Week of September 13th

UAI Staff News

Volume IX

Issue 4

September 13th, 2021

Principal's Message

Opening Day.  Tomorrow, we finally welcome our young ones back into the building.  It is a day of excitement and trepidation - as it always it, but even in the landscape of fear and uncertainty, the pull of community and love still reaches through it all.

20 years ago, I stood on the steps of my school and watched the trail of dust and blood covered people streaming off of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges a they walked past my school.  I could see the column of smoke and the stink of chemicals in the air from what was once the World Trade Center.  I could see the shell shock on the people in front of me, on the faces of my colleagues, and I could feel it in the center of myself.  

Then, I turned on my heel and went back into school to rejoin the fervor of teachers, administrators, and support staff all working hand-in-hand to make sure our students and families were support an reconnected safely.  It took all of us all day to make sure every last student was safe at home.  It took a network of neighbors, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends, and loved ones to take our young ones home.  But through it all, each phone call or conversation on the stairs was the same - "Are you ok? Are we ok? Maybe, I don't know - but we are here together for one another and we all love our kids"

The news reported on this yesterday.  That after 9/11, we all came together a a single community across New York and the nation.  It happened because we reached out to one another to hold each other up and hold each other close - not because anyone had any answers or any plans - but because through the chaos our community and our love reached through to connect us all.

Today, we come back from a daily 9/11.  Still today, over 1000 folks are losing their lives each day to COVID.  But today we are in a different world space.  The larger community is not pulling together, because it's hard to galvanize people with no common enemy - and it's hard to make an enemy out of something so abstract as a virus.

But for UAI, we do have a galvanizing force - our kids, and our love for them and their families.

So, as we they come rushing back to us tomorrow, we are returning from a year of chaos and loss.  But we have the strength and love our community reaching through that haze to embrace us all in the promise and excitement of a new school year.

Make it a priority to pause and enjoy your moments tomorrow.  You are ready.  They are eager and excited, and we are all going to create a great year together.

Committee Updates

School Restructuring Committee.  The school restructuring committee worked on a variety of UAI school policies to interrogate them for bias and structural racism.   This year, the school restructuring committee will be replaced the the UFT Consultation Committee who will be charged with the same goal of continually assessing and revising school policies to ensure equity and inclusion for all.  The final piece of work the SRC completed over the summer was an overhaul to the hiring process.  Here is the final update on that work from the Hiring Subcommittee:

    Hiring Status at Beginning of Summer:

• 5 teaching staff hired...Jenetta (SPED), Liz (Chem), Shana (Bio), Claire (SPED and Science)
• 6 openings remained - Dance, Spanish, SPED, Math, School Business Manager, and Secretary
• One hiring fair remaining on July 8th (led by Phillan, Nakita, Elena, Annie, Cherry, Suzannah, Sarah R., Judy, and Kelly) and then combined Round 1 and Round 2 interviews after (led by Phillan, Cherry, Judy, Sarah R., Kiri and Kelly)

   Total Summer Hiring Data:

• 58 teacher candidate interviews and 10 office staff interviews
• 14 demo lessons with summer school students (led by Kelly, Phillan, Kiri, Sarah R., and Cherry)
• 4 teachers hired...Jessa (Dance), Nica (Math), Leonela (Spanish), and Olympia (SPED)
• 2 office staff hired... Dai (School Business Manager) and Damaris (School Secretary)

To Do

Vaccine Verification.  It is a requirement by the City of New York that all city employees, including school employees be vaccinated.  Please go to https://vaccine.schools.nyc/ to upload proof of your vaccine.  If you are not vaccinated, I will be reaching out to you to provide proof of negative COVID test each week until you are fully vaccinated.

COVID Quarantine and CAR days.  It's hard to believe that we are starting school tomorrow, and still we have no guidance on whether or not the days you have to stay out due to Quarantine are coming out of your CAR.  

Here's what I can say - do your best to conserve your CAR days.  This is a "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best" strategy.  If you have appointments that can be scheduled outside of the school day or on vacation days (like veteran's day), then try to do so.  I know it's not always possible, but try to do your best!  Once you are out of CAR days, your pay gets docked.  

As of today, there is no code to indicate you're out for COVID quarantine or COVID illness.  So, if you are out now, they are going in as regular absences and they are being charged to your CAR.  We will be able to backtrack and update if policy changes, but again - prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  Save your days if you can (so use them if you are sick, but try not to use them if you can schedule appointments outside of the school day).

Advisory Orientation Page of Links.  I made this Advisory Orientation Page O' Links to provide the most up-to-date links for this week.  If the links are not working or missing on your Grade Orientation Schedule, you can use this one to get access. 

Check Email Each Morning.  As we launch the year, there are constant adjustments to the register as we take in and discharge students over the next couple of weeks.  This year in particular, because we providing students with the option to choose their programs, there may be more changes than usual.  I will send out an email every morning to give daily updates.  This will be for the next couple of weeks.

Announcements

Junior/Senior Elevate BootCamp.  We're still working on the exact schedule for the Elevate Study Skills Bootcamp for Juniors and Seniors.  This Bootcamp is the AP study skills bootcamp that helps our older students prepare for the rigor and challenge of advanced classes.  All juniors and seniors will be engaging with this bootcamp from Monday 20SEP thru Thursday 23SEP, and juniors/seniors school day those days will be 9:25AM - 1:25PM.  Teachers who teach junior/senior classes will not have regular instruction with them on those days.  Elevate tutors will be working with them.   8/9/10th classes will be normal (with a few minor room adjustments).  Stay tuned.

All Classes Should have Google Classrooms.  All teachers should create and share their Google Classrooms with me, Annie, and their Instructional Leaders by October 1st.  Try to set up Classrooms by next Friday, 24SEP.  This will make your job a lot easier should you have any students needing to quarantine next week, when instruction starts for everyone.

Pacing Guide Template.  To support your planning processes it is strongly encouraged for you to use this Pacing Guide Template.  These templates support the organization of your planning and instructional materials, and the provide a system and structure for you to readily share planning materials with collaborating teacher.  

Per Session Postings

• Posting Extended to 19SEP21: 
  Equity Team:  Last year the Equity Team worked to revamp our school grading policy (which we will review next week in PD).  As we return, we know that our School Discipline issues will require the same depth of study and reform in order to ensure equity in how we address behavior issues at UAI.  So, we are moving the grading work to an Instructional Leadership Team (see below), and this year Rebecca will lead the Equity Team to study UAI School Discipline.  Courtney & Jelissa will also be on the committee (because our deans are centrally involved with school discipline), in addition to these three, we are looking for at least two more teachers, two students, and two parents.  
  
  This committee is a per session position for teachers.
  If you are interested in joining the Equity Team, please email Kiri and click here to apply 
  
  
• Posting Extended to 19SEP21: 
  Instructional Leadership Team:  The Instructional Leadership Team will have the following members pre-selected to the team by Kiri & Annie.  These folks were all pre-selected because they each have demonstrated strong capacity in their instructional planning, work well with colleagues in elevating instructional practice & student performance, and have shown strong leadership skills in their work on teams and committees. Pre-Selected Are:  Phillan (SPED), Nina (Math), Nakita (Science), Kelly (Social Studies/ENL), and Rachel (ELA).  These teachers will be working with Kiri and Annie to continue the work required to support our move to mastery based grading and to provide support needed for staff to develop the skills and knowledge required to successfully implement mastery-based grading policies.
  
  This committee is a per session position for teachers. 
  If you are also interested in joining the Equity Team, please email Kiri and click here to apply 
  
  

• Posting Extended to 19SEP21: 
  Circles Committee:  Last year our Circles Committee worked to help develop staff understanding of anti-racist/anti-bias strategies, and to help us build relationships among staff.  Nakita will lead the Circles committee work along with Jennifer and Juelle.  This year, circles will meet monthly to continue to support our school community relationships and continued ABAR work.  
  
  This committee is a per session position for teachers.
  If you are interested in joining the Equity Team, please email Kiri and click here to apply 
  
  
  
• Posting Extended to 19SEP21:  
  School Culture Committee:  The school culture committee is charged with creating activities and events that celebrate students achievement and make school FUN!  This includes organizing virtual assemblies (no in-person gatherings this year), coordinating student of the month selection, announcement, and celebration, Spirit weeks, and collecting student opportunities both in and outside of school (e.g. after school clubs, volunteers opportunities, special classes or experiences, etc.) and communicating with and recruiting students to these opportunities so that they can continue to build out their learning experiences outside of school.
  
  We are recruiting 1 staff person from each grade-team for this role (so that we have a person on each grade team to streamline communication).
  
  
  This committee is a per session position for teachers.
  If you are interested in joining the Equity Team, please email Kiri and click here to apply