in January and in June on the final state assessments.
3. Increase the level of community & parental involvement at HHS. There is data available that make the connection between successful schools and the level of parental involvement. We believe that frequent communication between school and home, as well as community outreach from the HHS faculty, staff, and administration will help to inform and offer opportunities for collaboration. Examples of how we intend to do this are this blog, our twitter.com page (www.twitter.com/hhsprincipal), our school website, our connect-ED telephone communications, and visits by our staff to area community centers, churches, and special events. The goal here, dear friends, is to get our community as excited about what we are doing in classrooms as they are on Friday nights when we’re scoring touchdowns and winning games in the final seconds!
4. Effective vertical planning from elementary schools to middle schools to Hillside! If you read any opinion as to why priority schools exist, you’ll see a question that I’ve thought about a lot over the years-“How can you expect a high school to be successful if the students entering them are academic years behind at the start?” That’s a good question! What we are planning at Hillside is a collaborative relationship that will feature enhanced communication between HHS and our feeder middle schools (Lowe’s Grove, Rogers-Herr, W.G. Pearson, and Shepard), particularly between our 9th grade teachers and the 8th grade teachers to help them to collaborate to better equip and prepare upcoming freshmen for the high school experience. Look at it this way-When people want to know why Richmond County or West Charlotte or Charlotte Independence enjoy so much success on the football field, their coaches are quick to point out that they reach down to the feeder middle schools and rec leagues to install their offensive and defensive philosophy so that once the kids reach the high school, they already know what to do. Well, if high schools have done this for athletic purposes, why can’t we do it for academic endeavors?
These are the ideas and concepts that will guide us through year #1 together. At the same time, we are working with our students on meeting expectations, and we are working as a professional staff to ALWAYS bring our “A game” to school with us on a daily basis. I’ve asked our staff to raise the level of intellectual discourse in our classrooms, and to expect our students to meet these high expectations because, quite frankly, I have grown weary of seeing our school on the news each time the news media wishes to do a story on a priority or struggling high school in North Carolina, & OUR STUDENTS HAVE, ALSO!
Before I sign off on this issue, here are some key dates I’d like for you to have:
Monday, September 14: 1st progress reports go home!
Tuesday, September 15: Hillside High School Open House @ 5:30 p.m.!
Month of September: Hillside High School PTSA Membership Drive! Please write to Gary King, PTSA president, at hhsptsa@gmail.com for more information on how YOU can help!
Additionally, I wish to thank those of you who have helped to make our band travels to Fayetteville on September 11 and to Greensboro on September 18 possible. We are playing E.E. Smith and Dudley, respectively, on those dates, and it is important for our young people to understand the history of these storied rivalries! There is still time for you to contribute toward these travels, and if you are interested in doing so, PLEASE contact Mr. Xavier Cason, Director of Bands, at xavier_cason@dpsnc.net OR at 919-560-3925!
Until next time…