Our Mission

Our purpose at Hill School is to provide a safe environment and ensure learning for all members of our school community.

Our Vision

In 3-5 years Hill School will be a place where a collaborative culture is established, instruction is relevant and adjusted to meet the needs of all learners, assessments are ongoing and informative and all staff members participate in purposeful collaboration on a regular schedule to ensure all students are learning.

Our Goals

#1 Hill School students will arrive to school on time in order to maximize instructional time.

Because regular attendance and being on time are crucial to success in school, we have developed a committee that is focused on improving students' overall attendance. Our specific goal during 2009-2010 school year is the percentage of Hill School students who are tardy five or more times will decrease by 50%. We are working toward this goal by tracking progress on tardiness and attendance. Notes will be sent home with students who are deemed to have attendance or tardiness issues. These students will also create a personal growth plan to help keep students accountable for getting to school on time.

#2 Hill School students will improve their comprehension of nonfiction texts by learning how to attend to the various structures and features of informational texts.

Our goal for students at Hill Elementary is to improve their comprehension of informational texts. Students specifically have difficulty answering comprehension questions that refer to text features, such as tables, charts, indexes, etc.

The Troy School District is very proud of the new Reading Workshop Curriculum provided for each grade level that addresses the needs of individual readers. Within this curriculum, each grade level has a unit focusing on nonfiction/informational texts. This will provide the instruction and practice students need to improve their comprehension of nonfiction texts.

At Hill, we will also provide our ESL and at risk students with additional opportuntieis to improve their instruction. They will be able to create text feature booklets by finding specific examples of text features in magazines or other texts to help them become more familiar with them. They will also create personal goal plans, including the steps they will take to reach those goals that will target their comprehension of nonfiction texts.

#3 Hill School students will improve their writing by developing ideas with adequate details.

A goal for our students at Hill Elementary is to improve their writing. Specifically, we would like the students to learn how to support their ideas with more detailed examples.

Throughout the year, the teachers will use strategies directed toward improving in this area. For example, teachers will teach students how to use the ABC's of illustration to add details to their pictures and, in turn, their writing. Within the framework of our Writer's Workshop, students will continue to be asked to write about small moments, and teachers will direct questions to draw out more detail from the students. Teachers will also create word lists of alternate verbs, adjectives and adverbs with their students, to help with their writing.

#4 Hill students will improve their writing by applying conventional mechanics in their writing pieces.

Many Hill students do not seem to apply conventional writing mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) in their written work. This often makes it difficult to read and understand their writing. This goal committee is in the process of developing strategies for improving the application of writing mechanics by students. They will inform the staff of their strategies and track their progress by administering periodic assessments that they have developed.

The State of Michigan annually grades all schools in Michigan. We are proud to announce that Hill Elementary was once again awarded an 'A' for educational quality by the State of Michigan. Also during the previous year teachers began implementing a best practice instructional model for balanced literacy called Reader's Workshop. Read our 2010-2011 Annual Report to learn more about Hill Elementary.

The Michigan Green Schools Program encourages public and private schools to participate in environmentally friendly and energy savings activities.

Our traditions and symbols help us define ourselves in the present as well as plan for the future. Since the Hill School opened its doors on September 3, 1967, countless children have played and studied in this fine facility. Today the commitment remains to give all our students the opportunity to reach their full potential. Across the district, Hill is renowned for the quality of teaching and learning.

As we continue through another year, we are reminded of our beginnings as a rural community. The Windmill Pointe Subdivision was merely "a dream" for an aspiring contractor. Instead, cornfields and crowing roosters greeted the teachers each day, as long as it wasn't raining. Forsyth was a dirt road and oftentimes the drain would overflow and flood out the road prohibiting the teachers to make it to the school in their cars. The facility itself was much smaller consisting of the office, the main hallway and centrum which housed only one classroom of each grade. We are proud to know that several of our parents attended Hill as children and have chosen to continue the tradition with their families.

Although things have changed, our history and traditions will always be with us. Today our students are building attitudes, skills, and memories in classrooms taught by skilled teachers. The commitment to outstanding teaching remains.

Hill School continues to help students reach beyond the commonplace to stretch themselves in their academic work and in their commitment to one another as members of the community. The early beginnings will remain in our memories of Hill as a symbol of great strength in our tradition of pursuing excellence.