to the Principal's Page

Principal: Jane Kilcollins
207-493-4250

Welcome to our school website.  Hilltop Elementary is located on Marshall Avenue in Caribou, Maine.  Caribou is a community of 9,000 individuals in Northern Aroostook County.   

We believe Hilltop Elementary is a learning center whose purpose is to employ available resources to offer an opportunity for all students to be educated according to their individual capacities.  The school’s function is to provide an academic and social learning environment, which respects all students as individuals, attempts to meet their specific needs, and helps to develop their personalities.  The school translates this philosophy into practical application by working with home and community to develop in the students a sense of useful citizenship.

Our school was constructed in 1960 and serves all Caribou students K-2, with an average enrollment of 310 students. There are six sessions of half-day Kindergarten, six First grade classrooms, and six Second grade classrooms; each with a student-teacher ratio of 1:20 or less. Art, Music, P.E., and Languages are considered to be part of the essential core learning experiences and thus, students participate in Art education classes once a week, Music education classes once a week, Physical Education classes twice a week, and they attend French classes daily. The elementary second language program (FLES), providing instruction in French to First and Second grade students was instituted in 1999. Hilltop offers Reading Recovery at the First Grade level and is also a Reading Recovery Teacher Training Site.   In addition, specially trained teachers provide in-class Literacy support in Kindergarten, First, and Second grade classrooms.   .  Elementary guidance services are available to Hilltop students. 

A variety of educational practices are employed by our dedicated staff. Our curriculum at Hilltop is aligned with the Maine State Learning Results.   A balanced literacy approach is utilized in teaching developmentally appropriate Reading and Writing processes.  Investigations is the program we use for mathematics instruction.  The Investigations curriculum embodies a hands-on approach, which helps students develop flexibility and confidence in attacking math problems, and fluency in mathematical skills and tools needed to solve problems.  Social Studies, Science, and Health curriculums are comprised of various concepts and themes that are integrated into the literacy and math programs.

The support of the Caribou PTO and a parent/community volunteer force help make Hilltop School a truly wonderful place to work and learn where children come first and everyone works to meet that end.   

Please feel free to contact me at jkilcollins@mail.caribouschools.org or by calling 493-4250.