June Edition of The Heron NEST

JUNE 6: Travelin' Tom's Coffee Truck | 8:00 AM

JUNE 6: 3rd Grade Field Trip to Bowman Bay

JUNE 6: 4th Grade Field Trip to Admiralty Inlet

JUNE 6: Kindergarten Water Park @ School Day

JUNE 9: Field Day

June 10: PTA Meeting & Volunteer Tea 3:45 PM

JUNE 11: Disney Day

JUNE 12 -13: Kindergarten Screenings

JUNE 12: 4th Grade Music Program 6:00 PM

JUNE 13: Yearbook Signing 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

JUNE 13: OHHS Grad Walk 3:00 PM

JUNE 13: Pajama Jam End of the Year Dance|

June 17: Kindy 500 | 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM

June 17: 4th Grade Walk | 2:45 PM

JUNE 19: Juneteenth Holiday | CLOSED

JUNE 20 & 23-24: Office OPEN

JUNE 25 - AUG. 5: Office CLOSED

AUG. 6 - SEPT. 2: Office Open

AUG 26: Class Lists Post to Skyward

AUG. 28: Open House

SEPT. 3: First Day of School (Grades 1-4)

Sept 3-5: WA KIDS Kindergarten Family Meetings

SEPT. 8: First Day of School (Kindergarten)

Hello Heron Families!

As we enter our final weeks of the 2024-25 school year, I would like to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for your ongoing support of our school and its staff. Hillcrest truly has an incredibly supportive, kind-hearted, and involved group of parents, and your goodwill and cooperative spirit do not go unnoticed by our staff or the students we serve. Whether you volunteered in the building, sat with your child at night over homework, or made sure your child made it to school on time every day, you made a difference! Thank you for collaborating with us to provide a safe and supportive environment where all children can learn. Thank you for partnering with us and entrusting us to educate and guide your child this year. I wish you a relaxing and memory-filled summer, and I look forward to seeing our students and families in the fall!

Respectfully,

Our Hillcrest Learning Assistance Program staff will be available to conduct Kindergarten Readiness Screenings for our incoming Herons. Each screening takes approximately 10 -15 minutes and provides valuable information regarding student placement and academic and social needs for the upcoming year. Screenings are available on a drop-in basis (no appointments necessary) on Thursday, June 12, and Friday, June 13, from 9:00 AM to 10:45 AM and 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM.

Any students who are coming to us from Hand in Hand DO NOT need to attend these screenings, as their program has already completed this screening with students.

Join us on Friday, June 13, for a night of music, food, and fun as we celebrate the end of the school year in style!

🎧 DJ Moose will be spinning all your favorite tunes

🍔 Food trucks will be on site to keep you fueled up

🛌 Dress code: Your coolest, comfiest pajamas—the wilder, the better!

This party is going to be anything but a snooze—don’t miss it!

Oak Harbor Public Schools is excited to host the 12th annual Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Monday through Friday, June 23 through August 15. SFSP is a federally funded, state-administered program designed to serve free meals to all children 18 years and under during the summer season.

No sign-up or registration is required. Children must be present.

Learn more at Free Summer Meals.

Pick up your morning caffeine fix from school on Friday, June 6, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the PTA.

Mark your calendar and check out the menu!

If you’ve been chasing the thrill of your childhood Field Day, here’s your chance to relive the fun! Mr. Baur is looking for volunteers to help run this year’s exciting events on Monday, June 9.

Have a few hours and a volunteer badge? Grab your sneakers, dust off your whistle, and join us for one of the most fun days of the school year.

Bonus: There will be popsicles! 🍦 Score!

We’ll celebrate our amazing volunteers, welcome next year’s board, and go over our final events of the year.

📅 Tuesday, June 10

🕓 3:45 p.m.

📍 HCE Library

Snacks will be provided. Kids are welcome! The meeting will last approximately one hour.

The PTA is looking for volunteers to help distribute treats during several upcoming celebrations:

If you have a volunteer badge and some free time, we'd love your help!

Summer vacation is coming, which means Summer Reading is just around the corner. Keep your kids entertained all summer long with great books and free fun events at the Oak Harbor Public Library. Reading over the summer helps students maintain and improve on reading skills gained during the school year, so they’re ready to start strong in September. What’s more, it encourages a lifelong love for reading.

Our theme is Level Up at Your Library. All reading is encouraged – any book, any language, and any format! Being read to by someone or listening to an audiobook also counts! Kids and teens who log 10 hours of reading will get a free book and a patch.

There are three ways to track your reading:

When you’ve read for 10 hours, visit your local library to get a free book and a patch.

Check out the library's website for fun events happening throughout the summer at the Oak Harbor and Coupeville library branches, including a visit from The Reptile Lady on Tuesday, July 15! Need a few good book recommendations? We have booklists for kids and teens, and more.

Have you ever heard of the "summer slide"? The summer slide refers to the decline in academic skills that can occur over the summer months when schools are not in session. 

Although the summer slide may not affect every student, the general principle can be observed in various situations. Skills need to be practiced to ensure ongoing proficiency.

You can beat the summer slide! Inside this e-book are tips you can use to provide learning opportunities throughout the summer months (or anytime school's not in session) to keep kids' academic skills sharp.

Oak Harbor High School is hosting several athletic camps for kids!

🏐 Volleyball Kids Camp

💥 Speed, Agility, and Explosiveness Cam

🏀Boys & Girls Basketball Camp

🤼‍♂️Wrestling Camp

Learn more about how to register at www.ohsd.net/SummerCamps

Get ready for an exciting summer with the Macaroni Kid Whidbey Island Summer Camp Guide 2025 and the City of Oak Harbor Parks & Recreation Guide! Both of these resources are chock-full of activities and camps to keep kids having fun and learning. Explore a fantastic lineup of outdoor and indoor camps in Coupeville, Oak Harbor, Greenbank, Freeland, Langley, Clinton, and Anacortes, offering a wide array of activities for kids of all ages. Whether it's thrilling adventures, creative workshops, or educational experiences, there's something for everyone. Keep an eye out for new additions as the summer unfolds!

Please remember to pick up all medications your student has at school by 12:30 PM on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. We are not able to send medications home with your student or store medications over the summer. All medications left after 12:30 PM on June 18 will be destroyed. If your student has a life-threatening condition, medications must remain at school until the end of the school day on Wednesday, June 18. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Nurse Coker at rcoker@ohsd.net or (360) 279-5241.

Reminder: All health plans and healthcare provider orders are good for one school year only. If your child needs a health plan or needs to take medication during the school day for the school year 2025-2026 (this includes any prescription, over-the-counter medications, or inhalers used at school, during team sports practices, or after school activities), please download the appropriate form. Forms may also be picked up in the office.

It's never too early to plan for the next school year, and the Oak Harbor Public Schools "Back to School" website page makes it easy! It includes year-round information about academics, support services, and resources. Hillcrest will also provide specific communication to families just before the start of the school year.

This information is updated each summer as your official Back to School Guide and can be referenced throughout the year.

Due to the incredible generosity of our community through local levies, the only items Hillcrest families will need to provide for students in September are a backpack, over-the-ear wired headphones, and a water bottle. Just a heads up for your summer shopping!

Our amazing Hillcrest PTA will provide water bottles for our new kindergarteners as well as student planners for all our 4th-grade students.

Requests for bus transportation must be renewed every school year. 

Regular transportation is provided for students residing outside the one-mile walking area of their home school attendance area. Please fill out the Transportation Request Form to request student transportation or to request a change to your current arrangement throughout the year. If you submit a form over the summer, the transportation team will contact you in late August.

Oak Harbor Public Schools will be using a new app called BusRight that will allow you to keep track of your student's school bus route to and from school directly from your smartphone.

For any questions, please contact our transportation team at 360.279.5570.

Check out the ParentSquare Parent Help Center for more tips and video tutorials to make your school-to-home communications experience more personalized and purposeful in the coming school year!

Hillcrest is having its annual school-wide yearbook signing on Friday, June 13! Heron families who didn't get a chance to pre-order a yearbook can still order a copy for delivery to your home this summer. Click on the flyer for all the details.