October 2, 2009
Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a great week. Things are running smoothly at HFS. We had a great turnout for our Open House this week. 89% of our children’s parents attended. The parents were able to view the great work their children have been doing in school. The rooms came alive with student work. The hallways were also filled with student work, not only from their classroom, but also from their art and Spanish classes. Congratulations go to our great staff for working on their rooms over the summer. The compliments I heard from the parents and grandparents were well worth the time and effort the staff devoted to preparing their rooms for our students.

Last week I focused on the academic changes that were instituted for this school year. This week I’d like to focus on the physical changes that occurred over the summer months at HFS.

· Cleaning of Rooms: Pete Asma has done a wonderful job of thoroughly cleaning all of our classrooms. From cleaning the heaters, the blinds and windows, the walls, washing and waxing the floors, Pete has made the rooms look like new. Many thanks go to Pete for his hard work and dedication to HFS.
· New Classroom Tables: Several of the classrooms have new round and kidney shaped tables to facilitate instruction with their learning centers. The bright colors also lend themselves to a great atmosphere in the classroom
· Several Rooms Painted: Speaking of bright colors, several teachers painted their own classrooms this summer. The classroom landscape now includes multi-colored polka dots, clouds and the primary colors.
· Several Closets Renovated: The kindergarten and 1st grade classroom closets have been totally renovated to provide more storage space, mailboxes or cubbies for the students and bookcases. It gives the rooms a completely new look.
· Gym/Auditorium Entrance: The walls in the entrance hallway have been painted, a new drop ceiling installed and new fluorescent lighting installed. New drop ceilings in the boys’ and girls’ restrooms have also been installed.
· Energy Audit: An energy audit was conducted in June of 2008. We received the report this past May. Pete and myself reviewed the report and developed a plan to institute many of the recommendations in the report. The recommendations in the report that we took included:
- installing eight new fluorescent lighting fixtures to replace less energy efficient lighting
- shutting off and draining an old hot water heater that we weren’t using, but were heating the water in it. It was a remnant from when the locker rooms and showers were in existence at St. Paul’s.
- replacing the stairwell security lights with more efficient lighting
- removing 30 % of the fluorescent light fixtures in the cafeteria
- installing sensors in several areas of the school to shut off lights when the areas are not in use

Annual Asbestos Inspection: was conducted over the summer. Two minor suggestions, not involving asbestos, were made involving insulation that needed to be replaced on pipes in storage areas. This issue was addressed in August. No other issues or concerns were cited in the report.

Please remember the Christmas Concert is on Wednesday, December 16th at 6pm. Enjoy the beautiful fall colors!

God Bless,

Gene