Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome to the 2021/22 school year, to say I am glad last year is behind us is an understatement. However, we will still need to be vigilant for our students and community in order to help our Hawks excel this year. Details about how the school year will look and how your family can help keep Hiawatha a healthy place will be available in the school district's Instructional Learning Plan, which will be available upon School Board approval next week.

I want to say a special “thank you” to all the parents who allowed their child/children to attend SOAR camp in June. It offered our teachers an opportunity to work with some students who were directly affected by the difficult school year and help provide additional instruction and interventions to prepare them for this school year.

For the 2021/22 school year we will be focusing on Hawk Pride. What does it mean to be a Hawk? What does it take to be a Hawk? How do you show pride in being a Hawk? How can a Hawk excel? Why do you want to be a Hawk? The answer to all these questions is having/showing pride:

· P-perseverance

· R-respect

· I-integrity

· D-dependability

· E-enthusiasm

This year we all will be finding out how and why we have PRIDE in being a Hawk! I know I have been proud to be a Hawk since the day I was hired. Throughout the school year students will practice showing perseverance, respect, integrity, dependability, and enthusiasm for being a Hawk!

Lastly, I am thrilled to announce we have completed our three year roll out for the English/Language Arts (ELA) curriculum, Benchmark Advance. All grade levels will now be using Benchmark for ELA and Eureka for math. This will allow our students and teachers to truly work towards excellence with rigorous lessons in all subject areas and hold our students to a higher standard of learning to help prepare them for the future. As a school we have set strong goals for our students to achieve and this is the year they will excel!

Thank you for all you do and all you will do this year to support our Hawks. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out by email, phone call, or stop by the elementary office. I cannot wait to show some Hawk Pride on August 18th!

Your Proud Principal,

Caitlin Benes