UHS: Weekly News and Notes

We have a few updates from UHS this week, beginning first with a quick comment.

The past few weeks have been rife with challenges for our schools, students, and communities. It is not without a great deal of gratitude that we share our thanks and sentiment with the families and students for hanging with us throughout the year, particularly these past couple of months. When March began, we were cruising through a really remarkable year, where our programs and school were being recognized, some of which I am going to leave below:

Girls Basketball: State Sportsmanship Award
UHS Athletics: Sportsmanship Recognition
Boys Track: SWCL Champions
Cheer: State Championship qualifier
Boys Cross Country: SWCL and District Champion, State Championship Qualifier
Girls Soccer: District Semifinalist
Field Hockey: SWCL Champions, District Semifinalist
Golf: MIAA Team Academic Achievement Award
Girls Soccer: Team Academic Achievement Award
Girls Tennis: Team Academic Achievement Award

We had students selected for All-State chorus and band (Xavier Hicks, Nathaniel Holden, Erin Newhall), and we had students who served as state ambassadors to the MIAA (Nicholas Oliveira). Our students served on state advisory boards (Nick Fernandes and Nicholas Dilibero), and our Student Council earned a gold medal.


As a school:

Project Lead the Way: State Distinguished Program
Project Lead the Way: Nationally Commended Program
US News and World Report: America's Top High Schools (top 25% of schools in the nation)
Michael Smutok: Recognized Educator, MassSTEMHub
Kathleen Penza: State Heart of the Arts award winner
Social Studies: Recognized for their curriculum revision work, partnered in a state civics consortium
Michael Rubin: Massachusetts Principal of the Year


Our school presented on our work in merging school and external partnerships at the state and national level, and Mr. DiMeglio and I were both presented with citations from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' House of Representatives for our work in Uxbridge. We hosted more than 30 schools who wanted to see our programs, technology, schedule and professional collaboration, and we have earned acceptance into both the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools and the CAPS Network, mostly on the basis of the applied and authentic learning we do every day at UHS. I had the privilege of presenting at the State House twice in the past year, including a presentation the Joint Higher Education Committee in September, sharing the work we are doing and the need for additional supports and consistency between higher education and secondary schools, which has helped lead to improvements in access to post-secondary courses for students.

The amazing thing is that this work did not stop during the pandemic closure, and folks remained deeply committed to our students and our school. We supported our colleagues at other schools in the district, ensured that our curricular goals remained steadfast, and never lost sight of our school improvement goals. Despite the challenges that we all faced this year, our school stayed just that, and while we have not emerged from the pandemic quite yet, we see the future with far more hope and with the knowledge that our relationships and culture can help us transcend any challenge.

We will not officially button up the 2019-20 school year until we officially graduate the Class of 2020, which we tentatively hope will occur on July 25. Information regarding the booking of tickets can be found below, and will also be sent separately to seniors. We will not share the link publicly to avoid any potential issues.

Thank you, again, for all your support throughout the year. We appreciate it.


Graduation

Graduation will take place on July 25. The window for ticket reservations/space reservations will open on Monday, June 15 at 9:00 a.m. Families will book a single space. For families who may have additional needs, please let us know.

Summer Reading

This year for summer reading, students will earn 2 extra credit points added to a first quarter grade of their choice by doing the following 3 things:

1. Read a book. There is a list of books recommended by the UHS community at uhs2020summerreading.blogspot.com, but you do not have to choose a book from this list! If you decide to read a book that is not on this list of recommended books, please submit this Google form to let us know what you plan to read this summer. 
2. Complete ONE of the following activities:
1. Write a letter to a future reader about why you would or would not recommend your book.
2. Create fan art based on your book.
3. Identify 2 recent articles that tie into the topics or themes of your book.
4. Create a social media feed that represents a character or theme from your book.
3. Submit your summer reading activity by Tuesday, September 15, 2020. The link where students can upload their work is at uhs2020summerreading.blogspot.com. 

For full details about the summer reading activities, to view the list of books recommended by the UHS and Uxbridge community, and to submit summerreading activities, go to uhs2020summerreading.blogspot.com. Information about the recommended books and the summer activities is also available in the attached packet.


Please reach out to Ms. Charpentier (echarpentier@uxbridge.k12.ma.us) with any questions! Happy reading!

Reopening for 2020-21

We have had many inquiries and comments about reopening for 2020-21. Next week, we will convene two teams at the district level, with both parents and families in one group and staff in another. After that, we will be discussing things at the school level to determine best practices for UHS in terms of the fall and reopening of school. While the Commissioner will be providing us guidance that is said to be "prescriptive in nature" to help all schools with a plan, and to ensure some consistency between schools, we will do our best to manage those expectations around what is best for Uxbridge, in conjunction with our district as a whole and the Board of Health.

We hope to finish all our plans by the end of July, and, as the Board of Health shared at the School Committee meeting this week, the plans will all be contingent on data, which means having many plans that require flexibility. We will be sure to communicate whatever we can, as it becomes more clear.

SAT Date

We are working with the College Board to offer an additional SAT in the fall, likely in September. Unfortunately, the College Board is swamped with calls, and we are awaiting further guidance. We appreciate the patience!

Farewells

We wish a few folks farewell next week, as they will be moving on to new chapters in their professional careers. Mr. Bryan D'Amico, who started four years ago as a math teacher, will be relocating, and Ms. Grace Cassell, who has been with us since last spring in the English department, will be returning home to Oklahoma. Mr. Christopher Barry, who has been with us for four years and helped lead the transition of our guidance program, will also be moving on, returning to his alma mater. We appreciate all that they did for the students of Uxbridge and know that they will be missed. Fortunately, we have had tremendous interest in our positions, and we will be bringing some very talented educators come the fall!
Also, we know that there are about 18-20 students who will be leaving UHS for Blackstone Valley Tech. We know that you are in good hands at BVT and that we are at the ready if it does not work out to welcome you back. We also know that those students who are heading to BVT will bring with them some exceptional talents and we wish them well.

We will do our best to keep our podcasts current over the summer, and we will share information about final grades, report cards, and transcripts as it is available. We will also be sharing resources for supporting student mental health and overall wellness during the summer, and, as the school year draws closer, we will also share information about orientation for grade 8 and other supports for getting students back in the routine of school. Until then, we hope that everyone remains strong and healthy, that our situation with respect to the pandemic continues to improve, and that our connections will once again soon be in person. Have a terrific summer!