School News
Updated Wed, Dec 14th
Dear Forest Hill Parents,
Last night our PTA hosted our very first Trivia Night, which was well attended and a fun family event. There was plenty of food and drinks (in fact we sold out of pizza!) and families had the option of teaming up with others or playing as a family team. Thank you so much to Christina Curtin for organizing and emceeing the event.
Some of the questions were very difficult to answer! Did you know that San Jose State is the oldest school in the Cal State University system, and used to be called San Jose Normal School (teaching colleges were called Normal Schools)? Did you know Garrett Morgan invented the traffic signal? Did you know that all the fifth graders seem to know the words to The Corn Song? Neither did we!
PTA Did a wonderful job of including questions that were for the adults as well as for the children and had various genres for each round, including a name that tune round! Fun was had by all, and teams won some great prizes, including tickets to cut the lunch line, some retro Forest Hill apparel, baked goods from a Forest Hill family, and 4 students will get to silly string the Principals on Friday! They are definitely looking forward to that.
Another event that occurred last night, and will be open again Thursday and Friday, is our Scholastic Book Fair, which is being run by Mrs. Gregory-Bryson. It is a great chance for parents to come see our new library location and shop for some great books, accessories, toys and posters. All proceeds from this book event go directly to our library program.
As always, it is a pleasure to see families on campus and we thank you for your participation and support for our events. We look forward to seeing you at the next PTA event!
Lastly, we would like to remind you that on Friday, December 2nd, we are having our December Coffee with the Principal and have a guest speaker, Mary Eschen, who will be presenting on Love & Logic.
Warmly,
Ms. Chalfant, Principal
Mrs. Armann, Assistant Principal
Updated Thu, Dec 1st
Dear Forest Hill Community,
During this time of the Thanksgiving holiday, we want to share our gratitude and say thank you for being such an important part of Forest Hill and for the warm welcome given to Ms. Chalfant as the new Principal and for a wonderful start of this school year. We have such a positive and supportive parent community and it has been wonderful to see so many parents back on campus and our students have really enjoyed it as well.
We recently asked our staff at a meeting, what they were thankful for. Here are some of their answers:
- family
- grade level teams
- friends
- food
- ability to vote
- health
- pets
- children
- class learning classroom management
- successful school events
- autumn colors
- extra hour of sleep
We are grateful for our staff at Forest Hill for being so caring and committed to bringing the highest quality education to our students and memory building activities and events to cherish for years. They spend countless hours planning and working collaboratively to ensure that we can meet all our students’ needs. Our staff members ensure that Forest Hill is a safe and supportive place to be.
We hope you are able to name some things you are also grateful for and we wish you a wonderful, healthy and safe holiday break. This is the time of the year to get together with friends and family to celebrate and be thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives. At the same time, we recognize the holidays can be a difficult and stressful time of year. If your family or your little Falcons need any extra support during this time, please do not hesitate to reach out to Ms. Jackie, Ms. Denise, Ms. Chalfant or Mrs. Armann so that we can talk and work together to help. On behalf of the Forest Hill staff, we would like wish you all a safe and happy holiday. We will see everyone back at school on November 28th.
In Gratitude,
Christy Chalfant, Principal
Chelsea Armann, Assistant Principal
Updated Thu, Nov 24th
With Spirit Week, the Halloween parade, and our fifth grade opera performance this week, there have been many chances to see students in fun and creative outfits lately. We kicked off fall holidays by celebrating Halloween and Dia de los Muertos with our parade and our first ever Forest Hill ofrenda, created by our incredible custodian Ms. Liz. Classes have also been learning aboud Diwali and other fall holidays and celebrations. You can see even more fun photos and videos on our school Instagram page, @foresthillelementary.
Fifth grade students have been hard at work rehearsing for their performance with professional opera singers from SF Opera. Some students were selected for starring roles and spent many lunch periods in rehearsals. Other fifth grade students were members of the chorus. Today they performed a version of La Boheme for students and parents. We have such creative and talented students! A huge thank you goes out to the faculty members who made this happen - Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Hart, Ms. Ensor, and Mrs. McClean.
If you want to have some of that Forest Hill creativity for yourself, remember that the Square One art fundraiser is currently happening. Orders are due November 14. Proceeds are used to buy art supplies, and all orders will be shipped to your home. Check out your student's art here: https://shop.square1art.com/shop.
Warmly,
Ms. Chalfant & Mrs. Armann
Updated Sun, Sep 3rd
Updated Mon, Nov 7th
After taking into account feedback from staff, we are making a small adjustment to the morning bells. Please be aware that starting this week, the bells will now be ringing at 8:05 (start of school for grades 4 and 5) and at 8:10 (start of school for grades TK-3). The updated bell schedule is attached.
Updated Wed, Nov 2nd
Dear Forest Hill Families,
Safety continues to be a priority for us at Forest Hill and our District. A message regarding the follow up to the letter sent to the City of San Jose from CUSD will be forthcoming. Please see the message below from our local Girl Scout group. We applaud these girls for being proactive in their community!
Have you seen the new Crosswalk Flags at the intersection of McCoy and Neville Ave?
Over the weekend, Girl Scout Troop 60238, which includes 5th graders from Forest Hill, wanted to help the community by installing a new flag system to alert cars of pedestrian traffic. This intersection is very busy during school drop off and pickup hours, and a risk for pedestrians.
The new Crossing Flags allow people to hold a large orange flag, signaling to the cars, as they cross the street. They then place the orange flag in a container to store on the opposite side of the street.
The girls wanted to add a better system for the community and used their troop funds earned from Girl Scout Cookies sales to make this happen.
Please consider supporting a local Girl Scout troop in the future, so they can continue to do great things for their community.
Sincerely,
Christy Chalfant, Principal
Chelsesa Armann, Assistant Principal
Updated Wed, Oct 26th
Dear Forest Hill Families,
We are excited to announce that we will be holding our annual Halloween Parade this year on Monday, October 31st, from 8:30am-9:30am (end time is tentative). Parents will be allowed to attend our parade this year, and we ask you read below for guidelines.
Prior to Halloween week, our Student Leadership Group (Student Council) has come up with a Spirit Week +1 event that will start October 24th. See the attached PDF for information.
For the parade, we ask that upon drop off, parents exit campus. This will allow us space to get our classes established on the blacktop. We will have one point of entry and exit, which will be the side gate, in between the new and old administration buildings. Our front office staff will open the gates at 8:25am so parents may re-enter the campus. Each grade level group will take one lap around the blacktop counterclockwise, starting with TK and ending with 5th grade and our staff. Parents will line-up behind the classes to watch the parade.
Once the parade ends, if you are not staying to help your child’s teacher, we ask you to promptly leave campus. If you are staying to help in your child’s class, we ask that you visit the table outside the office to sign in and get a visitor’s badge to wear, then sign back out when you leave campus.
Costume guidelines: No gore, no blood, no weapons. Students will change out of their costumes after the parade. If your child’s costume has a mask, please ensure the mask properly fits AND your child can clearly see out of the eye holes. If the teacher feels it is unsafe to wear the mask, they may make adjustments to your child’s costume. Inflatable costumes are OK, as long as it is safe for your child to walk. If your family does not celebrate Halloween, please communicate with your child’s teacher. They are not required to walk in the parade, and it is your choice if you want your child to wear festive attire for the day.
Please remember that we highly discourage candy on campus and ask that the days following Halloween, you not send your child to school with candy for snack or lunch.
With spooky regards,
Miss Chalfant, Principal
Mrs. Armann, Assistant Principal
Updated Wed, Oct 19th
Dear Forest Hill Families,
We hope you join us for our first Parent Education Night! This presentation will be held in person and given by the San Jose Police Department. During the week of October 24th, the officers will also be visiting classrooms. In grades TK-2nd an individual Police Officer will do a meet & greet, and have an opportunity to informally discuss stranger danger, and internet safety with students. In grades 3rd-5th, officers will visit classrooms to discuss types of bullying (physical, verbal, relational and cyber-bullying), how to use your voice, how to report incidents of bullying and discuss internet/digital safety.
During our Parent Education Night, officers will discuss the same items and will also address parental communication, rules and consequences and provide resource information.
The flier is attached below. We look forward to seeing you then!
Ms. Chalfant, Principal
Mrs. Armann, Assistant Principal
Updated Wed, Oct 5th
Dear Forest Hill Community,
We want to start by extending our heartfelt condolences to the Castlemont community and to the family that is suffering from an unfortunate loss. We share your interest in improving traffic safety for our students, and invite you to read the open letter sent by Campbell Union to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo with several requests for increasing traffic safety near schools.
In the spirit of improved safety, we highly encourage everyone to continue to follow all traffic laws as well as the pick-up and drop off procedures we have shared with you over the last few weeks.
Additionally, Campbell’s and other local police departments are seeking to hire crossing guards.
San Jose Crossing Guard applications
City of Campbell Crossing Guard applications
On another matter, I wanted to thank our parent community for the patience you have given in regard to enrolling as a volunteer for our school. We continue to partner with our Human Resources Department to ensure we have an accurate list. We have learned that a routing error prevented some applications from coming directly to Ms. Chalfant. Please reach out to the school office staff if you submitted a volunteer packet and have not yet received an approval communication. When you apply, please be sure to upload a copy of your vaccination card, TB test results and a Driver’s license (or ID card) with the application. There are spots at both the top and bottom of the application where you can click to add attachments.
As we move into fall on September 22nd, we have some wonderful community events coming up which are listed on our school calendar. We hope to see you at our PTA Picnic, SJSU x Campbell USD football game, our next Dining Night Out, our Parent Coffee, a TBA parent education night, and/or our PTA meeting!
Warmly,
Ms. Chalfant, Principal
Mrs. Armann, Assistant Principal