The Unity Scoop – March 23

Dear Families of Unity,

I want to thank the families who participated in our Family Ambassadors meeting last night.  Your feedback and insights on our fall family survey results were valuable and will inform our actions moving forward.  Separately, I want to thank all families who participated in Thursday’s Trimester 2 Awards Ceremony at our middle school.  Your support and encouragement means a lot to our entire community and we are grateful!

This coming week, our high school students will engage in their third quarter interim assessments.  I am thankful for our teachers and administration, as they have worked diligently to prepare our students for these exams.  And congrats in advance to our students for putting forth their best effort on these assessments in showing off all that they have learned this year.

Finally, I am pleased to report that we reached a major milestone this past week as a school: 100% of our senior class has been accepted to college for the fall of 2024!  Congratulations to all seniors and their families!  And kudos to our high school staff and College & Career Readiness team for their support of our senior class in reaching this impressive milestone!

In this edition of The Unity Scoop, we highlight our students and teachers in action in classes this past week.  We also celebrate our middle school students for their academic achievements in Trimester 2.  Finally, we gear up for our admissions lottery, which is scheduled for April 1st.  Please spread the word if you know of families seeking a terrific middle/high school for their children in the 2024-25 school year.  Families may apply here!

Enjoy the weekend and best wishes in the week ahead!

Best regards,

Josh

Josh Beauregard

Head of School / Co-founder

Updates as of March 23, 2024:

New – Students and Teachers in Action this Week: We love celebrating the hard work of our students as they engage in their learning each and every day.  This week, we spotlight our students and team in action across grades 6-8!

Preparation for state exams is fully underway in both ELA and Math. Shout out to both teams for their commitment to providing targeted support to scholars and for their responsiveness to data.  Featured above is Ms. Pierre working alongside a group of 6th grade students from 8th period ELA class.

Shout out to Ms. Shebroe for spearheading and facilitating last week’s Pi Day event. Families and scholars had a great time playing math games and building community.

New – Two Updates from Unity High’s College & Career Readiness (CCR) Team!: Our CCR team has been hard at work supporting our 12th graders with college applications and acceptances.  They have also been supporting our underclassmen as they get ready to engage in the college search process in the coming year or two.  Two events on the horizon here include:

• Unity High’s Annual College Fair: All 10th and 11th grade students and families are invited to our Annual College Fair.  The fair will take place on Thursday, March 28th from 3-6 PM in the Unity High gym.  Over 20 colleges will be in attendance and they are excited to meet you all!
• Spring Administrations of the SAT and PSAT: On Friday, April 12th, all juniors will be taking the SAT and all sophomores will be taking the PSAT at Unity High.  More information to come, but save the date for these important exams for your student’s post-secondary journey.

New – Unity’s Admissions Lottery for the 2023-24 School Year will be Held on April 1st at 6pm – If you know any students entering middle school or high school for next school year, please make sure they apply online at www.unityprep.org by April 1^st in order to have a spot in our lottery. For any questions or to set up a school tour, please call Mr. Beckford at the middle school at 862-294-0219 or Mr. Doscher at the high school at 347-746-1575.

New – Congratulations to our Middle School Honor Roll Students for Trimester 2!  Congrats to our students in grades 6-8 who earned Honor Roll status in the second trimester of the school year!  Your consistent hard work, organization, and eagerness to learn things and develop new skills is paying off.  Be proud of your accomplishments and stay the course!

New – Thank you, Families, for Taking Part in Last Night’s Family Ambassadors Meeting!: We are grateful to our families who participated in our Family Ambassadors meeting on Zoom last week.  The meeting was productive, energizing, and, of course, fun!  Here are the slides from the meeting.  One of the major topics discussed last night was a recap of our preparation for state exams in April and May.  See the slide below for detail.  In addition, here are four ways in which family members may offer support at home:

• Ensure students are present and arriving at school on time.
• Provide a protected time and space for homework, reading, and studying.
• Continue to encourage students to try their best each and every day.
• Ensure that students are getting adequate sleep each night and eating a healthy breakfast before school.

Contact Mr. Beckford with questions.  Unity’s Family Ambassadors will meet again on Thursday, April 18th, at 6pm – all families are encouraged to attend.

Updated – March 2024 Schoolwide Calendar: For your family’s convenience, here is a complete school-wide calendar of events for the month of March – print it out and throw it on the refrigerator door!  It is possible that events could change and new events could be added.  An up-to-date events calendar can always be accessed on our website.

Recap – Kudos to our P.R.I.D.E. Leaders for the Full Month of February!: Our P.R.I.D.E. Core Values of Progress, Respect for All, Integrity, Discovery, and Empathy represent qualities that we covet as a school community.  They also represent qualities that we believe empower our students to lead fulfilling lives and, therefore, qualities that we have a responsibility to actively teach and positively reinforce.  The students listed below were leaders from the month of February in being recognized by their teachers for demonstrating our Core Values.  On behalf of our school community, we are proud of these students, and look forward to continuing to shout out all of our students when they demonstrate P.R.I.D.E. in our community.

Recap – Alumni Spotlight of the Month – Malik Dale, Unity’s Class of 2020: We are thrilled to share with our entire community the accomplishments of our alumni whenever we can.  This month, we proudly provide an update on the postsecondary success of Malik Dale, who is now in his third year at Brooklyn College!

Malik Dale graduated from Unity in 2020. He is currently a full-time student at Brooklyn College, majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing.

Malik is an accomplished student-athlete at Brooklyn College and a member of the Men’s Basketball Team.  Malk scored his 1,000th point in college this past season.  He was also named as a First Team All-Star in his conference.

The Boy’s Varsity Basketball Team at Unity has had the privilege of Malk practicing with the team on a few occasions this season.  We thank Malik for giving back to Unity and for continuing to be an active part of our community.  We are proud of you, Malik!

Recap – Unity’s Student-Athletes Continue to Shine in the Winter Season!: There have been a number of recent highlights worth sharing with Unity’s athletic teams this winter season.  Here are a few!

Middle School Scholar-Athlete of the Month for January: Dylan Phillips

Team: Junior Varsity Boys Basketball

Current GPA: 4.0

Accomplishments: Dylan is appreciated for being a “glue guy” according to his coaches. His positive attitude, kind nature, and charisma makes him a joy to work with and a tremendous teammate. He is a unique leader in the way he is able to navigate different social circles and keep his team together and locked in.  He is  appreciated for encouraging his teammates to excel on the basketball court, in the classroom, and in life.

Quote from Scholar-Athlete:  “I am happy and proud of myself.  I really worked hard for this and I put in a lot of time and effort into it.”

Recap – Unity Calendar for the 2023-24 School Year: The table below reflects our key events and vacations calendar for the 2023-24 school year.  In addition, here is the updated PDF version of the table for your convenience.

Relevant Information from Past Editions of The Scoop:

Free Resources for Unity Families: Unity’s social work team is always looking for resources that may be helpful and of interest to our families.  A host of resources are provided below.  Reach out to Ms. Del Purgatorio, Unity’s Director of Social Work, with questions.

• Introducing 988, The New Mental Health Hotline: The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which launched last week, is a new way for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis to quickly reach out for help. Anyone in the US can now call or text 9-8-8 to be connected to a trained mental health professional at one of more than 200 local crisis call centers around the country. Learn more here.
• INCLUDEnyc Presents: How to Talk to Your Children about Sexuality: This webinar will help parents and guardians of children with disabilities become more comfortable discussing sexuality and relationships, and cover some of the most effective ways to talk about this sensitive topic. Learn more and register here.
• Free Summer Meals for Students – begins Tuesday, June 28th: NYC’s Summer Meals program offers free breakfast and lunch throughout NYC for anyone age 18 and under. No registration, documentation, or ID is required.  Visit here for details on time, locations, menus and other helpful information.
• Free Book Giveaway for Kids and Teens: As part of our largest summer program ever, The New York Public Library is giving away 500,000 books for kids and teens to take home and keep. Drop by one of our neighborhood branches to choose yours—plus, explore free events, our summer writing contest for kids, the opportunity for teens to contribute to a new magazine, and more with Summer at the Library.  Visit here for more information.
• DOE’s Beyond Access Series Presents Self-Regulation Techniques: This workshop will provide parents, caregivers and students strategies for reducing stress and improving the ability to self-regulate, with simple routines and activities that reduce anxiety and reactivity and promote calm and happy students and families. Spanish and Mandarin interpretation available. Learn more and register here.
• DOE’s Beyond Access Series Presents How to Access Supports for Students with Behavioral Challenges: This workshop covers the educational rights of students who face behavioral challenges in school, including different kinds of behavioral supports and interventions , along with the opportunity to share advocacy tips. Learn more and register here.
• The Child Mind Institute offers great (free & remote) caregiver workshops on a seasonal basis!  Take a moment to visit their site and appreciate their offerings.
• The recent events in Ukraine may be a source of stress and anxiety for some children.  Below are four resources that may be helpful for families:
  • Helping Kids Cope with Frightening News from Child Mind Institute
  • How to Talk to Kids About War from verywellfamily.com
  • How to Navigate Difficult Conversations with Children from The Relation Station
  • How to Talk to Children about War: An Age-by-Age Guide from Today.com
• Below are flyers for lists of low-cost dental providers in each borough:
  • Bronx PDF 
  • Manhattan PDF
  • Queens PDF
  • Brooklyn PDF
  • Staten Island PDF
• Free Child Nutrition Webinar Series: Register for the “An Alarming Rise in Excess Weight and Diabetes in Children: Strategies and Solutions” webinar on Monday, March 7th.  The webinar is presented by French-American Aid for Children as part of the new Child Nutrition Webinar series. Parents and educators will learn about practical nutrition tips and accessible information to encourage children to adopt good eating habits in school—and at home—through an interactive dialogue between Dr. Juliana Cohen, nutrition epidemiologist and associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Dr. Ileana Vargas-Rodriguez, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Children’s Hospital of New York. A Q&A session will follow the webinar.  Check out previous recordings of past webinars, including:
  • Engaging Children in their own Nutritional Journey
  • Smart Summer Shopping and Cooking
  • Nutrition’s Powerful Impact on Children’s Physical and Mental Health