Weekly News and Notes, October 23

We have a couple of updates from UHS this week.

Board of Education Meeting

Earlier this week, Mr. Rubin and Dr. Tiano had the opportunity to attend the meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in which the work of Uxbridge High School in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) was highlighted as part of Massachusetts STEM Week. The school has earned more than $2 million in competitive grants over the past couple of years, including in-kind donations, which has helped to augment technology deployment and teacher training at UHS.

If you would like to watch the presentations, they can be viewed at this link. The UHS presentation starts at about the 1:53 (one hour, 53 minute) mark of the first part video, and then continues at the start of the "part two" video.

World Language Clarification

Our World Language classes have moved to an entirely proficiency-based model this year, which has helped students and teachers see gains around actual skill development, rather than rote memorization. We acknowledge that the new grading system is complex if unfamiliar to students and parents, and so an additional video clarifying is linked below. (Something was shared at the start of the school year as well).

Clarification on COVID-19 Protocols

With the start of the athletic season, we appreciate the commitment to our teams that many student-athletes have. However, that commitment cannot come at the expense of procedures and protocols. If families leave the state, there is a required quarantine or proof of a negative PCR test is required to be shared with the school nurse before a student can return to school, much less start participating in sports. Also, symptomatic students will be sent home. We simply cannot take the chance of the illness being anything more than a common cold, and the symptoms are quite similar.

We appreciate everyone's cooperation. It has been a heavy lift to get athletics back on the field and to keep our work going strong here at UHS, so we are looking to continue that positive trajectory.

Eight Week Evaluation

We have been consistently enlisting the feedback of students as part of our weekly advisory units and using that feedback to drive conversation here, both administratively and within departments. We will be asking families for feedback within the next couple of weeks as well.

As we constantly examine and reexamine our practices, we intend to make adjustments, but to do so thoughtfully and with improvement in mind. We certainly will not make changes just for the sake of change. We certainly will do our best to clarify anything that we plan!

Upcoming Weeks

As an FYI, there is no school on November 4, due to a teacher workshop day. November 11 is a no-school day due to Veterans' Day, and we have a half-day on November 25 in advance of the Thanksgiving weekend. 

Here's a look at our "Week That Was" video, which we hope will provide some insight into the work happening in our building. We are starting to get back into the normalcy of school, to the best of our ability, and we see classrooms starting to regain some of the buzz we had before the pandemic.

Have a great week.