North Hillsborough School is one of three elementary schools located in suburban Hillsborough, California with about 10,000 inhabitants. The school serves a student population of about 260 students who come from a higher-income background. About 59% of the students are White, 27% are Asian, 10% percent are two or more races, four percent are Hispanic. In addition, approximately four percent of the students are English Learners and about nine percent are in a special education program.

North Hillsborough houses 14 General Education Classrooms as well as an Innovation Lab, Multi-Purpose Room, Library, Teacher Staff Room, Resource Room, School Psychologist office, Main office/Principal office, Music room, Sensory Room, Behavioral and Occupational Therapy office, Counselor office, world language classroom, speech and language office, physical education and an adaptive PE program. In addition, our Hillsborough Recreation Department provides a Preschool/Pre-K program serving students ages 3 through 5, a robust instrumental music program and a number of before and after-school enrichment programs (athletic, science, STEM, art, yoga, cooking, debate and workshop education) to our North site. In 2017-18, North received a California Distinguished School Award for its role in MTSS and Service Learning.

All of the regular classroom teachers are fully certified. There is also a Learning Center class. In addition, North also has a full time librarian, full time music teacher, 90% PE teacher, full time innovation lab teacher, full time Resource Specialist, full time counselor, .86 reading specialist and full time speech therapist. The school shares a Spanish teacher (teaching 3rd - 5th) with the two other schools. An occupational therapist and school psychologist are shared with one of the other elementary schools. Additionally, our schools share one full time behaviorist currently serving the Learning Center.

The curriculum at North is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. In the area of literacy, the school uses Benchmark Advance and Units of Study for Teaching Reading for reading and Units of Study for Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins for writing. This curriculum stems from the principles of Balanced Literacy: shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, shared writing, independent writing, guided writing, phonics, and word work. For math, Math Expressions is in its third year of implementation. FOSS (supplemented by Mystery Science) continues to be implemented as the school’s science curriculum and Scott Foresman for social studies.

Parent participation is an integral part of the North school community. Parents participate in and outside the classroom by leading committees, organizing school events like the Book Fair, and volunteering hours in the library, in the school cafeteria, during recess, and during classroom instruction such as Art in Action and Semester at Sea as well as during after school events such as the STEAM Fair, Fun Run, and service learning projects. The school’s Parent Executive Board oversees most of this process and collaborates with the principal throughout the year to develop a deep partnership between parents and staff.