Activities

After School Enrichment (ASE)

Has your child always wanted to try something new but you were concerned about the time and scheduling commitment?  ASE is your solution!  Students can choose from a variety of topics such as art, fencing, bingo, science, cooking and much more!  Classes are held on campus in the Fall and Spring immediately after school.  Sessions last about 6 weeks. Contact Jenn Pichette or Beth Perkins with questions.  See the fall catalog under Quicklinks on the left side of the Home page.

Art Enrichment

Know about art or want to know about it?  Art Enrichment allows you to volunteer in the classroom for 30 minutes just once a month to introduce the kids to different artists.  All necessary materials are supplied by the PTA.  It’s a great way to get to know the kids in your child’s class.  Contact Beth Schaffer or Lara Lampert to help with this or for more information.

Here are instructions for art enrichment volunteers:
Art Enrichment Instructions

Birthday Book Club

Celebrate a child’s birthday or honor a friend by participating in the Birthday Book Club and donating a “birthday book” to the library.  For an $18 donation, you can select a book to be permanently added to the school library collection.  A bookplate dedicating the book to that special person is placed in the front inside cover.  Contact Denise Sechelski or Kristen Nilsson or Mary Nielson to help with this activity of for more information.

Birthday Pencils/Banners

Do you want to celebrate your child’s birthday at school?  For $20, a special Hill gift for everyone in the class, including the teacher, will be delivered to your child’s classroom and a special banner in honor of your child’s birthday will be hung in the cafeteria for the week!   Contact Susan Thompson to help with this activity or for more information.

Booster Club

Boost your support by joining the Booster Club!  This program recognizes individuals or companies that make a one-time contribution of $50 or more.  Donors may dedicate their contribution to a specific item or a specific grade from a list of needs determined by the teachers and staff.  All money from booster goes directly to the classrooms.  The teachers will love you for it and it’s tax deductible!  Contact Desiree Gaines to help with this committee or for more information.

Box Tops for Education

Who says you can’t get something for nothing?  Earn cash for Hill by simply clipping the Box Tops for Education coupons from your favorite products such as General Mills, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Ziploc and many more!  Go to www.boxtops4education.com for a complete list of participating products.  Each coupon is worth 10 cents.  This may not sound like a lot, but just 20 boxtops per month from each Hill family would raise almost $10,000 per year when Hill redeems them through General Mills’ Box Tops for Education program.  Let’s get clipping!   Contact Terry Geld at Terry Geld or Karen Kershaw for more information.

DILLO Dads

The DILLO Dads is an informal group of Hill Elementary fathers that meets one a month during the school year to discuss topics concerning our school and to learn about volunteer opportunities.  We usually get together for coffee and doughnuts on the first or second Friday of every month in the multi-purpose room.  Please contact Scott Willrich if you’d like to find out more.  Everyone (Moms, Dads, and Teachers) is welcome to attend!!!

Dillo Details

Stay informed!  Dillo Details is a bi-weekly newsletter produced the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month to keep parents updated on activities occurring in the school.  Locate the latest copy as well as back copies online on this website.  We are looking for someone to chair this area! Contact Irma Kosol to help with this project or for more information.

Gift Cards/Dollars for Dillos

If you shop at HEB, Randalls or Starbucks, you can make money for Hill!  Simply purchase gift cards at FACE VALUE and spend them like cash.  These businesses pay us $4 to $7 for every $100 you buy.  For added convenience, you can sign up for a monthly subscription.  Many other businesses offer this same service so before you shop, contact the committee chairs.  It’s a free and easy way to give to the school.  In addition, you can tie your Target credit card or Randalls Remarkable card to the Hill PTA (Randalls code #709).  They will donate 1% of the purchase price back to Hill!  Contact Day Fariss or Allyson Townsend for more information. To sign up for this program, click here.

Booster Club/HIL Grant

Hill Innovative Learning (HIL) Grant is a program that supports, encourages and funds special innovative projects proposed by the instructional staff of Hill.  A volunteer committee of PTA members reviews the proposals and awards grants twice per year. Contact Desiree Gaines to help with this committee or for more information.

Hill Grounds

A beautiful school makes for better learning!  This committee does many projects around the school grounds to keep the looking great!  Do you have a green thumb or do you just like working outside?  Contact Mary Beth Lee or Steve Sletten to help with this committee or for more information.

Hospitality

The hospitality committee coordinates teacher breakfasts, luncheons and various other refreshments for meetings/events throughout the school year.  They also provide birthday cakes each month to celebrate teacher and staff birthdays.  If you can help with these events or if you can bake or provide a birthday cake sometime, please contact Pam Rugeley or Heather Thacker.

Jog Around Texas/Marathon Kids

Did you know that our kids run a marathon during the school year?  Laps run around our track are recorded each day and it is the goal for each child to have run 26 miles by the end of the school year.  The PTA helps the PE teachers with advertising the marathon kids start and end dates as well as tracking and awarding the miles with dillos on the bulletin board and ribbons.  Contact Wendy Garner for more information.

Literacy Library

This is a small library located in the multi-purpose room that provides leveled-reader books that teachers can use to tailor the children’s reading to their specific level.  All books are organized and coded by level.  Volunteers are needed to help keep this library in order.  Contact Jayne Rosso for more information.

Mentoring

Do you have a little extra time that you could spend with a student in need?  Get involved in Hill’s mentoring program and spend some time with a child to enrich their day and help them in their learning.  Contact the Hill Counselor, Jan Phillips, at jphillip@austinisd.org to help with this important program.

New Parent Coordinators

Are you new to Hill?  Would you like to meet other new parents or take a tour of the school?  These events are coordinated by our new parent coordinators.  Contact Julie Stoakley or Lauren Crowley to help with this program or for more information.

Partners in Education (PIE)

Would you like to become a Partner in Education?  The PIE program is a citywide program that strives to match individual schools’ needs with businesses that can meet those needs.  Hill is fortunate to have so many of them!  We are looking for someone to chair this area. Contact Wendy Byrd to help with this project or for more information.

Recycling

Hill families work in partnership with Balcones Recycling and the PTA to recycle and help our environment.  Please bring paper from your home or office to feed the recycling dumpster located next to the trash dumpster at the rear of Hill Elementary.  All types of paper and cardboard are acceptable:  junk mail, newspapers, magazines, computer paper, envelopes, file folders, telephone books, directories, wrapping paper, cereal boxes, and product packaging.  Staples, paper clips and stick on labels need not be removed.  The only items not acceptable are paper products with food residue and used tissues.   In addition, Hill sponsors a printer cartridge recycling program, working with Megabyte Express, Inc., to recycle used printer cartridges. Megabyte Express, Inc. pays Hill PTA an average of $1-$2 per cartridge.  Find the boxes most convenient to you in the hallways at Hill and drop your cartridges right in!  Plastic bottles are also recycled in the cafeteria and the teacher lounge.  We are looking for someone to chair this area! Contact Henrike Belz or Sherry Garza to help with this project or for more information.

Room Parents

Get involved in your child’s classroom!  This is an opportunity to help your child’s teacher with special classroom activities, parties ,etc.  If you would like to be a room parent, please contact NancyAnn Martinez-Nirmaier.

School Office Assistants

Tracking day-to-day operations and paperwork of 600+ students can be quite a challenge!  To show appreciation for our wonderful Hill staff, the PTA helps to organize office volunteers.  These volunteers are needed to help with copies and distribution of Wednesday folder flyers as well as answering the phones, greeting visitors, assisting children with questions and anything else that is helpful to the office staff.  It is a great way to meet people and know what is going on at the school.  If you can help, please contact Kellie Trinidad.

Staff Member of the Week

We love our teachers and staff!  Each week we will spotlight a couple of staff members on the bulletin board.  This will help everyone get to know them better.  Contact Stephanie Kurio at skurio@austin.rr.com to help with this project or for more information.

Teacher Helper

Got a few minutes?  Got a free morning?  Looking for some way to help from home?  Become a teacher helper.  Parent volunteers assist teachers with projects, including copying, cutting and laminating, to give our teachers more time to do what they do best.  Volunteers are trained on the ins and outs of the teacher workroom.  Many hands make light work!  Contact Cheryl Willrich at clwillrich@sbcglobal.net or Patricia Sudderth at jbrick@swbell.net to volunteer or for more information.

Website

Our PTA maintains this Web site containing valuable information for students, parents and teachers regarding the happenings at Hill.  This is our main source of providing important notices to keep everyone informed.  Contact Melissa Tao for questions or to help with the Web site.

Yearbook

Our PTA puts together an amazing yearbook to commemorate each school year at Hill.  It requires taking lots of pictures to document the year as well as time to organize and edit the book.  We are also looking for a co-chair for this area. If you can help with this wonderful keepsake for our kids, please contact Theresa Cameron or Eva Nichols to be a part of this memory-making project!