Greetings Park Hill Families:

I hope this message finds you all doing well. Just wanted to provide a few brief updates as you head into your weekend.

– A sincere thank you to our entire Park Hill school community for your generous support during our Direct Giving campaign. We were able to raise over $30,000 to directly support your child’s education this school year. In particular, our kindergarten classes alone brought in $9000. This is simply amazing and we thank you for your generosity and support.

– In other news, we have two positive cases of Covid currently recorded at our school. Both individuals are in fourth grade, and the families have been communicated with. This is a significant improvement from where we were just a few short weeks ago.

– We are looking for a para professional to support our primary grades. This position can be part time or full time. Please email if you are interested.

– Specifically for 4th grade, we are eliminating the game of football from our recess and break times. Our students are continuing to work on sportsmanship and we need a little more time with that before we can bring football back into the equation.

Ken Burdette, Principal

Continue reading Panther Pages, October 22, 2021 →

Greetings Park Hill Families:

I hope this message finds you well. Just a reminder that we are off school this Friday and this Monday. We are back on Tuesday 10/19.

Thank you to all the parents and teachers who have been able to participate in conferences so far. We appreciate your time and support in your child’s education.

Lastly, I want to provide a quick Covid update. Last week, we had one new case, and that case was at the kindergarten level. This week, we had one case in second grade. Families in both of those classes received email notices from the Office about possible exposures.  Compared to where we were just a few short weeks ago, we have seen a significant decrease in our positive Covid cases. We believe the measures we are taking here at school, in addition to the extra precautions you are taking at home, have made a huge impact.  Thank you for your efforts and we look forward to keeping a healthy and safe school environment for everyone.

Ken Burdette, Principal

Continue reading Panther Pages, October 15, 2021 →

Dear Park Hill Elementary Families:

I wanted to share a highlight from this week in our Intermediate grades.  On Wednesday, our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders were able to participate in the “No Place For Hate” kickoff, which included a zoom meeting and read aloud from Amanda Gorman. Her new book is entitled “Change Sings”.  The students read the book in class with their teachers, watched Ms Gorman read it aloud during the zoom kickoff meeting, and engaged in thoughtful and engaging dialogue in their class around kindness, inclusion, and equity (among other topics). If your child has not shared this with you, please ask them this weekend.

This work is tied to our larger commitment to Equity:

DPS Equity Statement: Racial and Educational Equity is our collective responsibility. We will achieve equity when we dismantle deeply rooted systems of oppression that have historically resulted in inequitable access and distribution of opportunities and resources for those who represent marginalized identities, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, language and ability. We will create conditions where we all belong, are included, have clear purpose (why) and have the autonomy to lead in our respective areas. By creating these conditions, we will eliminate the predictability of success or failure for our students and team members.

Ken Burdette, Principal

Continue reading Panther Pages, October 8, 2021 →

Happy Friday Park Hill Families:

Update on Direct Giving

Please watch a short video about the importance of our Direct Giving event and how the funds are used directly to support your child’s grade:

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/WHYua8JUmjky8Z0haAlg

The movie night for tonight has been postponed at this time.

Update on Covid and Health

In an effort to be transparent with our families, please see the information below:

• As of Thursday, 9/30, we had 22 active Covid cases
• Of these 22 cases, 70% were tied to our one 3rd and one 5th grade classes. Both of these classes have been quarantined and on Remote Learning this entire week, and have not been present in the building.
• The other cases are spread out between 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and staff. If this impacted you or your classroom, you would have received communication from PHE.
• The safety measures implemented this week (masks, eating outdoors) seem to be working.  We will continue with eating breakfast and lunch outdoors only, weather pending.  We will continue to ask adults to wear masks at drop-off and pick-up for at least one more week. Next week, students will not be required to wear masks when outside – that was for this week, to stem the spread of illness.
• We will increase our cleaning measures in the classroom and with our student hand-washing.

I recognize that in a school community of 400+ families, many different perspectives exist. I have had some parents fully agree with the steps we have taken. I have had some disagree. I have had many say they are “in the middle” and will support whatever we decide.  In the end, this is about doing what we believe is best for our students and families, fully knowing we will not please everyone.

Thank you for your ongoing supports.

Ken Burdette, Principal

Continue reading Panther Pages, October 1, 2021 →

Happy Friday Park Hill Families:

As you may have seen from Principal Burdette’s email, we are seeing increasing cases of Covid in our school community.  These are the measures we are taking to help avoid exposures at school:

– Extra building cleaning will occur

– ALL breakfast and lunch will take place outdoors. Students will not be permitted to eat breakfast or lunch in the cafeteria, barring a major rainstorm or significant inclement weather. Please dress your students in warm clothes in the mornings.

– We are moving to full masks for next week.  This means students and staff will wear masks indoors and outdoors. Students will be afforded an opportunity to take an outside mask break(s); however, this mask break will not include physical activity or close proximity to students. When students play at recess, etc, they will be required to wear their mask.

– We are postponing next Friday’s Movie Night and Direct Giving. We value our opportunity to connect as a community. However, we do not want to be the source of a super-spreader event.   We will of course welcome any donations you are still willing to make, and we appreciate that in advance. https://parkhillptsa.com/shop/  We will look to reschedule the movie night down the road once things hopefully settle down.

Lastly, we ask that you as parents, guardians, and family members continue to do your part to keep everyone safe. We are making these changes at the school level to better protect our students and staff.  If there are changes you can make in your plans, please do so.  This could include: Masks at birthday parties or block parties, delaying that flight out of town, minimizing exposures at sports practices and games, and carry-out vs dining-in.  Just some thoughts.  Thank you in advance. Continue reading Panther Pages, September 24, 2021 →

Happy Friday Park Hill Families:

Thank you all for another great week of school. I do want to inform you that we have had a total of five positive Covid cases. These cases have been spread out among students and staff, including a guest teacher and a DPS support partner. They have also spanned over all grades. Thankfully, these cases did not result in a mass quarantine for any class or grade. If your child was impacted or exposed, you would have received notification from me. As always, you can reach out to our office team with additional questions.

In light of this, I want to bring to your attention once again the importance of wearing our masks and wearing masks properly that also fit us properly.  When it comes to the question of quarantine or not, it often has to do with length of exposure as well as whether or not the parties were wearing their mask correctly. Please continue to remind your children about the importance of this, and send them with a mask that fits them properly. We do have extra kid size masks here at school. Also, if it is a reusable mask, I highly recommend washing it at least a few times each week.

Thank you!

Ken Burdette, Principal

Continue reading Panther Pages, September 17, 2021 →