Hillview PTO

The PTO would like to improve our communications with parents and staff. The weekly newsletter and the website are our primary means of communication and we want these publications to be useful, relevant, timely and informative. We are seeking your feedback about how we can better serve the community's needs. Please send your comments and suggestions to Dianne Child. Also, if you'd like to be part of a team to design and implement these changes over the coming summer months please let me know.

Parking Lot Tips

Parking lot tips:

In the mornings, please pull up as far as possible toward the library. Do not stop at the entrance of the driveway, as it prevents others from entering, and causes back-ups on Elder and Santa Cruz.
Once you've dropped off your child/ren, please pull as far up as possible, or exit the parking lot altogether. The drop-off area is an "active unloading" area.
In the afternoons, there are two pick-up lanes. One to the far left, and one along the curb on the right. Again, please pull up as cars move forward. Your child will meet you at your car. Students know to use the crosswalk to cross to the far side, or to the sidewalk.
Do not stop in the middle of the parking lot. This is a "passing lane" only, and is intended for those exiting.
Please do not switch from the left to the right lane. We ask that you pick one lane and stick with that choice. There have been some very close calls of cars nearly clipping one another.
Do not stop in the red-curbed area just outside of the parking lot on Elder. You may be ticketed if you are stopped there. The Menlo Park Police Department has requested that you stop at the corner and wait to turn until the parking lot has space for you.
Please drive through the parking lot very slowly. This is a school lot. Although you may have your child in the car, there are still others. Please take caution when driving through.
Please refrain from using your cell phone in the parking lot. (especially if it's NOT hands-free) All your attention should be focused on the safety of our students (your children).
Please only make a right turn out of the parking lot.

Hot Lunch Volunteers Needed!

Don't miss out on the opportunity to meet other Hillview parents, observe your middle schooler's social life, and serve a vital purpose!! Join our Hot Food Lunch Volunteer Force!! Contact Kathy Oppenheimer to arrange a time and day (once a month is all we ask!) that suits your needs. Or offer to be on the substitution list and just come when you can! We can always use a few more hands. Join us; it's fun!

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Writing Clinics

Register Now for Spring Writing Clinics

Writing Workouts is a one day per week after school writing clinic for 6th, 7th and 8th graders starting March 18.

Writing Workouts feature short, in-class exercises designed to complement Hillview's CORE curriculum. Seminars will be highly interactive. Students will participate and practice the common criteria needed to write well in any genre: Voice, Audience, Logic and Editing (VALE). Classes meet at Hillview immediately after school for one hour on either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Students will have the opportunity to review and discuss their writing, including writing for school assignments. No homework will be given and class size will be limited to 15 students. Instructor Jennifer Tsay is a writing tutor, Hillview parent and former attorney (Stanford English BA/Harvard JD). She has designed an integrated writing curriculum to help writers of all levels.

For more information contact the instructor at tsay_jennifer@yahoo.com or 650-324-1662 or download a registration flyer from http://cms.hillviewpto.org/node/2308.

Parent Education Night

The PTO Council is pleased to present:

Dr. Jim Taylor, Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child

Wednesday, April 7th

7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Hillview Middle School Multi

Are you pushing your child too much or too little? Come listen to Dr. Jim Taylor share his no-nonsense approach with plenty of real life anecdotes, practical solutions and humor. Based on his first parenting book, Dr. Taylor introduces parents to the use of positive pushing that is very different from the kind of pushing with which they may be familiar. He demonstrates how to push, when to push and importantly, when to back off. You will leave his workshop with new insights and useful tools you can use to encourage your children to achieve both success and happiness. Jim is the author of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, which he discussed on an appearance on NBC's The Today Show. He has consulted with young people and their parents in education, sports, and the performing arts for over 25 years. To learn more, visit www.drjimtaylor.com

The event is free, however please RSVP at jimtaylorevent@yahoo.com with the name(s) of the person(s) attending. Childcare for elementary age children is available for $12 if reserved before April 5th. If reserving childcare, please include your cell number and the ages of your children in your RSVP.

Hillview Student Makes Local News

The following article was recently published in the Palo Alto Daily News about Hillview's own Josef Nevigato:

13-year-old boy inspires fundraiser for Haiti

BY JESSICA BERNSTEINWAX
Daily NewsStaff Writer

A 13-year-old boy's horror at the devastation a 7.0 earthquake wreaked in Haiti earlier this year has been channeled into launching a large fundraising effort among Menlo Park businesses. Hillview Middle School eighth-grader Josef Nevigato said he was watching a television program a couple of days after the Jan. 12 earthquake struck the Caribbean nation when he heard "a really inspirational phone call." Josef said the call convinced him that "if someone with nothing could donate, then someone with something should donate." When his mother, Maria Nevigato, and sister, Elizabeth Nevigato, came home, Josef told them he would like to adopt a child from Haiti . Instead, he decided that a more realistic way to help would be to hold a pancake breakfast benefitting the earthquake survivors at his family's restaurant, Cedro Ristorante Italiano, on El Camino Real.

From 6 to 11 a.m. Sunday, March 14, Cedro restaurant will serve buttermilk and whole wheat pancakes, with 100 percent of proceeds going to two nonprofits working in Haiti : Partners in Health , Haiti and Whirlwind Wheelchair International , which is providing wheelchairs to amputees and other physically disabled survivors of the quake. All of the servers and kitchen staff will work for free and donate their tips during the breakfast. For the rest of the day, 10 percent of all sales at the restaurant will go to the organizations, said Elizabeth Nevigato, a Menlo-Atherton High School graduate. Other Menlo Park businesses are signing up for the event, with each deciding what percentage of sales to donate. Participating businesses include Cafe Zoë, the British Bankers Club, Cafe Borrone, Kepler's Books & Magazines, Cheeky Monkey Toys and Ela Lingerie.

"To me the real story behind it is how this eighth-grader from Menlo Park can really have such a huge effect on his community," Elizabeth Nevigato said. "These are all independent businesses. What corporate business would be able to do this in under a month?" She added that the group is hoping for corporate matching funds and expects more Menlo Park businesses to sign up before March 14.

For more information on the event or about participating businesses, visit http://svanetwork. org/HeartForHaiti.

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Spring Sports Sign-Ups

Tennis and fencing sign-ups are now available online at www.sportability.com/Hillview.

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After School Sports and Phys Ed Notes

To view all After School Sports updates, please go to http://cms.hillviewpto.org/node/3184
on the Hillview PTO website.

To view all Phys Ed Notes updates, please go to http://cms.hillviewpto.org/node/3185 on the Hillview PTO website.

Questions regarding Hillview after school sports and PE should be directed to Mr. Bell @ 326-4341 ext. 2811; hbell@mpcsd.org.

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Community

KEPLER'S EVENTS. Youth Author Carrie Ryan, author of "The Dead-Tossed Waves," Monday, March 22, 7:00 p.m.

What Parents Need to Know about Eating Disorders: "Anorexia has the highest lethality rate of any psychiatric disorder, including depression and substance abuse," said Dr. Tonja Krautter, a licensed clinical psychologist and specialist in childhood and adolescent issues. "...and the longer the person has the illness, the more likely it is that he or she will die from it." To learn more about Anorexia and Bulimia, including signs and symptoms, and to read the personal stories of three young women currently in treatment for eating disorders, please click here: http://cms.hillviewpto.org/node/3202