The Unity Scoop – December 8

Dear Families of Unity,

Season’s greetings to you!  I hope that you and your loved ones enjoyed a delightful Thanksgiving holiday!  And I hope that the start of the new month has been good to you.

Congratulations to our middle school students who exhibited their artwork during last week’s art exhibition.  And thank you to all of our families who came out to support the event and appreciate our students’ talent and creativity.

We have two weeks of school until our winter break.  This stretch of the year tends to be both busy and festive, as we continue to engage fully in classes and extracurricular activities while also embracing an abundance of festivities that highlight our students and enrich our community.

In this edition of The Unity Scoop, we spotlight our students on trips to a number of NYC’s finest cultural institutions to enrich what they are now studying in their courses.  We also share some lovely photos from this week’s student art exhibition.  Finally, we celebrate our most recent student-athletes of the month and our PRIDE leaders through November!

Best wishes to your families in the coming week.

In unity,
Josh

Josh Beauregard

Executive Director / Co-founder

Updates as of December 8, 2024:

1. New – Unity Middle Students Engage in a Day of Field Trips and Festivities!: Unity Middle students engaged in a number of trips on Friday, including visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Museum of Natural History, and Jewish History Museum.  Enjoy the photos below of students taking in some of NYC’s finest cultural institutions!

2. New – Unity’s Middle School Art Students Shine in our Winter Art Exhibition!: Under the guidance of their Art & Design Teacher, Mr. Berkeley, Unity’s young artists proudly exhibited their latest art work this past Thursday evening.  The exhibition was attended by a number of Unity’s faculty, families, and students.  Enjoy the photos of the event below!

3. Updated – December 2024 Schoolwide Calendar: For your family’s convenience, here is an updated school-wide calendar of events for the month of December – 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.

4. New – The Winter Athletics Season Has Just Begun!: Congratulations to our many student-athletes who will be representing Unity this winter season.  We are excited for all that you will learn and accomplish alongside your teammates.  Winter schedules will be shared in next week’s edition of the Scoop. And congrats to our newest Student-Athletes of the Month.  Go Panthers!

Kailey Harriott, 8th grade

– Quote from Kailey on learning of his accomplishment: “I love this! I feel really good of it and I think I deserve it.”

– Quote from Kailey’s coach, Coach Sarah: “Kailey Harriott shows incredible dedication to her academics and team. She consistently strives for excellence, pushing herself even when things are unplanned. As a new member of the Rising Royals, Kailey stepped up as a leader, offering help to her teammates and always seeking to improve. She’s not afraid to ask for guidance when needed, and her commitment to learning and growth is evident. Kailey treats herself, her team, and her coach with respect and kindness at all times and definitely deserves to be Student-Athlete of the Month.”

5. New – Kudos to our P.R.I.D.E. Leaders Through the Full Month of November!: 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 are our leaders through the month of November 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.

6. Update – Movie Night Has Been Postponed to January: To ensure a stronger promotion and healthy turn-out, we have rescheduled to after the New Year.  A new date will be shared in next week’s edition of the Scoop.

Unity’s Family Ambassadors and basketball teams are joining forces to bring our first Movie Night of the year to Unity.  The event will take place in the auditorium of our middle school campus (432 Monroe Street).  The featured film will be Coach Carter in honor of our basketball team’s upcoming seasons.  Let’s go, Panthers!  There is a modest admission fee of $3 at the door.  Food and beverage concessions will be available for purchase.  All proceeds will go to funding our teams’ success and development this season!  RSVP here to reserve your seat in advance.

7. Recap – Congrats to Unity’s Students of the Month – Grades 6-12!:  Kudos to our Students of the Month from October!  We celebrate these students for showing exemplary scholarship and citizenship!

8. Recap – Thank You for Your Generosity on Giving Tuesday!: As a public charter school and non-profit organization that serves the Brooklyn community, we thank all families who contributed to making our after-school clubs programming possible through their donations.  Overall, over $5,000 was raised on Giving Tuesday!

9. Recap – Unity Continues in its Community Service with a Toy Drive this Month!: Coming off our schoolwide Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk and Canned Food Drive, we are now engaging in a Toy Drive.  Between 12/2 and 12/19, we encourage all Unity families to donate packaged toys, which will then be shared with kids in the local community over the holidays.  All donations will go directly toward providing nourishment to community members in greatest need. Unity students who participate in the drive will earn Panther Pride Points for demonstrating our Pride Value of Empathy.

10. Recap – Urban Advantage Family Science Days – Free Admission to some of the City’s Premiere Museums and Institutions for Unity Students in Grades 6-8!: Through Unity’s partnership with Urban Advantage (UA), middle school families may visit the following museums for free!  See the instructions below for how to obtain a family voucher.  Visit here for additional information.  Contact your child’s science teacher with questions.

Visit any of these Institutions with your family free of charge!

11. Recap – Refer a New Student to Unity Today!: Unity has a few seats available in grades 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 for the 2024-25 school year. If you know of any interested families, please reach out to Mr. Beckford via email or cell (862-294-0219). For any families that refer a new family, both referring and enrolling families will be given a $100 Amazon gift card for school supplies.

12. Recap – Guidance on Supporting your Child with School at Home: As communicated last week, there are four things that you are encouraged to engage in at home and over the course of this month in getting off to a strong start to the school year.  Congratulations on completing #4 below this week.

1. Ask your child about their school day and, more generally, how things are going.  If our team can be helpful to your child in ensuring that they are enjoying their school experience, please reach out to help.ms@unityprep.org or help.hs@unityprep.org or your child’s advisor.
2. Take a moment to check Jupiter for the latest information regarding your child’s progress.  If you are unfamiliar with how to log into Jupiter, here is a brief video tutorial.  And if you have questions about your child’s specific information in Jupiter, email your child’s advisor for support.
3. Establish a designated space and routine at home for your child to complete any homework or practice the skills they are learning in school.  Establishing routines early will reap dividends over the school year and cultivate sound study habits that will benefit your child at Unity and beyond.
4. ☑ Attend your child’s Back-to-School Night Session.  These in-person events are an extremely valuable part of our collaboration, as families learn about curricula, academic programming, and what your child will be learning this year.  Details on dates and times are featured below; you should have also received details  of the event via email and text.  The expectation is that 100% of families participate.

13. Recap – 2024-25 School Calendar of Key Events and Vacations for Families: Calendars for the 2024-25 school year can be accessed using the links below.  Note that we have two versions this year – one version for our middle school (grades 6-8) and another version for our high school (grades 9-12).

• Grades 6-8 School Calendar of Key Events and Vacations for Families
• Grades 9-12 School Calendar of Key Events and Vacations for Families