The Unity Scoop – March 10

Dear Families of Unity,

Kudos to our College & Career Readiness team at Unity High for making trips to Vassar College and Medgar Evers College possible for our 10th and 11th grade students this week.  By visiting these colleges, our students were exposed to a college campus, learned about college options available to them, and were able to reflect their own aspirations, interests, and future as prospective college students.  We look forward to our students experiencing more college trips this spring!

In this edition of The Unity Scoop, I provide important information about next week’s middle school conferences, celebrate our students who earned Honor Roll status for Semester I at Unity High, and pay tribute to a number of other notable student accomplishments, including our Mathletes, Dance Team, Summer Search Awardees, and Girls Basketball team!  We also thank our families who participated in last night’s Family Ambassadors meeting.

Enjoy the weekend!

In Unity,

Josh

Josh Beauregard

Head of School / Co-founder

Updates as of March 10, 2023:

1. Update – Middle School Trimester-2 Conferences, March 16-17th: We have our second round of family conferences coming up on:

• Thursday, 3/16 (in-person evening hours, 5pm-8pm)

• Friday, 3/17 (daytime virtual hours on Zoom, 9am-2pm).

School staff and advisors have made several rounds of outreach to families to schedule appointments but we are still waiting on some responses and reservations. Our goal is that 100% of our students have at least one adult family representative attending conferences. If you have any questions or need additional support, call Unity’s main office at 718-455-5046.

2. New – Congratulations to our High School Honor Roll Students for the Fall Semester!  As a part of Unity High’s recent award ceremony, the community celebrated our students who earned Honor Roll status from the fall term.  Congrats to the honorees – we look forward to celebrating your achievements again at the conclusion of the spring semester!

3. New – Seven Unity High Students Accepted to Summer Search!:  Congratulations to Aleia Brooks, Daniella Horsford, Janaya James, Johan Munoz, Sahfya Daniel, Sariyah Gordon, and Yoshua Foster.  By participating in this program, these students will be empowered to discover their purpose through mentoring and summer experiential learning during the critical transition from high school to post-secondary education, through to the launch of a fulfilling career.

4. Update – March 2023 School-wide Calendar: For your family’s convenience, here is a schoolwide 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.

5. New – Unity High’s Mathletes Club Competes in International Math Competition!: Four members of Unity High’s Mathletes Club – Jonathan Vega, Roland Durseau, Antonio Espinal, and Ashley Estevez – completed their first-ever math competition.  As a part of the competition, which includes hundreds of teams from across the globe, students were given 14 hours to complete an applied mathematics problem, which included data analysis, research on the topic, and writing a paper to present their findings.  Each student displayed intense reflection on the subject and utilized their math knowledge seamlessly to represent the data given in unique ways. Congratulations to our Mathletes –  for their critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration throughout the challenge!  And thank you to Ms. West for making the experience possible!

6. Updated – Thank you, Families, for Taking Part in this Week’s Family Ambassadors Meeting!: We are grateful to our families who participated in Thursday evening’s Family Ambassadors meeting on Zoom.  Here are the slides from the meeting.  Contact Mr. Beckford (grades 6-8) or Ms. Young (grades 9-12) with questions.  Unity’s Family Ambassadors will meet again on Thursday, April 27th, at 6pm – all families are encouraged to attend.

7. New – Recent Happenings with Athletics, Physical Education, and Health at Unity: This week, we highlight our middle school girls basketball team and tryouts for our spring athletic teams.  We encourage all interested students of all experience levels to try out!

• Grades 6-8:

  • Kudos to all students who tried out for the following teams this week: Boys Volleyball, Girls Volleyball, and Track.  Rosters were posted today.  Practice begins on Monday!

  • The Middle School’s Winter Athletics Awards Ceremony will take place on Tuesday, March 21st.  Save the date!

  • Contact Mr. Coleman with questions (acoleman@unityprep.org)

• Grades 9-12

  • Tuesday, 3/14: Girls Volleyball

  • Wednesday, 3/15: Boys Volleyball

  • TBD: Soccer

  • Contact Mr. Egharevba with questions (oegharevba@unityprep.org)

• Congratulations to our middle school girls basketball team on an impressive season!  Overall, the team placed 1st in the Brooklyn/Queens and 2nd in the city overall!

8. New – Unity High’s Dance Team Advances to Semifinals of Citywide Competition!: The Unity Blue Diamonds, Unity High’s up and coming dance team, advanced to the semifinals of the citywide Step It Up NYC Dance Team Competition.  Congrats to you, team – continue to make us proud!

9. Updated – Show Your Support for Unity to Open an Elementary School by Signing this Letter of Support: As we proceed in our aim of expanding our school to serve students in grades K-5, we kindly request that family members of our current students in grades 6-12 show your support for our expansion by taking a moment to sign a formal letter of support from Unity families.  The letter is here.  Simply enter your full name in the available space below the letter to actively show your support by March 16th.  This letter will be shared with the New York State Board of Regents before they vote on our proposed expansion this spring.  We thank you in advance for showing your support!

10. New – Students May Now Apply to NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYED): The SYEP application is now live, and applications are due by March 31st. SYEP provides young people aged 14-24 with paid summer jobs in a variety of fields, from retail to government agencies to nonprofits. Any young person who resides in the 5 boroughs is eligible to apply. Apply online or by calling DYCD Community Connect at (800) 246-4646.

11. Recap – Congratulations to our newest inductees of our middle school’s National Junior Honor Society!: Congrats to our 31 students in grades 6-8 who were recently inducted into our middle school’s National Junior Honor Society.  We are proud of you!

1. Michael Bennett, 6th grade

2. Gabriella Brann, 6th grade

3. Acai Carrington, 6th grade

4. Seneca George, 6th grade

5. London Harris, 6th grade

6. Melanie Lane, 6th grade

7. London Maxwell, 6th grade

8. Makarios McCalmont, 6th grade

9. Eshyra Miller, 6th grade

10. Malachi Reid, 6th grade

11. Agneiszka Thompson, 6th grade

12. Zea Charles, 7th grade

13. Joshua Corbin, 7th grade

14. Jahlysa Edwards, 7th grade

15. Arianna Garcia, 7th grade

16. Elijah Kirton, 7th grade

17. Hattie Mitchell, 7th grade

18. Tenajah Rodgers, 7th grade

19. Candace Taylor, 7th grade

20. Nicholas Thomas, 7th grade

21. Steven Trivedi, 7th grade

22. Keillyan Garcia, 8th grade

23. Jewel Boothe, 8th grade

24. Emma Calderon, 8th grade

25. Jayden Collins, 8th grade

26. Nia Culpepper, 8th grade

27. Sasha Elysee, 8th grade

28. Gabriel Gordon, 8th grade

29. Kaylese’Simone Nickey, 8th grade

30. Dacota Porter, 8th grade

31. Chase Stapleton, 8th grade

12. Recap – Congratulations to Unity High’s Semester I Awardees!: Congratulations to all of our high school students for recently completing Semester I of the 2022-23 school year.  And kudos to all of our awardees, including students with stellar attendance, students recognized for their achievements in their courses of study, and our PRIDE awardees.  Finally, congratulations to family members who were celebrated for their strong engagement in our school (see the slide below)!

13. Recap – Attention Middle School Families Who Are Interested in After-school Programming!: The partnership with our middle school and St. Nick’s Alliance continues this year.  St. Nick’s offers a rich array of afterschool programming in academic enrichment, leadership development, and extracurricular activities for our middle school students.  Programming kicks off on Monday, September 19th.  Contact Luis Rodriguez with questions by email at lrodriguez@stnickallliance.org or by phone at 646-676-1309.

14. Recap – 2022-23 School Calendar of Key Events and Vacations: The table below reflects our key events and vacations calendar for the 2022-23 school year, including key events we ask for your collaboration with caregiver involvement.  In addition, here is the updated PDF version of the table for your convenience. We look forward to meeting our newest families and reconnecting with our returning families at Family Kick-off-the-Year Festival & Family Orientation on August 31st!

Relevant Information from Past Editions of The Scoop:

Our Community Pledge as a school outlines the actions our staff, families, and students are committed to taking.  By following through on our commitments, we will undoubtedly have an enormously successful school year!

Information and Guidance on Unity’s Dress Codes for the 2022-23 School Year: Unity’s dress codes by grade level are provided below.

• Grades 6-8: Here is a link to all things dress code for all middle school students.

• Grades 9-12: Unity High’s dress code is outlined below:

  1. Tops:

     1. It is strongly encouraged that an official Unity top is worn in the spirit of school pride and in being united in our collective focus on learning. “Official” is defined as a top (T-Shirt or Polos) purchased from an approved vendor.

     2. In cases where students do not take our recommendation, students can wear tops of their choice so long as the top covers their entire torso and shoulders.

     3. Tops must not bear any offensive and/or inappropriate language and/or images and may not be crop tops, tube tops, halter tops or tank tops.

  2. Bottoms:

     1. Student bottoms must be long enough that the hem hits the top of the knee, shin, or ankle.

     2. Bottoms must properly fit and be worn at the waist.  A belt must be worn if bottoms are unable to fit at the waist without sagging.

     3. Bottoms may have rips or tears.

     4. Bottoms may not be leggings, tights, catsuits/bodysuits, basketball shorts or display undergarments.

  3. Shoes:

     1. All shoes must have backs, be closed-toed, and low heeled.

     2. Sandals, flip-flops, and athletic slides ARE NOT permitted (worn with or without socks).

     3. Crocs ARE permitted so long as the backstrap is raised behind the ankle at all times.

     4. For reasons related to safety, the policy for shoes will apply for all dress down days and spirit days.

School Supply Guidance: Having all of our students equipped with the supplies they need is essential to getting off to a strong start to the school year.  We offer guidance below on school supplies by grade level:

• Grades 6-8

• Grades 9-12

COVID-19 Vaccines: Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized three COVID-19 vaccines: the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines. The vaccine can prevent COVID-19 symptoms and severe COVID-19 illness. People 5 and older are eligible for the vaccine. Those who are fully vaccinated can more safely gather with friends and enjoy other benefits of vaccination. Many vaccination sites in the city no longer require appointments.

• See a list of sites where you can get a walk-up vaccination today. To find a vaccination site near you, including those that take appointments, use the City’s Vaccine Finder.

• Note, people who are 12 to 17 years old can only receive the Pfizer vaccine.

Mental Health Counseling and Social Work Services at Unity: If you would like to speak to a social worker about your child’s mental health or if you would like your child to receive support from a social worker in school, please reach out to Ms. Del Purgatorio via phone or text (347-688-9107) or email (tdelpurgatorio@unityprep.org).

Unity social workers can also be of assistance in providing information regarding social services (for example: housing, immigration, access to community mental health services & referrals to mental health providers, food security / access to food, public assistance, crisis intervention, etc.).

If your child or family member is experiencing a mental health crisis, NYC Well is available 24 hours a day and can be accessed by phone (1-888-NYC-WELL) or text (text WELL to 65173) or by internet chat via their website: https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/.

Discounts on Home Internet Services Available: If your household is struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic, you may be eligible for a monthly service discount through the Emergency Broadband Benefit. Please visit this information page or call 833-511-0311 for more information.