The Unity Scoop – March 2

Dear Unity Families,

I hope you and your loved ones had a restful February break and a great week since.  It felt wonderful to be back in action as a learning community!

This past week was filled with highlights worth celebrating, including our Black History Month celebration, our Semester I Academic Awards ceremonies, a Family Ambassadors meeting, and several exciting athletic events, including basketball playoff games and a step competition!

Looking ahead, we have a Career Workshop Series kicking off this week at our high school, spring athletics tryouts at our middle school, Open House events at both campuses for prospective new families, and more games for our high school basketball teams.

Additionally, we take a moment to honor and appreciate our incredible social workers as part of School Social Workers Appreciation Week.  On behalf of the Unity community, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Ms. Del Purgatorio, Ms. Brookins, and Ms. Hidalgo for their unwavering dedication, advocacy, and support of our students and families.  We are truly fortunate to have such passionate and skilled professionals strengthening our community.

In this edition of The Unity Scoop, you’ll find our March calendar, along with important updates, highlights, and recaps of recent school events.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Best,
Josh

Josh Beauregard
Head of School / Co-founder
Updates as of March 2, 2025:

1. New – March 2025 School-wide Calendar: For your family’s convenience, here is a 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.

2. New – Congratulations to our Middle School Honor Roll Students for Semester 1!  Congrats to our students in grades 6-8 who earned Honor Roll status in the first semester 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!

3. New – Middle School Spring Family Conferences, March 13th-14th: We are excited to hold our middle school spring family conferences on Thursday, March 13th (in-person evening hours, 5pm-8pm) and Friday, March 14th (daytime virtual hours on Zoom, 8:30am-3pm).  Advisors are in the process of reaching out to families to schedule appointments.  A Jupiter message with a link to appointment options has also been disseminated.  Our goal is that all students have at least one adult family representative attending conferences. All students whose families participate in conferences will be awarded 10 Pride Points.  If you have any questions or need additional support, call Unity’s main office at 718-455-5046.

4. New – Highlights of Students and Their Teachers in Action This Week!: Enjoy the photos below of our 7th graders and staff in action during science class last week! Students engaged in learning station labs to review key concepts from their recent study of climate change.  In these photos, students are simulating the relationship between carbon dioxide levels and temperature. They are recording observations and temperature measurements every two minutes, completing data tables, and then graphing and analyzing their results.

5. New – Unity Middle’s Step Team Plays Hosts to a Stellar Step Competition this Weekend!: Congrats to Coach Martino and her team for hosting this week’s step competition in front of a full auditorium at 432 Monroe Street.  Click on the image below to see Unity’s Rising Royals perform to conclude the competition!

6. New – Unity Celebrates Black History this Month through a Host of Festivities!: Our school community continued in our celebration of Black History this past week.  On behalf of our entire community, thank you to all students and staff for your contributions to our festivities!

7. Recap – Alumni Spotlight of the Month – Carlos Goulias, Unity’s Class of 2021: 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 Carlos Goulias ‘21.

Carlos Goulias is a class of 2021 Unity graduate who is passionate about learning and youth development. He has consistently attended SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cayuga Community College and is slated to finish his Bachelor’s Degree in January 2026.

He has previously been a Teacher’s Assistant (TA) for college courses and is currently working as a substitute special education teacher and is a registered Behavioral Technician. Carlos is no stranger to the classroom, and loves supporting students using evidence-based practices along with his charismatic and patient personality.

Carlos is also SCIP trained (Strategies for Crisis Intervention and Prevention, or SCIP Intelligence Certification) and may one day apply to work at a Unity Prep. He remains connected to his alumni community and offers his support for new high school graduates who are entering the SUNY system. We can’t wait to see Carlos (and his impressive resume) earn his degree!

8. Recap – Unity High Students Visit Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute – One of the Top Art Universities in the World!: Unity High’s art students toured Pratt’s campus this week and learned about its interior design, architecture, and graphic design programs.  Kudos to Ms. Gjakova for making the trip possible!

9. Recap – Unity’s Athletic Teams In Action this Week!: Congratulations to our Student-Athletes for the month of January.  And congratulations to our Middle School Varsity Basketball teams who were victorious in our playoff games yesterday.  Go Panthers!

10. New – Thank you, Families, for Taking Part in Last Thursday’s Family Ambassadors Meeting!: We are grateful to our families who participated in our Family Ambassadors meeting.  As always, the meeting was productive, energizing, and, of course, fun!  The agenda from the meeting is below.  Here are the slides from the meeting.  And see the meeting below.  We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on March 20th!

11. Recap – Join our New Unity Prep Instagram (IG) Account Today!: We recently launched our new grades 6-12 IG account to bring our entire community together – @unityprepcharterschool.  Don’t miss out – follow us now!

12. 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