Higher Ed and McCloskey Campus Reuse

December 20, 2017

Dear Parents and Residents:

We are writing to provide you with an update regarding the McCloskey School building and our connected efforts to expand Early College* coursework and underrepresented programs for our high school students in Uxbridge and throughout the region. Uxbridge High School has solidified an engineering pathway over the past two years to better address higher education and workforce needs - and our sights are now set on the biomedical and agricultural industries, in addition to expanding early college opportunities, which would benefit students and families alike.

With the closure of the McCloskey Middle School, an opportunity has presented itself to establish college programming at the McCloskey campus through a potential partnership with Mount Wachusett Community College for high school students, post-secondary students, and adults to advance career training. The Uxbridge Public Schools administration feels strongly that joint partnerships between higher education and PreK-12 public school systems will form the basis of the next wave of reform initiatives in Massachusetts, since the last major reform of 1993.

On Tuesday, the School Committee voted to endorse the administration’s exploration and pursuit of state and federal grant funding, with the goal of establishing technical and higher education programming in the local Uxbridge Public Schools. There is an understanding that this pursuit will likely be a collaborative effort among Blackstone Valley and Worcester County schools. Likewise, discussions and decisions about the future plans of the McCloskey campus will occur in the upcoming months, as it is understood that early college programming to address higher education and workforce needs will likely require the use of the campus. In so doing, Uxbridge may very well be poised not only to lead new partnerships but also potentially fill the regional void in terms of higher education opportunities in the Blackstone Valley. With the state encouraging districts to collaborate, and given the demands identified by both higher education and the local workforce, the opportunities could be many, which is why additional study and exploration has been supported at this time.

We will be sure to inform the community in advance of informational forums to discuss these opportunities in greater depth. In the meantime, please see the attached Early College and McCloskey School Reuse Summary and the Higher Education Center PowerPoint that was presented to the School Committee on December 19, 2017. We hope this information will provide you with background details that will help you to understand our strategic efforts and lay the groundwork for meaningful and engaging discussions moving forward.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Carney                                                                    Michael Rubin

Superintendent of Schools                                                      UHS Principal

Early College programming has been defined by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as an effort to provide high school students with college-level coursework while simultaneously providing exposure to a variety of career opportunities.

Fun Club/Best Buddies!

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's Best Buddies/Fun Club holiday gathering. A good time was had by all!

December Newsletter

Our December newsletter can be viewed below:

Weekly News and Notes

Good afternoon,

We hope that everyone is staying warm and looking forward to the upcoming holiday break. We have a few items of note this week, and, in a separate email, you'll be getting our December newsletter this afternoon as well. We are including grade 7 and 8 parents on our distribution, particularly given the decision for UHS to move to an 8-12 school next year and our desire to keep everyone informed with important communications from the high school.

WINTER SPORTS

Congratulations to both track teams on the successful starts to their seasons on Wednesday, with three victories for the boys and girls! Our girls basketball team earned a hard-fought win over Bartlett on Thursday for its first W of the season as well, and the boys have their home opener on Friday at 6:30 against Bartlett.

PSAT SCORES

Sophomores and juniors should be able to check PSAT scores via the College Board, and hard copies of reports were received at the building this morning. In the coming weeks, counselors will be meeting to discuss results. Overall, from a school standpoint, we have some researching of the information to do, but, at the onset, we are pleased with what we are seeing, recognizing that there are areas for growth.

REACCREDITATION UPDATE

Within a year, our reaccreditation visit will be complete. By the end of this year, our self-study will be done. Several parents have indicated a willingness to help with the process, and we will be no doubt looking for parent panelists throughout the year to weigh in on several of the standards that are "parent-centric." We thank everyone for helping us get well beyond the 20% participation threshold of the Endicott Survey, with nearly 40% of our families responding!

UPDATE FROM MENDON

We know that many of us in Uxbridge have connections to the the surrounding communities, be it through athletics, religious institutions, social networks, work, or civic involvement. As such, it is appropriate for us to share some outreach from our neighbors in Mendon. One of the families at Clough Elementary School, just down the road from us, lost everything in a house fire last night. They have three students attending Clough, and we have even received calls at UHS asking if people can help. It the beauty of living in such tight-knit communities where relationships extend across town lines and altruism is at our core.

An account has been set up at Charles River Bank for the Flanagan Family.  Monetary donations will be accepted at the Clough office, or individuals may go directly to the bank and have it deposited to the Flanagan Relief Fund. I do believe that donations of clothing may also be brought to the school. 

Please keep the Flanagan family in your thoughts, as they recover and rebuild from this terrible tragedy.

Have a great weekend,

Michael Rubin, Principal
Uxbridge High School

UHS: Water Issue and Building Closure

Good afternoon,

Unfortunately, there was a water main break in the center of town today that has compromised the water supply to Uxbridge High School. Without water in restrooms or facilities here we are unable to run our athletic practices or any extracurricular activities. Basketball practices for the afternoon are in the process of being rescheduled to another site, and other after-school practices, rehearsals, etc. have been canceled. We are closing the building as of 2:45 p.m.

We anticipate the problem being resolved soon and will be in touch with any details as they arise.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Google Classroom Hack

Good afternoon,

Earlier this afternoon, we became aware of a damaging, profane, and inappropriate text that was posted to Google Classroom. Working swiftly, Mr. DiMeglio, our assistant principal, was able to collaborate with our technology team to identify its origin and confirm that a student had, in fact, "hacked" Google Classroom and posted the message, which served to undermine the teacher, the community, and our core values as a whole. Indeed, beyond the violation of the acceptable use policy, actions like this underscore the need for us to be vigilant with student behaviors, as the post was then saved and shared on various social media platforms, causing an inappropriate chain reaction and disrupting school as a whole.

We assure you that we are aware of the situation, know that it was not, in fact, the work of a teacher, and was the unfortunate decision of a student with whom we will be working in terms of consequences. When situations like this violate our collective trust, they are dealt with swiftly and with an appropriate response. If there were to be a positive, it is that all those with whom we dealt regarding this situation were honest and frank in their admission of wrongdoing.

If you hear any scuttlebutt, please redirect and assure the students and colleagues that this was, in fact, the nefarious work of a single student and that the authorities are now involved. Your assistance in reminding students that they must follow appropriate guidelines and procedures, be it online or otherwise, is appreciated.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Rubin, Principal

A Time for Thanks

When I was a teacher, coach, and assistant principal at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, I had the privilege of working with a social studies teacher and football coach, Hall of Famer Dave Driscoll, who would be charged with concluding our annual Thanksgiving pep rally with a rousing cheer for our school, reminding everyone that Thanksgiving is the "best day of the year." There were many reasons why I agreed with his sentiments - be it the football, the food, or the family, there were so many aspects of the day that resonated personally with many of us in the room (for some of us, it was all three).

Thanksgiving has always been about family and gratitude to me - even in the days when I was a small kid being hauled off to the Malden-Medford football game, rooting against the Mustangs as a tiny Golden Tornado, wearing our gold and blue, and then heading home for a great meal, time with the family, and, of course, a nap. Not much changed for most of us in the stands, and these were traditions that united generations, whether it was my late grandfather telling his annual story of getting into the Thanksgiving game between Chelsea and Everett in 1943 and promptly fumbling a kickoff, to the shoulder-to-shoulder packing of the stands to accommodate thousands at Pearl Street or Hormel Stadium in what always seemed to be the coldest day of the season. People walked around wishing each other a "Happy Thanksgiving," and, inevitably, people would share stories of their families, happy times over the past year, and what was happening at college, for those more recent alumni. Those who weren't at a game were home or traveling to family - there was a connectedness of family that seemed to transcend the result. In fact, though I went to every game for about 20 years, I can barely remember who won most of them.

As I've gotten older, and my tradition has moved from the gold and blue of MHS to green and gold to blue and white and now to black and orange, the themes of the day have not changed, nor has the message of gratitude escaped me.

We spend a lot of time at UHS asking of our students, our staff, our parents, and our community. We try to extend our appreciation in different ways, knowing full well that whenever the next time for a request comes up, people step up. In times of need, people help each other out - it's just what we do and how we do. We use words like "thank you" an awful lot, and we use them as words not just to say, but as part of the fiber of our core values.

So as we face successes and victories, uncertainty and disagreement, I am thankful for the conversations, the dialogue, and the open-mindedness with which most people approach our unique circumstances. I am appreciative of a hard-working, committed, and genuine faculty and staff that focuses daily on the best interests of students;  administrator colleagues who help guide through challenges and provide regular counsel through the not-so-easy times; the students and parents who push me to act in the best interests of school and community every single day - even when they don't necessarily think that is the goal and when things seem to be running counter to their individual wants; and, finally, a family that tolerates the long hours of the schedule that we put in to make sure that UHS runs smoothly and that the ship is always on course.

From our entire UHS family, we wish everyone a happy, healthy Thanksgiving holiday. May we all reflect with gratitude on the opportunities we have behind us, within us, and before us.

November Interview

Here's this month's Spartan Showcase, with Joey DuBois chatting with Mr. Rubin!

November Newsletter

Our November newsletter is below:

Weekly News and Notes

As we turn the corner into November, we thank everyone for their patience this week, having already experienced a weather cancellation and a disruption to our normal routine! We do have a few updates this week with some happenings from UHS.

GUIDANCE

Thanks to everyone who attended the Financial Aid Night on Wednesday. If families were unable to attend, we did send resources and the presentation home earlier this week, and we hope that parents will take an opportunity to contact Mr. Barry or Ms. Smith if questions arise.

Speaking of Ms. Smith, she will be with us until the holiday break in December, as Ms. Hampton remains out on her maternity leave. We mention counselors at the start of this update, as we head to the end of the first quarter and families will no doubt be looking for support in terms of college applications, post-secondary planning, or fixing any grading concerns that come up at the end of a quarter.

Finally, the next several weeks will see our counselors working in class with underclassmen, so be on the lookout for some of those resources and updates.

ACADEMICS

First quarter grades do close on Monday, and report cards will be posted. In addition to grades, teachers will report on student progress toward meeting schoolwide learning expectations. Those rubrics can be found online, and they are frequently measured against specific assignments by teachers. If parents see that students are “not yet meeting” or are “approaching” these standards, these become good conversation starters with teachers, as “meeting” and “exceeding” standards within the context of the class or department are measured backwards from the ideal traits of our graduates. We hope that these comments provide you with more context about the habits of learning than the “old” report card comments, of which many of you are familiar (i.e. “prepared well for class,” “cooperative,” and “could improve with more effort”).

ATHLETICS

Congratulations to our field hockey and cheerleading teams, which concluded their “competition” seasons this past week, the field hockey team taking Lunenburg to double overtime before falling 1-0 and the cheerleading team having a strong showing at the SWCL championships last weekend. Our boys soccer team advanced past Montachuset Regional Tech with a 2-1 win on Friday and will face Holy Name on Monday at 2:00; the girls soccer team visits Tahanto on Tuesday at 2:30. Finally, our football team narrowly missed the playoff round of Division 5 based on power rankings, but improved to 6-3 with a win over a very strong Oxford team on Friday. A reminder that we do host Northbridge in the annual Thanksgiving rivalry game, and information about ticket sales will be forthcoming. Finally, our cross country teams will compete in the divisional championship this week, having captured championships at the SWCL meet last year - the boys capping an undefeated season, and the girls surging past Grafton!

Winter registration has opened. Please make sure that student-athletes are registered through FamilyID.

Unfortunately, girls basketball coach Ed Healey had to resign this week due to family reasons. We thank Coach Healey for his hard work with our Spartans over the past two seasons, and an immediate search for his replacement has commenced. Interested candidates can forward cover letter, resume, and references to Mr. Calarese.

MCAS, AP, SAT Results

We recently posted and sent MCAS results to parents of students who took the MCAS last year. We are pleased with many of our MCAS results, and we have seen significant growth in some areas of the SAT. In the coming weeks, we will be articulating plans for the integration of additional college-level courses at UHS, and we are also researching ways that we can expand innovation andcareer pathways, based on the work that our school team completed on our recent trip to Nashville Public Schools, while working with the One8 Foundation and our higher education partners.

Finally, we thank you for patience with Monday’s cancellation. We know that cancellations and delays can wreak havoc with family schedules. In that spirit, just remember that there is no school on Friday, November 10 in observance of Veterans’ Day.

Have a great weekend,

Michael Rubin, Principal

Weekly News and Notes

Instead of the cursory update this week regarding "updates" and "events," I wanted to include a couple of notes that should make community members very proud. I hope you will take a minute to read this week's message.

Often times, communities like ours become places where it is easy to hear the rancor and discontent of a few people, and let that drown out the good. This week, we were able to enjoy so much of what makes Uxbridge a great place, and we share some of the reasons why our student-body and community can be such a source of pride.

I was able to speak with several students this week and receive a couple of emails from parents, regarding college acceptances and scholarship awards that have rolled in. For educators PK-12, and certainly for parents, the joy that comes in seeing that letter (or, as it is now, the update on the online application portal) is validating, exciting, and invigorating. It speaks to a process that started with first steps, sounds, and letters, and it marks the first step of a new experience and a life that is ready to soar. It is October - which means that we not only have many successes left to achieve this year and many more moments like these, but also can start feeling good about the process and the work so many of us do in support of the students.

At the same time, our school is simply buzzing with action. Walking through dozens of classes this week, our observations are of classes engaged in learning, with students solving problems, teachers structuring inquiry-based activities, and the learning happening in diverse ways. The vision many people would have had for the building, where disruptive behaviors are minimal, where educators are working to their fullest capacity, where our core values and learning expectations can be seen on display at any given moment - is starting to come to fruition. We know the results will come, and we are seeing improvements in many areas, all of which have significant impact on achievement.

Finally, today we hosted a building study team from Wahconah Regional High School and the Central Berkshire Regional School District, which is looking at UHS as a model school as it starts its feasability study. We know that UHS was not built in a day, that programs and facilities ought to be married in excellence, and that we have a place that should be a source of pride for anyone who lives in this town or calls UHS his or her alma mater. The remarks from people as they left today was that our school left them "inspired," that the "students are awesome," that "people are really happy and good to each other here," and, most importantly, that we "have a great place."

Buildings are brick and mortar and wires. Schools are about people. We have the makings of a strong culture here, where the lessons, the students, the activity, and the buzz are all worthy of the community's investment and trust. I will walk out of UHS today feeling validated in the work we are doing, proud of a staff that is shifting its mindset and enhancing the skills of students, and grateful for a student body that is pushing itself toward new standards, every single day.


MEFA Financial Aid Night

MEFA Financial Aid Night will be held on Wednesday, November 1, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Parents/guardians of seniors should attend.

Senior Play
The Senior Play, The Curious Savage, will be held on Thursday, November 2, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $3 for students and senior citizens, $5 for adults.

Football Can Drive
The football team is collecting canned goods for donation to the local food pantry. Please bring items for donation - there is a box in the main foyer of the building.

Finally, many thanks to our booster club parents, for their creation of signs for our senior student-athletes, who wrap up regular season play here at home this week. Playoff brackets will be posted next week, so stay tuned for updates of postseason play!

Winter Athletic Registration

Please register for winter athletics! Our portal is located at: https://www.familyid.com/organizations/uxbridge-public-schools or by clicking here. There is an option to pay the participation fee online as well, and there is no service charge for doing so. 

In order to register for a winter sport, please complete the registration, have a current physical examination on file with the school, and pay the appropriate participation fee. If any of those stipulations have not been met, a student may be denied participation. Note that a physical examination is valid for 13 months, so if a student had his/her examination this summer or fall, s/he is still eligible.

Please direct questions to the athletic director; questions regarding physical examinations can be sent to the school nurses, Ms. Schiller at UHS or Ms. Gauthier at MMS.

Finally, schedules for the winter season, including the availability of junior varsity programs, will be determined based on registration numbers. The portal will close on November 17, 2017. PLEASE REGISTER ON TIME.

Thank you for your cooperation.

A Personal Post

I rarely take occasion to use this blog for anything personal, but every now and then, writing becomes a good mechanism/outlet for me to share my feelings. Call it therapeutic, call it self-indulgent, call it what you will.  The journalist in me resolves every now and then to scribe in the first person in the same voice as a one-time columnist, so I beg your forgiveness and indulgence for a few paragraphs.

There is a line in The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite texts to teach, that reads: "Let us learn to show our friendship for a man while he is still alive." It is for that reason that I often do not post things to social media after someone has passed away, why I don't go on paroxysms of emotion, why I tend to keep my thoughts to myself. Yet in the past week, I am breaking my rule, and sharing thoughts on someone who shaped and even defined my consciousness as a coach and leader.

I met Jerry Espinosa following a National Honor Society induction in 2003. I was a 25-year-old advisor who had just inducted his niece/adopted daughter, and he shared with me that he was impressed and inspired by my energy. Little did I know that this would be the start of a friendship and mentoring that would guide me through some incredibly successful experiences as a coach and formative years as a young(ish) school leader.

Jerry was a miracle man - he had survived a car-jacking, resolved his life to his Faith, and openly shared his Christianity with me in a positive, academic way. He believed in the inherent good in every student-athlete we coached. He volunteered thousands of hours to work with our programs at Dighton-Rehoboth: meets, coaches' meetings, practices, bus rides, weekdays, weeknights, weekends. He adopted me as another surrogate brother, and we spent hours on phone and at practice going back and forth about school, coaching, student-athletes, and practice schedules. I learned more about track and field from Jerry Espinosa than any other man on this planet - and it paled in comparison to what he taught me about living, about looking for the good, and about living in a godly way.  After a rough day as an assistant principal, when things seemed darker than dark, Coach Espo always made things better, because he knew what was good and right, and he could make me smile and turn a day around in the context of a simple long jump drill.

We were cut from different cloths in terms of our theology, but it didn't matter - we shared similar core values, and I loved our debates and conversations about Scripture. Simply put, he made me smarter, more learned, more empathetic, more cosmopolitan. One moment we could be talking about starting blocks and hurdling form, and the next about the Old Testament.

We wanted the best for our kids. We wanted them to earn the headlines that we had once enjoyed as student-athletes ourselves. We wanted to write a successful narrative. Each of those goals was met - a New England champion, at least 8 team league championships, a six-year stretch with more than 100 wins and less than 10 losses. More importantly, there were athlete goals met, lessons learned, and, above all else, a positive bend to every experience we had. His expertise and acumen in the sport were surpassed only by his humanity and altruism. I will never meet someone again who gave so much of himself to different groups of student-athletes, year in and year out.

When I got last week's phone call with the tragic news of Jerry's passing from Coach Moura, our fellow coach and my good friend who remains at Dighton-Rehoboth, we both vacillated from shock to sadness to guilt and back again. The portrait of fitness, the strongest "masters-level" competitor I ever met, one of the strongest men I ever had the privilege of knowing - taken all too soon, leaving behind a tremendous family whose void I cannot begin to process. Jerry and I had lost touch over the years, but never did I think I would not have one more opportunity to thank Jerry Espinosa for what he did for us, for our kids. For me.  Yes, it's a selfish response. Ironically, in the sadness for all of us who lost something with Jerry's passing was that I thought about how much he changed me for the better.

As a school principal, it can be challenging to see the good, to smile in the face of adversity, to persevere when there are difficult decisions to be made. But I think of what Jerry and I preached for all those years as partners on the track - that we don't get beat by things, that one more lap can make us stronger, and that everyone is capable of meeting lofty goals, so long as neither of us ever gives up.

I will miss my friend, even if it had been entirely too long since I reached out for one of his pep talks. I will forever be grateful for the fleeting time we spent together, for the sacrifices he made to make me better, knowing that there is a piece of his character in my administrative consciousness. When it seems like the odds are stacked, that the process is too much, that small victories and goals met are not enough, there will be Jerry's voice, powerful strides, and smile, clapping loudly and urging us toward one more finish line. For that, I'm grateful for his memory, even as I reconcile the joy and blessing of our friendship with the shock and anger over his premature departure from this earth.

For all the Falcons, Red Rocketeers, Sentinels, and countless others whose lives Jerry impacted- thank you is simply not enough. I only wish that we had all heeded the advice of Gatsby and shown that appreciation one more time. There is a quote from 1 Corinthians that I think is most fitting for my Biblical friend and colleague: "do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." I reconcile that with the words of the Hebrew, that yours will be an eternal memory that continues to grow.

My friend and mentor, hope I do that we honor your legacy with a crown that indeed will last forever, befitting your strict training. May I act with your same benevolence, compassion, and consideration. And may your memory be a blessing.  You will be and are already missed.

October Newsletter

Our October Newsletter can be viewed below:

Weekly News and Notes

Some updates from UHS this week:

Endicott Survey
If you have not already done so, please take our reaccreditation survey! We need to get to about 50% of our parents having taken this survey. To do so, Please go to the website:   www.endicottresearchcenter.net

Enter the following survey code: P2071892 and click GO.  The survey only takes a few minutes to complete!

Athletic Photos Available

Our School Photographer, David Silverman Photography, has a portfolio online from our athletic events this year, with action shots and individual poses available for purchase. Click on this link to be redirected to the site!

Senior Play!
Click here to see information about our Senior Play, which will take the stage on November 2. It promises to be a fun night of play from our senior players in the drama company, so we hope they play to a packed house!

If you have not already registered for Parent-Teacher conferences, make sure you do so via uxyhs.schoolappointments.com! We also have the option of callbacks if there is not an available time.

As always, thank you for the support!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

We are excited to have Parent-Teacher conferences coming up on October 19. The portal for registering for appointments will open on October 12 at 12:00 p.m., and it will close at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 19.

If you wish to schedule an appointment with a teacher but there is no time, or you are unable to make it on the 19th, please select the "call back" option. We will attempt to make sure that all call-backs take place within a couple of weeks.

Even if you set up an account last year, you will have to set up a new account this year, unfortunately. It is easier to have everyone reset than to field calls for password resets, and we find that many of our users change from year to year. Sorry for any inconvenience.

School Appointments - Parent Instructions

1.     Go to our school appointments web site:  http://uxyhs.schoolappointments.com/

2.     Register for an account by clicking the "REGISTER" menu tab and filling in the on-line form.  Choose a user id and password for yourself and then click the "Register Now" button.

3.     Add your children into the system by clicking the "Add a Student" button.  Click "Insert New" button to add more children.

4.    Click the "date" icon beside each child's name to schedule appointments.  Select the staff you wish to book appointments with and the "View Calendars" button.  Use the "Ctrl" or "Command" key to select multiple staff to view at the same time.

5.     Click on available time slots to book your appointments and then click the "Book Appointments" button to save your bookings.

More detailed instructions can be viewed by clicking here.

Weekly News and Notes

Just a few items from UHS in advance of the long weekend!

PSAT Next Wednesday

Our 10th and 11th graders will take the PSAT/NMSQT® at school on October 11. This test is a chance to become a National Merit® Scholar, and it also offers these benefits:

1. Connect to scholarships. When students take the PSAT/NMSQT, they have an opportunity to enter the National Merit Scholarship Program, an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. The test also connects them to $160 million in scholarships from one of the largest scholarship pools in the country. Students should check “Yes” to Student Search Service® on the day of the test so that scholarship partners can find them.

2. Free, personalized SAT practice. The PSAT/NMSQT is great preparation for the SAT®. Your teen's score even unlocks a personalized SAT study plan on Khan Academy®. It’s completely free. Students simply go to satpractice.org, create an account, and link their College Board and Khan Academy accounts to get a study plan based on their test results.

3. AP course recommendations. Student score reports will suggest AP® courses that are a great match for them. AP can give your teen an edge in the admission process and allows them to earn college credit while in high school, which could save time and money in college. 

There is a presentation from the College Board on the value of the PSAT linked here.

Senior Play November 2

See here for a flyer on the Senior Play, being held on November 2.

NEASC Survey

Please help us with the Endicott Survey, which should take about 5 minutes to complete. It will help us validate our Core Values, our Expectations for Student Learning, and the effort we have made to enhance education at UHS over the past couple of years.

Please go to the website www.endicottresearchcenter.net. On that page, you will see a link that says "Here to take a survey?" Enter the following survey code: P2071892 and click GO.  Again, it will only take a few minutes!

Finally, next week we will be sending instructions on how to register for parent-conferences, which are scheduled to be held on Thursday, October 19. We use an online system for registering for appointments, but if appointment times are not available, staff members will arrange to call or meet outside of the Conference date. Be on the lookout for that message!

Have a great weekend!

Michael Rubin, Principal

Non-emergency Lockdown at UHS

We just concluded a non-emergency lockdown at Uxbridge High School, ending at about 9:55 a.m. We called the lockdown in order to provide some confidentiality for an individual who needed to be transported via ambulance due to a medical emergency. Whether making the decision to transport via ambulance for a teacher, student, staff member, or parent, we take the responsibility of maintaining confidentiality extremely seriously, so clearing hallways and eliminating witnesses protects everyone involved.

As we expected, our students were incredibly compliant and respectful of direction, as the lockdown occurred during our flex block, when many students were not in class. Once again, we had an opportunity to see how our community models so many of our core values!

We reiterate that there was no threat of any kind, which can sometimes be misconstrued when people hear the word "lockdown." Thank you, and enjoy the rest of the day. 

Fall Athletics Highlights

Check out these highlights of some of our fall sports' first month of action, featuring the hard work of producer and commentator Joe DuBois!

Senior Guidance Presentation

Our presentation for senior parents can be seen below!

Weekly News and Notes

Weekly News and Notes

Endicott Survey

Next week, we will be sending the Endicott Survey to parents and guardians, which is a critical part of our reaccreditation process. As Uxbridge High School enters its evaluation year, we will need the results of the survey to help guide some our action items and recommendations.

We have been focusing our efforts this year on ensuring that students and parents are both aware of our core values and cognizant of our schoolwide learning expectations. Over time, we expect these to become more part of the academic and civic culture of Uxbridge High School. Earlier this year, we published our schoolwide report on student achievement, relative to our schoolwide learning expectations. All of that information can be found at this page or by pasting this link: https://sites.google.com/a/uxbridge.k12.ma.us/the-uxbridge-high-school/schoolwide-learning-expectations.

Friends of Music Mattress Sale

A reminder that the UFM will host the 3rd Annual Mattress Day Sale this Sunday, October 1st,  from 10 AM to 5 PM at the UHS Cafeteria!  Please come and bring family and friends to check out our mattress sale showroom!  This is a great way to save $$ on new brand name mattress sets, while helping to support the music programs in our schools. Layaway and delivery are available, and arrangements have been made with Berkowitz Trucking to have your old mattresses picked up at a nominal fee.  You can download and share the attached coupon or get one at the sale on Sunday.  (Write a music student’s name on the coupon and they will get credit towards upcoming activities, as well).

PSAT Day: October 11

The school administration of PSAT will be October 11. Juniors and sophomores will be taking the PSAT in full in the morning. During that time, grade 9 students will participate in an orientation to Naviance and learning styles assessments with Guidance.

For seniors, October 11 will be designated as a college and career exploration day. Students who come to school will have time to work on college applications/essays, work individually with teachers, or even attend classes, particularly in the afternoon, but the plan would be for seniors to spend the day visiting colleges, scheduling interviews, or attending a job site. In the coming weeks, senior seminars will take place, so you can use the day wisely, particularly if you are planning to visit specific schools this fall.

Students not present on site that day will still be eligible for interscholastic athletics and after school activities.

Senior Guidance Night

Thanks to many of the parents who attended the Senior College Night on Thursday, September 28. The presentation from the evening is linked here. Many of the seniors will be reaching out to counselors for appointments in the coming days, so please reach out with any specific questions that you may have.

Half Day and Full Day Next Week

Next Thursday is a half-day; next Friday will be a full day off. There is no school on Monday, October 9 for Columbus Day. There will be no Weekly News and Notes sent next week.

Have a great weekend,

Michael Rubin, Principal

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