Dear HBE Families,

We want to wish all of you, our students and families, a safe, happy, and healthy Holiday
Season. This time of year is special in many ways. I most enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the
past year, spend invaluable time with loved ones, and celebrate the Holidays.
It is also a wonderful time to make plans for a great 2019. I am grateful to have the opportunity
to serve our school and your students as Principal and we are very excited for the many great
things happening at HBE!
Part of our plans will be our continued improvement in literacy. We are very excited with our
results from last year. The hard work of our students and staff is paying off. I am very proud of
our kids and their hard work. We credit this growth, among other things, to the great work our
staff and students are doing with our new reading and writing program (Columbia University,
Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project-Units of Study), and your hard work at home
making sure that your students are reading!
As we head into the break, it is so important, with all of the festivities, to carve out special time
for reading throughout the holiday. We know that students can suffer from what we call a
“slide” due to long breaks without reading, like in the summer and over long holiday breaks.
That time off from reading can set a student back about 2-3 months, and can take 2-3 months to
catch them up. That is 4-6 months, or an entire half of a year of lost growth! If kids do not read
over the Holiday break, there is significant loss of skills. Make it a special time to read to your
kids and with them. Another way to make it a special time is to have them see you reading while
they are reading independently to model for them its importance.
I also want to take this opportunity to ask for your help with a district and building initiative.
Our District is seeking input to get feedback from our families through a survey to build upon
our plans moving forward. A letter was sent home outlining the process. Go to the link on the
district page under Parent Resource and put in the password family2018. It is important to us
that our families from HBE have a voice in this process. Also, we are very excited about a grant
opportunity coming up in February. Our HBE grant proposal for outdoor and indoor equipment
has been accepted to compete for the top prize. We will compete in a national grant contest
through ShopRite, Danon Yogurt and Project Fit America to win the grant. The school with the
most online votes will win and we will be counting on all of our families and our community to
help support this effort! More information will come out in the New Year as voting will take
place during the month of February. That is all for this year! Have a great Holiday, enjoy your
time off with your students and loved ones, and we will see you all in 2019! Go HBE, and Go
PORT!
Respectfully,

Jared Kahmar David Marr

Principal Assistant Principal
HBE Elementary School