About Orchard Hill Elementary

Vision: Believe, Achieve, Lead.

Mission: Leaders learning in a safe, caring community.

We at Orchard Hill Elementary continue to be excited about the school year. We continue to be a Leader in Me building and using 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Even our new staff will be trained annually. We have been fully implementing these principles with our students in becoming a Leader in Me building. We will begin 6th year training this year. Ask your children as we begin our year - I am sure they will be eager to teach you as well! We also anticipate having a family night for Leader in Me so that all families can learn about the 7 Habits.

We continue implementation of Professional Learning Communities. Early dismissal is part of this. Professional Learning Communities (or PLCS for short) are what Cedar Falls Schools is all about. It is a PK - 12 initiative. We will begin to look at our curriculum more in depth to make sure we are covering the essentials. We will look at common formative assessments, so we assess students continually to see where their needs are to drive our instruction. We are excited about this because the schools that implement with fidelity see increases in student achievement, especially in closing gaps with IEP students and those of poverty. Leader in Me sees these same results. Although we know that getting out earlier provides some inconveniences for families, please know that in the end, this will help the teaching and learning that occurs in Cedar Falls Schools. We will keep you updated on our progress!

Orchard Hill serves students in Kindergarten through sixth grade. We have over 400 students. We are fortunate to have a full-time teacher-librarian, guidance counselor, Title I program and special education resource rooms, and half-time TAG teacher and English as a Second Language teacher. Band, chorus, and orchestra are also offered to upper-grade students. The class sizes in each homeroom range from 18 to 28.