Updates and Alerts

We are very excited to begin the school year and welcome our students.

If you were not able to join our informational meeting with regards to becoming a phone free school on 8/4/26 (as will the entire San Mateo Union High School District), we wanted to reach out and share both the slides and Webinar Link.

In response to the questions that surfaced during our webinar regarding email communications, we have confirmed that student smuhsd.org Google accounts are able to both receive and send external emails from their school accounts.

Dear Hillsdale Families;

During the 2026-27 school year, Hillsdale High School will join the rest of the San Mateo Union High School district in implementing a phone-free policy throughout the school day. This initiative builds on our existing cell phone policy and reflects our commitment to tackling the distractions posed by smart devices and social media.

What this means for students:

Every student will be issued their own personally assigned QuietCase - a lockable, signal-blocking phone pouch. Each morning upon arriving at school, students will turn their phone off, place it in their assigned pouch, and lock the pouch. Students will maintain possession of their phones in their backpacks throughout the day, but they will not be able to access them until dismissal, with appropriate exceptions for emergencies, health needs, IEPs/504 plans, and staff-authorized instructional purposes.. At the end of the school day, students will tap their pouches at dedicated unlocking stations located near classroom exits. 

As part of this district-wide initiative, students will also not be allowed to use personal laptops, tablets or similar devices while at school. This policy is to ensure equity of access, support curriculum implementation and allow staff to monitor use of technology through our existing Chromebook network. All students will need to bring their charged, school-issued Chromebook to school every day.

We invite you to join us for a virtual parent information night on August 4, where we will demonstrate how the system works, outline our daily routines, and answer your questions. More information will be shared as we get closer to the start of school.

We encourage you to discuss this policy shift with your student over the summer. This is a chance to reframe technology use in healthy ways for all of us–we encourage you to practice phone-free periods of time during the summer in order to develop the habit. For more information about the district policy, please go to the district website. We will be sharing additional updates and information. 

On February 4, the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture and Arts Commission held their 8th annual Poetry Out Loud Competition.

Nine teens from four San Mateo County High Schools participated in the competition.

Special congratulations to Hillsdale High School 10th Grader Mahati Vaidyanatha for being awarded first place! 10th Grader Nektarios Delis came in second, and 10th Grader Maya Osinski came in third. 

Mahati will represent the County at the statewide competition hosted by the California Arts Council  in Sacramento, March 8-9.

Learn more about the San Mateo County Poetry Out Loud Competition.

 

The Rita Moreno Awards are regional awards recognizing outstanding achievement in high school musical theater from Kern and San Luis Obispo Counties in Southern California up to Calaveras County.

Hillsdale was nominated for Overall Production for Cabaret and student Grace McCollum was nominated for Lead Actress for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

Congratulations to Grace, the Cast/Crew and Creative Team of Cabaret!