Friday, September 3, 2021

Weekly News and Notes, 9/3

We have a few updates from UHS this week.

Tuesday!

We are excited to welcome our students back on Tuesday. We understand there have been a couple of concerns shared, and so consider this information carefully:

1. Bus routes have been posted. For the first few days, until times are more specific, we advise that students get to their bus stops about 5-10 minutes earlier. We also know there tends to be more traffic from student drop-offs for the first couple of days. Students will not be marked tardy or absent right at 7:30. We will be flexible.

2. We had a fire alarm alert on Thursday with staff in the building, which fortunately has been addressed and actually allowed us to practice evacuation procedures in real-time without students. The fire department and our public safety partners were present on Thursday; they permitted us to return to the building. Our annual inspections have been completed, and school will open on Tuesday.

3. When students arrive, they will wait to enter the building until 7:20 and then make their way into the building. We will have students come to homerooms for distribution of some documents that will need to be checked and returned, and, also, we want families to double-check contact information, most importantly. Cell phone numbers, emergency contacts, and email addresses could have changed - if they have, please update legibly!

ESSER-3 Feedback

You will see a letter coming within the next couple of days asking for family feedback on ESSER-3 funding to which our school district is hoping to access from the federal government. We urge you to respond by next Wednesday, September 8. It is only a couple of questions!

Class of 2022

We will be holding a senior class meeting/breakfast on the first day of school as a way to pull together our seniors for the past time in a while. They will hear from their class advisors on some plans for the school year, and we plan on chatting with them briefly about having this class set a positive tone for the year. We are looking forward to connecting the class with our school counseling team, supporting their post-graduation plans, and organizing what we all hope will be a memorable school year.

New Assistant Principal

We are excited to announce the hiring of our new assistant principal, Mr. Matthew Bertrand. He brings with him a number of years of experience in public education. He spent last year as the assessment coordinator at North High School in Worcester, and, prior to that, worked for several years as the assistant headmaster at Taunton High School, one of the largest schools in the Commonwealth. He has 12 years of experience as a high school social studies teacher, and also has served as a baseball and basketball coach in his career. We are excited to welcome him to our Spartan family, and we are grateful for the support of many students, parents, and staff members in being part of this process over the past several weeks.

Finally, with our school year about to get underway, we truly are excited to welcome back all our students. Many steps have been taken and much work completed to ensure a smooth transition back, from screening and hiring new staff, to getting the facility ready, to ordering and purchasing classroom materials, to planning instruction for these first few days of school and collaborating with new colleagues. Our secretarial, support, central office, and facility teams have been hard at work, and I know our Spartans will all reap the benefit throughout what promises to be a great school year. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any concerns or questions. 

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