Hilltop Happenings
Hilltop Happening October 25: https://secure.smore.com/n/yp46e
Hilltop Happening October 18: https://secure.smore.com/n/pzrntv
Hilltop Happening October 4: https://secure.smore.com/n/kngrd
Hilltop Happening September 13: https://secure.smore.com/n/6f2mp
Hilltop Happening September 3: https://secure.smore.com/n/4wmhf
Hilltop Happening August 23: https://secure.smore.com/n/27e9f
Hilltop Happening August 16th https://secure.smore.com/n/nr1yu
Dear SHE Families,
Happy Friday! Well, we made it through the first week of school and our processes/schedules have gone incredibly smooth. Thank you for all that you have done to help us have a great week. The majority of students arrived before our tardy bell at 7:40 am. If you choose carpool for your arrival method, thank you for timely departure from your home to school, ensuring that your child(ren) arrive to school on time or early.
Thank you to Mr. Jared of Milton DoJo for providing fun music for our families as they arrived to school by bus or car. Each and every Friday, we encourage any to come for High-5 Friday! If you want to participate in High-5 Friday, arrive at SHE between 7 and 7:05, meeting in the front atrium. At the 7:10 bell, our High-5 Friday volunteers go to both drop-off zones and greet students with a High-5. Research supports that giving a High-5 sends dopamine to the brain and we think a burst of dopamine is a great way to start the day!
Our cafeteria manager, Valerie Aydlett, will be on medical leave until October 2nd. FCS nutrition supervisor, Oscar Flores, will fill in for Mrs. Val during her leave. We wish Ms. Val well during her leave and we are in great hands with Mr. Flores. If you have any questions regarding your lunch account, you can email him at: FloresO@fultonschools.org
Just a reminder that afterschool opportunities are listed on the SHE website. Be sure to check out all that SHE has to offer your child(ren). Several afterschool clubs including Garden and Spanish Club will begin the week of September 9th. More information is coming soon.
Upcoming Events:
- August 16th: SHE PTO's Back-To-School Bash at 5:30 pm on the rear playground and field areas. I hope that I will see you there!
- August 27th & 28th SHE Curriculum Nights: Grades/Times TBD
- September 2nd: School Holiday for Staff & Students
- September 3rd & 4th : No School for Students to Allow for Teachers' Professional Development and Work Day
- September 5th : Lunch Dates Begin-Parents who want to have a lunch date with their child(ren) should check-in at the front office upon arrival. Please bring and be prepared to show a photo ID.
On behalf of the SHE staff, thank you for your partnership and your trust! Have a great weekend and take care, Lorrie
Reply directly to Dr. Bearden: BeardenL@fultonschools.org
Dr. Lorrie Bearden, Principal
Summit Hill Elementary
13855 Providence Road
Milton, GA 30004
470-254-2830 (Front Office)
Happy Friday Saturday, SHE Families!
This is the first edition of the Hilltop Happening for 2024-2025 and I hope that you find it helpful each week. I focus on schoolwide happenings, so you should depend on your teacher for grade-level specific events and activities. I will share pictures and end each edition with a calendar of upcoming events.
Monday, August 5th is the first day of school and here is what you need to know about arrival, the school day, and dismissal:
- Riding the Bus? Our bus drivers are the BEST, and your child is very safe on the bus for both school arrival and dismissal. There are a lot of pros to riding the bus, but you have to make that decision as a family. If you do choose to ride the bus, here is what you should know:
- Parent & Guardian Toolkit - Fulton County School System (fultonschools.org) Click this link to get all of the information that you need to know about your bus stop times, your bus number, as well as how to download the "Here Comes the Bus App". "Here Comes the Bus" app allows your phone to track your bus as it travels to and from the bus stop. You can set it up to alert you when the bus gets close to your bus stop.
- Remember the "bus stop" may not be in front of your house so be sure that you check that information.
- Note: On the p.m. Stop, if an adult is not there to meet a PK, K, or 1st grade student, the bus driver will not allow the PK, K, or 1st grade student to get off the bus. Your student will be brought back to Summit Hill ES. This is for your PK, K, or 1st grade student's safety.
- Students are not allowed to ride the bus with a friend. Play dates must be arranged using carpool as the mode of transportation.
- SHE staff greet students at each bus when it arrives at school and your teacher will ensure that each student gets on the correct bus in the afternoon.
- Arrival/Dismissal via carpool? Here is what you should know about carpool in the morning and afternoon:
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- When in the carpool lane, please come to a complete stop before load/unloading. Please wait until all children are unloaded before pulling forward or exiting. Please always plan for load/unloading your child(ren) on the passenger side of your vehicle. Please do not pass another car on the left when in the carpool lane.
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- PK, PSE, and KSE students use yellow numbers and their emergency flashers and unload at the 1st or 2nd cone. Those paraprofessionals will be waiting to help your child unload and enter the school at door 3. If your vehicle happens to stop at cones 3 - 8, the staff will see your yellow number or emergency flashers and won't unload your child. Please wait patiently and then pull forward to the appropriate zone for you to load/unload.
- In the morning, we have two drop off areas for carpool - the front office sidewalk and the bus lane sidewalk. Please always use Providence Road to enter SHE, both in the morning and the afternoon. Cowart Road is reserved for buses during school hours, and we ask that you respect the district process. The buses drop off students between 7:10 and 7:20. During that time, at the 3-way stop, you should proceed straight and use the front office drop-off to reserve the bus lane for bus unloading. Between 7:20 and 7:40 am, at the 3-way stop, you can choose to proceed to the right or straight. There are staff in both areas to assist with unloading. As well, there are teachers positioned throughout the halls to assist students to their classrooms.
- In the afternoon, students are dismissed at 2:20 pm and teachers/staff walk all students out to their bus/carpool area. Teachers will line students up by daycare, walkers, carpool, and bus. We dismiss by older grade levels first. Once in the cafeteria, daycare students gather in their area and wait for the daycare bus. Carpool students sit in their designated area and wait for their carpool number to be called. Walkers and bus riders move outside of the cafeteria to the bus area. If you are meeting your student to walk home, please wait under the bus side awning nearest the playground area. For the first week, teachers walk all students to ensure that all get on the right bus and to practice dismissal processes. PK, K, and 1st graders are walked to their buses for the remainder of the school year. Buses load quickly and typically leave SHE around 3:35.
- For afternoon carpool, please attach your carpool number to the right side of your windshield or hang it from the mirror, using a child-sized skirt hanger. Having your carpool on the right side allows our staff to easily see it. Numbers are called via radio to the cafeteria and your child(ren) are lined up and will be waiting for you on the front office side sidewalk. We use 8 colored cones to help the children know where to wait. Please pull your car as far forward as possible before stopping to load.
- In the afternoon, after buses exit campus, we will use the bus lane as a sort of queue line to move all vehicles on campus and avoid blocking Providence Road traffic.
- If you carpool with another family, it is your responsibility to have the carpool number for each family displayed in the vehicle picking up.
On Monday, August 5th only, parents of PK, K, and new families may walk your child(ren) to the classroom. Please park and safely cross the carpool areas at the crosswalk only. After walk to the classroom, keep your goodbye brief and exit via the wing door on the left side of the building. Everyone else is asked to stay in the carpool lane to unload your students.
Breakfast is available every day upon arrival until 7:40 pm. If your child wants to eat breakfast at school, she or he should visit the cafeteria first before going to the classroom. Staff are on duty to assist.
While we love having our parents volunteer, we need a few weeks to help our students to get into the routines of school. Parents will be allowed to begin visiting the building the week of Labor Day each year.
The first few days of school, please understand that arrival and dismissal wait times may be a little longer than normal. We have a very good process for arrival and dismissal and after a few days of practice, we all get better and faster at the process. 🙂
That is most of the information that you need for the first week of school. The SHE Family Handbook contains more comprehensive information about our school processes. You can access it using this link or find it on the SHE website: SHE Family Handbook.
See you on Monday and have a great weekend. Take care, Lorrie
Reply directly to Dr. Bearden: BeardenL@fultonschools.org
Dr. Lorrie Bearden, Principal
Summit Hill Elementary
13855 Providence Road
Milton, GA 30004
470-254-2830 (Front Office)