Union Middle Weekly Update V2.10!
October 17th. 2021
A Message From Mr. Feinberg
Week 10.
And just like that, we are done with the first quarter and 25% of the school year. Time is just flying by. I spent a few moments last week, watching videos of my daughters from when they were 3. My sons (who were -2 at the time) asked where they were in all of the videos. That set off a string of questions in a conversation I wasn't ready to have with my 6 year old sons. But yes, in those videos, watching my daughters at age 3... it feels like yesterday and yet so long ago at the same time. It's a good reminder to treasure these days, to spend a little extra time with your friends and family, and travel to that Costco you've always wanted to visit but never have.
One tidbit of good news is that Union Middle School now has their very own covid-19 rapid response and PCR testing hub for the school community. It's placed by the bike cage in the parking lot. Community members will be able to stop by and get a quick 15 minute covid-19 result from 7am to 7pm daily. And yes, it's completely free. The more we test, the safer we as a community will be. Thank you to our district office and Grapefruit for adding this community testing pod to UMS.
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Sadly, no video this week. Just the usual short reminders below. Please take a moment to review.
The Weekly Reminders:
The Spelling Bee starts tomorrow at lunch. We debated a few options for the Spelling Bee this year, including cancelling it or shifting it to online only. Instead, we decided to keep everything as "normal" as we could by offering a pre-test to all of our students in their ELA classes and then having the top 20 scores from that pre-assessment to advance the lunch-time Spelling Bee. Your student will have already been contacted if they qualified to participate in the 2nd round tomorrow.
There is a school dance coming up for our 7th and 8th graders on November 5th. Here is the permission slip that students will need to fill out (with your signature) and bring in order to purchase a ticket. All of the information is included on the permission slip (linked HERE). Key points you'll want to know about the dance:
- We are going to open up the dance gates a half hour early at 5:30 pm. You can drop off your student early and have them sit on their phone with us rather than at home while they wait for the dance to start.
- The music starts at 6 pm and the doors shut at 6:15 pm.
- Please note the specific entrances for 7th graders vs. 8th graders as well as the earlier departure time for our 7th graders.
- We are anticipating that this dance will sell out as we have set a hard cap of 400 tickets to be sold. I would highly recommend that your student buy their ticket as soon as they go on sale the week prior, as there's a good chance we will have hit that 400 student limit prior to the day of the dance.
- Please have your student bring the signed permission slip with them to buy their ticket (once they're put on sale, that is).
- Please note that we will NOT be selling tickets at the door.
I'll have more information about the procedures regarding school dances in the upcoming weeks. We are very much looking forward to the dance and hope your student is as well.
3rd Reminder: Halloween is approaching. For those of you who like to plan in advance, here is a quick write-up on how to ensure your student has a fun, positive costume day at UMS on Friday, October 29th. It should answer most of the questions our students and their families have about Halloween at UMS. If not, please do contact me.
If you purchased the ASB kit at the beginning of the year, your student will be receiving their ASB UMS shirt soon. We are just waiting for the shirts to arrive; everything seems to be delayed shipping-wise right now. Once they do arrive, we will distribute the shirts to those students who purchased the ASB kit.
If you haven't already filled out the following link as soon as possible in indicate if your student has received their vaccination card or not, please take a look and consider doing so. This Google Form simply asks for their basic information and if they're vaccinated. You can also "decline to state" if you so please.
Don't forget to sign your student up for Grapefruit. Here's the link.
Mask guidance continues to be for both indoors AND outdoors for all individuals, vaccinated or otherwise. Thank you for your support here.
Please visit the sports website for athletics information.
Todd Feinberg, Principal
News & Information @ Union Middle
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) @ UMS
This year our school is excited to implement a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum called Character Strong. In the spring, our district provided funding for all of the school sites to purchase SEL materials and we chose Character Strong because it matches with our school goals of promoting a collaborative school environment, explaining and supporting empathy & compassion amongst our students, developing goals for both social and academic growth, and establishing our values and purpose as part of the UMS community. Perhaps most importantly, this curriculum discusses leadership and teamwork and how to develop agency as we work together to support ourselves and one another. For more information on Character Strong please visit Character Strong. I will continue to update you throughout the year about the implementation of this program!
Covid-19 Testing @ UMS via Grapefruit
As shared in that letter, our health partner Grapefruit and their direct partner Predicine will perform the no cost COVID testing at all our school sites and our Community testing pod at Dartmouth school. Students will only participate in the no cost COVID testing if families have submitted the one-time consent form at least 24 hours prior to your school’s testing day. I would like to encourage families to sign their child up for Grapefruit no cost COVID testing through the following link: http://bit.ly/usd-testing.
Aside from being free for all involved parties, our partnership with Grapefruit also takes the burden off of our families from having to either attend early mornings at UMS for any close contact warnings or address finding a local provider for a covid-19 test. When you sign your student up via weekly Grapefruit, they'll be escorted to the cafeteria during their PE period to take the covid-19 test. It is a short process that won't disrupt their physical education class. It will be seamless as possible. Please note that for close contact situations, we may have those students test during non-PE periods, based on testing availability. Also, just FYI, we no longer test early in the morning; everything is handled during the school day.
And if you have signed up your student but for whatever reason do not want your student participating, simply have your student inform their PE teacher that they do not want to be tested that day. If your student provides that response, they will be excluded from having to participate. Simple as that.
If you have questions, please reach out. If I can't answer them, I'll find someone who can.
Morning Clinics
Morning Clinics are a place to:
1) ask a UMS teacher specific questions on the previous night's homework
2) ask a UMS teacher questions regarding an upcoming assessment
3) get re-teaching of the previous day's instruction
Morning Clinics are NOT a place to:
1) hang out with friends
2) play on your cell phone
3) stay warm because it's cold outside
There are limited spots in these clinics, so we do expect students to be using the time effectively to participate.
Here is our schedule:
ELA: Monday & Thursday in Room 4
MATH: Wednesday & Friday in Room 3
SCIENCE: Tuesday & Friday in Room 30
All clinics are held from 8:05 to 8:25 in the morning.
UMS Daily Announcements
As many of you know, we start to keep our UMS community updated on all things UMS. As one parent said in the Help Desk Zoom from back to school night, "there is so much information and everything is so long and there's no way I can read it all." One way to keep updated in a daily digest is to read the daily announcements... and starting soon, we will begin emailing a copy of the student morning announcements to all parent/guardians listed within PowerSchool.
To keep emails clutter down in your inbox and help with organization, we suggest that you create a folder for UMS Announcements and then create a rule/filter directing ALL emails with UMS Announcements in the subject line be sent to that folder. Read, delete, ignore as you wish. Please do not unsubscribe as doing so will end all email communications from the school and district - not just the daily announcements.
If you have questions, contact Mrs. Adams adamsj@unionsd.org.
UMS Sports Website
As the seasons progress, more information will be added for whatever after-school sports become available. Please visit the website for tryout information and other key topics. Questions: Mr. Barbara is our athletic director and would love to hear from you: barbaraM@unionsd.org is his email.
Parking Lot Reminders Below
1) Only drop off against the curb or from the parking spot areas.
2) Always pull forward. When done pulling forward, pull forward some more.
3) There are two lanes to enter the parking lot. Please use both.
4) Only use the crosswalk to get from the parking lot to campus and visa versa.
5) Exit from the curbside of the car at all times (right side).
6) Drive slow. Phones down. Eyes up.
7) No scooters, e-bikes, skateboards, etc.
8) See #2
9) Don't cross the entrance or exit of the parking lot by bike or walking
10) Please consider walking the last lap to get to school tomorrow; the parking lot will be full.
Thanks everyone!
Teacher Team Websites
This means that thought one click, you'll be able to see the daily slides of what happened in each of your student's classes. This will be helpful as often homework assignments and due date reminders are included in these daily slides. I believe it is a lot easier for parents to stay current with assignments coming due rather than dealing with the aftershocks of the inevitable "0" put into PowerSchool because your student didn't complete the work.
The links are available through Teams & Staff on our homepage (via unionms.unionsd.org) and listed below. Your student should know which team they're on. And of course, please bookmark the below link for usage throughout the school year.
Have you visited the UMS Store yet?
1) PE Uniforms, Sweats, & PE Lock
2) Donation Requests for HSC
3) ASB Kit (includes yearbook & planner & more)
Please do take a minute to venture to the store and place your order so your student can start day 1 with everything they need.
Also, there's a glitch where you can only use a credit card if you go through PayPal first. I'm working to correct this... Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Tech Help?
Got Texts?
7th grade families: text @ums2023 to 81010
8th grade families: text @ums2022 to 81010
UMS FAQ
Union Middle School
Email: feinbergt@unionsd.org
Website: Unionms.Unionsd.org
Location: 2130 Los Gatos Almaden Road, San Jose, CA, USA
Phone: (408) 371-0366
Twitter: @goteamums