Pine Hill School

Principal's Message

April 8, 2024

Dear Pine Hill Community,

For this week’s Principal’s Message, I am sharing the letter regarding Pine Hill’s class placement process and the Family Input Form. If you choose to complete the form, please submit it by Friday, April 26th.

In the coming weeks, we will engage in the process of class placement for the 2024-2025 school year. Placing students into classrooms for the upcoming school year is a complex and important process. It involves a considerable amount of time and energy on the part of many people. Our primary goal of the class placement process is to create balanced classrooms in which each child continues to learn and grow.

In order to make the class placement process as effective as possible, we consider multiple sources of information. Input from students’ families is a valuable source of information as we work to create balanced classrooms and prepare to work with all students during the 2024-2025 school year. At Pine Hill, we solicit input from families in a formalized and standardized way. Families are invited to submit their input on the form which appears at the end of this letter. The form offers families the opportunity to share goals they have for their child and information concerning their child's learning style and social-emotional needs. The information you submit will be shared with the entire placement team and your child’s teachers for the upcoming school year.

We encourage all families to complete the input form. The information you share will be a valuable component of our class placement process and will assist next year’s teachers in learning more about your child. 

Please adhere to the following guidelines when completing the Family Input Form:  

• Please do not request a specific teacher for your child. Westwood Public Schools does not permit families to select their children’s teachers. Therefore, requests for specific teachers will not be accepted.
• If you are the parent of multiple Pine Hill students in the same grade, please specify if you want your children placed in the same class or different classes. That request will be honored, if the number of classroom sections at the grade-level allows.
• Please re-submit relevant information about your child, even if you have submitted it in previous years. Since children change and grow a great deal in a year’s time, it is important to base placement decisions on current information. 

This is the only form that will be used for input from families during our class placement process. All forms should be sent to us and must be received by Friday, April 26th. If you feel it is necessary to elaborate on the information you submit on the input form or discuss the specific information in person, please contact us prior to the end of the day on Friday, April 26th. Please complete the form and either email it to us as an attachment or send a hard copy into school in a sealed envelope. You are also welcome to copy the questions and type your responses into the body of an email.

Due to the complexity of the class placement process and the significant time it takes, please know that once assignments have been made, they are final. Class lists will be sent home in mid to late August. Please contact us if you have any questions about the process. Thank you for your continued cooperation and ongoing support. 

To access the class placement letter and Family Input form, please click on the following link: 2024-2025_Pine Hill_Class Placement Letter and Family Input Form

Be kind. Work hard. Have fun!

Sincerely,

Joshua Baumer
Principal

PTO Updates & Information

The Pine Hill PTO Welcomes Students, Families, and Staff to the 2023-2024 School Year!

More Info about the Pine Hill PTO

For additional information about your PTO, please visit the PTO section of the Pine Hill Website. 

Contact Us

Email us at pinehillpto@westwood.k12.ma.us.