Union Middle Weekly Update V2.06!
September 19th, 2021
A Message From Mr. Feinberg
Week 6 is in the books.
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Welcome everyone to the weekly newsletter.
Thank you to everyone who watched the town hall on Grapefruit, our new weekly covid-19 testing partner. While we seem to have perfected our early morning covid testing check-ins, I'm very excited to transition to utilizing Grapefruit's services. If you'd like more information, I'd recommend visiting this linked video. Lots of information and tons of questions answered. As the start date gets closer, I'll update our families with any new information regarding these changes.
With the shift to Grapefruit and to better manage the students who are eligible for after school activities due to their vaccination status, we are asking all families to fill out the following link as soon as possible. This Google Form simply asks for your name, your email, your student's name, your student's ID (it's their Google Password WITHOUT the letters), what school they attend (UMS/DMS), what grade they are, and if they're vaccinated.
If you say they're vaccinated, you're sent to a follow up page with the opportunity to upload a picture of their vaccination card plus add in the dates of their vaccinations. As a reminder, when you take a picture of the vaccination card, screenshot the picture and then crop the photo if the form says your photo file is too large. (Thx Mrs. Hooper!)
If you say they're not vaccinated at this time or if you select "prefer not to answer", you'll just simply submit the form. There would be no further questions to answer.
And while we did collect this information by hand and by a quick glance while checking in all of our students those early mornings for covid-19 testing, I'm asking for everyone to fill out this form. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I believe that having all of the information in one place will make our communication significantly easier (and thus better for your after-school activity-playing student) moving forward. As always, thank you.
(In addition to including this information here, I'll be sending home a separate email as well with this link.)
I hope to get a video out to our families this week regarding the parking lot. Now that we've settled into a routine with students attending after school activities, I'll be sending home a video detailing basic expectations regarding the UMS parking lot. When all families follow these basic rules, your time in the UMS parking lot cuts in half for pickup and dropoff. Please be on the lookout for that message.
I also talk about the parking lot in the "rules reminder" video that I referenced in my weekly video below. The "rules reminder" video is being shown in social studies classes this week. I do cover a variety of topics for our students, including the parking lot. We reside on a very busy street and want to ensure the safety of all of our students en route to and away from school each day. Thanks for your support.
Here are some reminders:
Homework Center has begun. It's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 3-4:30. Please sign up if your student is interested in participating. The link is on our website.
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.
Don't Forget: when writing a staff member (front office, tech support, teacher), please include your student's name (first and last) somewhere in the email. It helps to be able to figure out who you're talking about and allows us to respond to more emails a bit quicker.
Todd Feinberg, Principal
News & Information @ Union Middle
"Devious Licks" from Tik Tok (also called "I feel so ridiculous even having to type these words")
In my voicemail last week, I spoke about "devious licks" and how that's the silly/destructive trend happening on campuses across the country right now. Many schools in the Bay Area have closed their bathrooms during the school period or stationed a campus supervisor outside of the sole bathroom open on campus, allowing one student at a time.
This is not something that I feel is necessary at Union Middle School -- when there is an issue, we speak directly with the individual making the bad choice. Seemingly punishing the entire student body for the choices of a few makes little sense to me. That said, if we need to approach a change in our bathroom choices, I'll let you all know prior to the switch.
(These new trends make me miss the Kendamas and fidget spinners.)
UMS Book Fair!
UMS HSC invites you to shop our Fall Virtual Book Fair and support our school! The Fair runs from September 20th - October 3rd.
Experience the magic of a Book Fair with our Virtual Fair walk-through. Your kids can browse hundreds of titles by grade, meet popular authors, and much more! Orders are delivered right to your doorstep and you can take advantage of FREE shipping on book-only purchases over $25.
All purchases will benefit our school directly (25% back in rewards!).
Don’t miss out on two weeks of storytelling fun for the whole community. https://www.scholastic.com/bf/unionmiddleschool6
UPDATE: HSC Bid & Boogie!
DISCOUNTED AUCTION TICKETS AVAILABLE UNTIL MIDNIGHT MONDAY!
UMS Sports Boosters will be hosting our annual Bid & Boogie Auction at Belwood Cabana Club on Saturday, October 9th. This is a mostly outdoor event for adults only. There will be live music, fiesta themed dinner, cash bar and auction items to bid on. Tickets are $30 each until September 20th and $40 each thereafter and can be purchased at www.unionhsc.org/bidandboogie.html. All proceeds help to pay for coaches' stipends, referees and equipment for after school athletics but all students benefit as the equipment purchased is also used in PE classes.
DONATIONS - Do you have unused, unexpired gift cards collecting dust at your house? Do you have a vacation home you'd be willing to lend out for a few days? Do you have a talent you'd like to share with other community members? Please consider making a donation to the Bid & Boogie Auction. All donations are tax deductible! Please email Maureen Currie at sportsboosters@unionhsc.org if you can contribute.
THANK YOU to all of our current auction donors (list available here). Your support of Union Middle School and our athletics department is appreciated!
Union Middle School Site Council
We are looking for a few parents for our Union Middle School Site Council. This is a great way to learn a lot about what's happening at Union Middle and to share your input on how to improve UMS wherever possible. The committee meets about 4 times throughout the year after school at 3:05pm, currently online. There are staff, students, and parents on the committee. If you are interested in being a member of School Site Council, please email Mrs. Mantell at mantella@unionsd.org
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