February 23 Superintendent's Update
Greetings Upper Moreland Community!
Our students and staff have been very busy across all of our schools. February is Black History Month, and throughout the month our students have been learning about the contributions of African Americans. Some of their learning is shared in the District Highlights section of this month’s newsletter.
Parent-teacher conferences will be held March 1 through 3.
Our teachers have been busy preparing for these conferences to share individual student progress with parents. Schools will dismiss early each day during parent-teacher conferences. UMHS and UMMS will dismiss at 11:00 am, and UMIS and UMPS will dismiss at 11:45 am.
Student are wrapping up their winter sports and competitions with successful seasons by several teams and individual athletes including our Varsity Wrestling Team, Swimming and Diving Teams, Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball, Indoor Track, Boys' and Girls' Bowling, Indoor Guard and Percussion. Congratulations to all students and their coaches on their winter seasons.
The month of March marks the official start of spring sports and the spring arts season with school musicals. Our middle school drama company will be putting on the Wizard of Oz on March 9-11. Our high school drama company will be putting on A Chorus Line: Teen Version on March 23-25. Mark your calendars and attend our musicals to support the arts in Upper Moreland.
Registration is open for students of the Upper Moreland Class of 2036. Residents of Upper Moreland Township can register their child(ren) who will be age 5 on or before September 1, 2023. To register your child for kindergarten, please visit the Registration Section of our Website for more information.
We look forward to meeting our newest Golden Bears!
African American History Quilt at UM Intermediate School
Ms. Brown’s class at Upper Moreland Intermediate School learned about different African Americans and their contributions as they created an African American Biography Quilt. The students worked together to create this quilt which includes a picture and facts about each person on the quilt. At the bottom of the quilt they wrote, “We are all woven together.”
National African American Read-In at UM Middle School
On Thursday, February 23rd, families from across the district attended the National African American Read-In at the Upper Moreland Middle School. This national event started in 1990 to encourage communities to read together and focus on African American authors and literature. Upper Moreland families enjoyed an evening filled with poetry activities, food, jazz music, and presentations by local authors. Ms. Karema Farmer, local author,
spoke and shared her experiences as a writer.
Thank you to all who helped make this evening a success including the staff and student volunteers, the cooks who prepared food–Miss London of Lovely London Delights and Mr. Pretlow--and the local authors who shared their talents with our community.
Emily Nally, Senior
We are proud to announce that Emily Nally was selected as Upper Moreland High School’s February 2023 Rotary Club Student of the Month!
Emily has always done her best to be involved with many different facets of UMHS. She enjoys putting the work into making our high school the best it can be. She has been involved with the arts and community programs since her freshman year. These include holding leadership positions in marching band, theater, and the UMatter Group, as well as participating in National Honor Society, Jazz Band, Pop and Rock Band, Montgomery County Band, Key Club, Drama Club and Drama Company. She can be seen on the morning announcements each day, offering her warm smile and positive attitude. Emily is involved in her community in a variety of ways such as helping out at the middle school play rehearsals, making cards for senior citizens and for children with cancer, packing food for JRA, and helping out at her local church. In addition to her service to others, she is a dedicated student with distinguished honors.
Emily was nominated by two of her high school teachers. Mr. Ferrarello, her English teacher, shared: "I would like to nominate Emily Nally as an Upper Moreland Student of the Month. In addition to her yeoman work with the Marching Band and the Theater company, she goes above and beyond in the classroom. I worked with Emily in ninth grade as her Public Speaking teacher and now have the pleasure of working with her in AP Literature. Emily produces sterling work and is a true 'sparkplug' in the classroom. She generates provocative discussions, collaborates with all beautifully, and demonstrates true respect to everyone she comes in contact with."
Mr. Beck, her PE teacher said: "She is a fantastic student and citizen. She is a leader in the marching unit and as part of the drama club. In PE class, which I know is not her favorite, she always gives a great effort and I feel by her participating, that she leads others who also don't love PE to try as well. Emily demonstrates values and characteristics that are worthy of student of the month recognition."
Please join us in congratulating Emily Nally, the Student of the Month for February!
Congratulations to UMHS sophomore Liam Ritter for being selected as the guitar player for the 2023 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) All-State Jazz Ensemble. This achievement is particularly remarkable because only one guitar player from the entire state of Pennsylvania is selected to this ensemble. In addition to being an exceptional young guitarist with our top Jazz Band, Liam also plays mallet percussion, tenor saxophone, piano, and electric bass in various other ensembles at UMHS.
The All-State Jazz Ensemble will perform as part of the PMEA All-State Festival and Conference April 19-22 at the Kalahari Convention Center in the Poconos.
Please join me in congratulating Liam on this distinguished achievement.
In March, students in the middle school Global Innovations class will be competing against schools from the Philadelphia region in the What’s So Cool About Manufacturing video contest. The students were assigned a local manufacturing company, Pac Pro, Inc. They needed to work as a collaborative team to develop a plan, write a script, gather video footage and interviews, create a final video product, and develop an outreach plan to share their work and encourage people to vote for their contest submission.
We are so proud of the hard work, dedication, and teamwork of the students over the last several months. For more information on their project, please visit the website they developed: What’s So Cool About Manufacturing UMMS Global Innovations Class. The students will continue to update the site with information and video teasers.
Now, they need your votes! Voting for submitted videos will take place from March 22 through 24. You can vote as many times as you would like for our UMMS Global Innovations Team during the voting window. More information about how you can cast your votes for our UMMS team will be shared via email and social media as we get closer to the voting window.
Good luck UMMS Global Innovations Team!
The Pennsylvania State Education Association and the Council for the Advancement of Public Schools collaborated to produce a video highlighting the important role Career and Technical Education schools play in educating students and preparing them for success. Our own Eastern Tech School along with Bucks County Technical High School were featured in the video. Additionally, Upper Moreland senior Brandon Lim, a student in the Vet Science program, was featured in the video. We are proud of Brandon and of Eastern Tech School. Portions of the video will appear as television ads in Pennsylvania. Please use this link to view the video and learn more about how our tech schools prepare students for success.
