Back to school

It's back to school time. Sioux Falls Public students went back this Monday (sidenote: WAY too early in my opinion) and our oldest, Riley, is in 1st grade and in full days of school for the first time. He seems to be doing well and liking school; it helps that his teacher is fantastic.

Hillcrest is also in back to school mode and we've been renewing our partnership with Cleveland Elementary. In the past couple of weeks we have

• bought the staff lunch for their back to school inservice day. This is the 3rd year we've done this and it's such a good time. The better we get to know the school, the better time we have.
• put together two circular clothes racks so a staff member could hang coats, jackets, shirts, etc instead of having them come out of boxes. Thanks to Ben and Roger for their work with that project.
• touched up the paint on the playground. Several of the bars were losing paint and so a team painted the equipment. Looks great and pictures to come. The interesting thing about painting a playground is that several kids asked why we were doing it and one even helped! Thanks to that kid plus Josh, Shane, Doug, Jen, Kristi, and a bunch of our kids for their work on that project.
• sent each staff member a back to school card with a $5 Starbucks card. Now, granted that buys like 1/2 a drink over there, but who doesn't like 1/2 a Starbucks! Thanks to Allison, Kadie, Deanna, Kelsey, Renae and kids, Christy and kids, Linda, Tarina and Jennie for their work on that project.

In the weeks to come we hope to invite more Hillcresters to serve as reading buddies and mentors, for there's great needs there as well.