Transition Roundtable Scheduled for Dec 8, 2020

 

Virtual Transition Roundtable Event

on Post-Secondary Transition Options from Local and State Adult Service Providers

Presented by Holliston, Natick, and Newton Public Schools

https://youtu.be/ig01xa00kus

HHS To Be Fully Remote on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020

HHS will follow a fully remote schedule on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. 

Please see the letter from Dr. Kustka sent to families via BrightArrow for more information.

HHS (Remote) Open House, Oct. 14, 2020

UPDATE: Opening Remarks (passcode: j^^drj6y) | Recordings of teacher sessions

This fall's Open House will begin remotely at 6:30 pm with a presentation by Ms. Bottomley. Parents and guardians can then follow their students' schedules to meet the teachers via Zoom or Google Meet, beginning with A Block at 7 pm. Parents and guardians do not need to attend Advisory.

• 6:30 pm Principal's Address
• 7:00 - 7:10  Block A
• 7:15 - 7:25  Block B
• 7:30 - 7:40  Block C
• 7:45 - 8:00  Block D

For security, Zoom and Google Meet links will be emailed to families during the afternoon before the event, so please check your email inbox for links from hpsinfo@holliston.k12.ma.us.

Schools Closed on Thursday, October 8th

 Dear Families:

Due to power outages and roads remaining blocked with trees and wires down, school will be closed today. Eversource indicating many houses are out of power, so we will not be able to be remote. We were hoping power might be back overnight, but I am hearing that roads are not cleared and power has not been restored. Sorry for the late notice. Stay Safe!

Dr. Susan E. Kustka

Interim Superintendent

Welcome Back!

We are so excited to start the school year, and I know I speak for all teachers when I say that we have missed our students and are looking forward to seeing them via Zoom! An email was sent out in the morning on Tuesday, September 15th through student's grade level Google Classrooms containing the Google Classroom codes for each individual class. Once students log on to their Google Classroom they will see a zoom (in a few specific cases a Google Meet link) link to access their remote classes tomorrow.

To clarify, there are two calendars students/families should pay attention to for the school year.

The first calendar is the cohort calendar which shows Cohort A on Monday/Tuesday & alternating Wednesdays and Cohort B on alternating Wednesdays and Thursday/Friday. That calendar represents the hybrid model and the days of the week that students will be attending in-person classes. Since creating the cohort calendar, the high school in-person start date changed and in-person classes are now scheduled to begin on the 29th. Until then, all students will attend their classes virtually unless contacted by high school personnel.

The second calendar is the Day Rotation Calendar. Holliston High School follows a 4 day rotating calendar. This calendar reflects the rotation schedule to show if it is an A day, B day, C day or a D day. For example, tomorrow is an A day and class will begin at 8:10am with A block, followed by B block and so on. To see the bell schedule with the times for each block please click on the following link: Daily Block Bell Schedule. Students will also see this bell schedule with their classes when they log in to their PowerSchool Unified Classroom accounts (reminder instructions were sent in the email over the weekend).

Although most students will not begin in-person classes until the 29th, we wanted to share a quick video our students made to orient everyone to the building. Over the next week we will be sending out additional information about the logistics for navigating the building and the various procedures geared towards health and safety. Here is a quick snapshot of HHS: Welcome to HHS 2020.

We will be sending out more information about band, chorus, clubs, activities and athletics over the next several days. For now, please concentrate on getting set up with google classroom and zoom links for tomorrow!

Parents/Guardians, if you have not already done so, please complete the annual verification forms for the start of the school year. If you are having any difficulty with the forms, please contact Patty Sundquist at sundquistp@holliston.k12.ma.us

Thank you for your support and we are excited to start the year!!

HHS Administration
Principal - Nicole Bottomley
Assistant Principal Grades 9 & 11 - Ms. Karen Archambault
Assistant Principal Grades 10 & 12 - Mr. Chris Cook
Student Services Administrator - Kim Condon
Athletic Director - Matt Baker

Yearbooks Orders

 

It's time to order your HHS Yearbook for the 2020-2021 school year!

The special "early-bird" price is only available until the end of September, so order your yearbook at the best price today!

More information about the yearbook, including online ordering, pricing, and ad deadlines, can be found on the HHS website.

School Start Date Update (September 12, 2020)

September 12, 2020 

Dear Families: 

Starting on Wednesday, September 16th, PreK-3 will begin a staggered start towards daily, in-person instruction. Grade 2 and Montessori Ages 6-8 at Placentino and Grade 3 at Miller will begin in-person instruction on September 16th. Grade 1 will begin in-person learning on Thursday, September 17th. Kindergarten will begin in-person learning on Friday, September 18th and Preschool will begin in-person instruction on Monday, September 21st. 

In grades PreK-1, while they await to begin in-person instruction, students will meet with their teachers remotely for a series of activities and virtual orientations. Teachers will start the day at 8:45 for a whole class meeting and will then virtually meet with smaller groups of students throughout the day to orient them to the classroom, review arrival procedures, and to explain what they should expect for their first In-person day. The purpose of these interactions is to help orient students to the classroom and school environment while also building relationships with their teacher and classmates. 

Starting on September 21st, Grades 4-12 hybrid students will begin a staggered start towards daily in-person instruction. The district is aiming to begin in-person instruction by cohort in Grades 4 & 5 and Grades 6-8 on Monday, September 21st. Then on Tuesday, September 29th, we will aim to begin in-person instruction by cohort at Holliston High School in Grades 9-12. In order to reach this timeline, the district will be doing everything in its power to recruit and hire for open positions, and to deploy administrators and other non-teaching staff to support supervision and safety needs in creative ways. Below you will see additional detail by grade level start dates. We appreciate your patience and understanding, as we forge ahead during uncharted times in education. 

However, should staffing needs not be resolved so that proper safety protocols are able to be ensured, it may be necessary to delay the in-person start dates for grades 4-12 a bit longer, but this is not our intention at this time. Should this need to occur related to safe staffing needs, we will communicate this to families as early as possible. We are not alone, as many school districts are competing to find additional staff for safety positions and/ or to fill positions created from late resignations or leaves of absence related to Covid-19. 

 As you know, we have asked for parent volunteers to support the in-person start dates, and there are still about 25 open school positions and many bus monitor openings. These are available for new hires to apply for or volunteers to temporarily fill, to aid this process. Here is the survey link for volunteers and the Schoolspring link to apply for a position. As stated the other night, “It takes a village to raise our children/ educate the students” of HPS, and they/we need you. 

Sincerely, Dr. Susan E. Kustka 

Interim Superintendent 

Full In-person Wednesday, September 16th: In-Person Learning Schedule: 

• Grade 2 and Montessori Ages 6-8 will begin in-person instruction at Placentino. 

• Grade 3 will begin in-person instruction at Miller. 

 

Thursday, September 17th: In-Person Learning Schedule

• Grade 2 and Montessori 6-8 will continue with in-person learning 

• Grade 3 will continue in-person instruction at Miller. 

• Grade 1 will begin in-person learning 

 

Friday, September 18th: In-Person Learning Schedule 

• Grade 2 and Montessori 6-8 will continue with in-person learning 

• Grade 1 will continue with in-person learning 

• Grade 3 will continue in-person instruction at Miller. 

• Kindergarten will begin in-person learning 

 • Preschool will continue to meet with their teachers remotely as described. 

 

September 21st: 

• Preschool will begin In-person learning (joining grades K-2) 

Hybrid Model Grades 4-12 

Wednesday, September 16 - Friday, September 18 

• Grades 4-12 would all begin hybrid remotely 
• Grades 4 & 5 hybrid would be remote for the first 3 days 
• Grade 6-8 would be remote for the first 3 days 
• Grades 9-12 would be remote for the first 3 days 

Monday, September 21 

• Miller Grades 4 & 5 and RAMS Grade 6-8 hybrid will aim to begin in-person learning by cohort. 
• Holliston High would remain remote for the week. 

Tuesday, September 29 

• Holliston High School in grades 9-12 will aim to begin in-person learning by cohort. 
• All schools are in full hybrid mode.