Dear Families,
I am thrilled to welcome you to Heartland Elementary School! What an AMAZING place to be an elementary school principal! This is my 27th year in education and my eighth year in District 304. My previous 19 years in education were served as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in the Crystal Lake School District.
I'm proud to share that Heartland will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary during the 22-23 school year. We look forward to a yearlong celebration filled with all things connected to our theme: Where the Heart(land) Matters!
Heartland fully supports the District's vision and students in 21st century learning. Our school improvement plan is currently focusing on reading instruction and social emotional well-being in order to ensure growth for all learners. Our goal is to increase our projected growth on MAP in reading, as well as improve students' abilities to solve problems independently and attend to/focus on instruction. We are excited to resume our S.T.E.A.M activities through our Young Explorers program; our students love to work collaboratively as they engage in the unknown! We are committed to working as a professional learning community in order to focus on learning, create a collaborative culture and get the results for which we strive.
We are also excited to begin using our new social studies curriculum- Social Studies Alive! Be sure to ask your child about the topics and units of study they'll be learning throughout the year.
We hold students' social and emotional well-being in high regard; we will begin implementing new online Second Step curriculum in all classrooms in order to help students succeed in the classroom and in life. This new format offers opportunities for our students to work on executive functioning, skills for learning, empathy, emotion management and problem-solving...all which connect to our school improvement goals.
I am looking forward to getting to know all of you and to working with our community on behalf of the Heartland students. Should you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at 630-463-3200 or by email at [email protected].
Warmly,
Kimberly Hornberg
Principal