Weekly News & Notes
Week Ending December 9, 2022
News Briefs
1. Just a reminder that we will have just a four-day school week from December 19-22. There is no school on December 23, nor is there school on the other side of the break until January 4. January 3 is a teacher professional development day.
2. Winter sports get underway this week. We wish our teams and their coaches the best of luck, whether it is on the track, the court, the mat, or the ice.
3. Over these two weeks, we are hosting our students and families from grades 3-6 at our fabrication lab and engineering spaces, as we share our career pathways and technology with the community. We look forward to hosting more of these in the coming months. Many thanks to Mr. Smutok, Mr. Barros, Mr. Sabourin, Mr. Moura, Mrs. Wise, and Mr. McCauley from UHS, and Ms. Wise from Whitin, for their help with this week's event, a picture of which is below.
Congrats to Eabha Twohig-Mann!
Eabha Twohig-Mann won the Lions Club Speech Competition at the Zone competition held on Thursday night. As the only 9th grader competing, Eabha qualified for the regional championship being held in January!
Winter Concert!
PARKING LOT - SAFETY ADVISORY
We have been noticing an uptick in both the number of cars parked on either side of the center access road in the middle of the parking lot (particularly at the end of the day) and the number of individuals dropping off at the front of the building. Both create significant traffic hazards.
Last week, we had a member of our staff yelled at for asking someone to not park on the left side of the center road, and a student getting out of a car being dropped off in the front of the building was nearly struck by a vehicle passing it en route into the parking lot. These situations are entirely avoidable if people followed the dropoff pattern as it has been shared multiple times and simply parked in the student lot for pickup at the end of the day.
There are not many more ways we can all but beg people to follow instruction. We are awaiting the update of our traffic study, which will hopefully have a recommendation, and we are hopeful to have plans for a secondary egress approved at some point, but in the interim - please follow the direction we have provided!
Communication re: Graduation 2023
December 8, 2022
Dear Uxbridge Parents, Extended Community, and Members of the Class of 2023:
We wanted to reach out to parents and community, as well as our seniors, regarding some budding and legitimate concerns about the date of graduation and potential conflict with the state track championship. We hear the concern, are acutely aware of the challenges, and have no intention of causing additional stress for our families, community, or Spartan student-athletes.
Graduation was moved several years ago from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate the students who qualified for the state track and field championships, which have been historically scheduled on the first Saturday of June. Following that decision, graduation was held on Sunday for several years, at least 2015-2019.
In 2021 and 2022, we held graduation on Saturday morning, a recommendation that followed months of study from our School Council and administration. We had no conflicts either year between graduation and the track meet, as the start time of the meet moved to the afternoon, and our seniors were able to either make the meet on time (had they qualified) or did not qualify for the meet to begin with. Additionally, the events of the meet are hosted on both Thursday and Saturday, with the Saturday start time moved to later in the day specifically to accommodate high school graduations taking place on Saturday morning.
Here are some reasons why we are still recommending Saturday for graduation:
If graduation moves to Sunday, and poor weather necessitates a reschedule of the meet, there will 100% be a conflict with graduation and the track meet.
If graduation moves to Sunday, it would have to move to the afternoon due to a number of concerns raised about religious conflict on Sunday morning.
If graduation moves to Sunday, it would likely have to move indoors. The heat of afternoon sun on the turf and the risk of elevated temperatures would not be optimal for graduation.
If graduation remains on Saturday and starts at 10:00 a.m., the ceremony will typically be over by 11:30-11:45 a.m. the latest. Last year, the entire campus had cleared out before 1:00.
If the track meet for some reason moves to earlier in the day on Saturday, we would move graduation to earlier in the morning. There has not been any indication that the track meet’s start will be moved from its current start time of 2:30 p.m.
The only events that start as early as 2:30 p.m. are girls high jump and boys pole vault.
The first events on the track for the Saturday running portion of the meet start at 4:00 p.m. with the trials of the 100 and 110 hurdles.
Only the top 24 athletes in the entire state qualify for “The Meet of Champions”; cut times and distances are fairly consistent. We are aware of where some of our competitors could qualify, given the best of circumstances.
On a personal level, our entire administrative team is comprised of current and former coaches, including coaches of track and field. We will do everything in our power to ensure that no students face a choice, and we will communicate any recommended changes if they are necessary. At this time, however, no change is being sought.
Thank you for your understanding.
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Uxbridge High School
Email: mrubin@uxbridge.k12.ma.us
Website: www.uxbridgeschools.com
Location: 300 Quaker Highway, Uxbridge, MA, USA
Phone: (508)278-8633
Twitter: @UxbHSPrincipal