The Weekly Penguin

Hi all,

Thank you for another excellent week. Some feedback from our parents was to post new information at the top of the newsletter and repeated items below, which I will try today. I will group items in the table of contents accordingly, please read whatever is pertinent for you. Let me know how this new format works!

I also missed hosting a Coffee with the Principal during the 1st quarter, so I will host one in a couple of weeks, and then do a Boba with the Principal near the end of the semester.

A reminder for our students: I am again asking you all to police your trash at the end of lunch. There are a few places we have consistently seen trash left as students walk away to head to class, including several tables and along the administration building where students congregate. Yes, we have groundskeepers, but they are two versus the 2,100+ students and 140+ working on our campus. Do your part inside and outside of buildings to take care of our home and it will take care of us. Below are some photos of example areas from this week alone.

Upcoming events:

Saturday, October 26: AZMBA Marching band/colorguard competition - Ironwood Ridge HS, 9:00pm

Wednesday, October 30: TUSD band exhibition - Palo Verde HS, 7:25pm

Saturday, November 2: U of A band day - Arizona Stadium, 8:40-9:45pm

Tuesday, November 5: Coffee with the Principal - Presta Coffee Roasters: 2502 N. 1st Ave, 7:05am

Wednesday, November 6: RUHS middle school orchestra invitational - RUHS auditorium, time TBD

Saturday, November 9: AZMBA marching band championships - Hamilton HS: 3700 S Arizona Ave, Chandler, AZ 85248, 8:00-9:00pm

Monday, November 11: Veteran's Day - SCHOOL CLOSED

Tuesday, November 12: Sequential schedule period 1-6 starting at 8:00am, NO CONFERNCE PERIOD

Tuesday, November 12: Ranger Band Spectacular - RUHS auditorium, 7:00pm

Tuesday, November 19 - UHS Student of the Month breakfast - RUHS auditorium lobby, 8:00am

November 22-23: Sweeney Todd: The Musical - RUHS auditorium, 6:00pm each night

November 27-28: Thanksgiving break - SCHOOL CLOSED

Thursday, December 5: Dance winter showcase - RUHS auditorium, 7:00pm

Tuesday, December 10: Boba with the Principal - Ni Hao Tea: 4726 E. Broadway Blvd, 3:30pm

Wednesday, December 11: RUHS choir & orchestra concert - RUHS auditorium, 6:30pm

Thursday, December 12: Giant Steps jazz concert - RHUS auditorium, 6:00pm

Tuesday, December 17: UHS Student of the Month breakfast - RUHS auditorium lobby, 8:00am

Tuesday, December 17: Winter band concert - RUHS auditorium, 7:00pm

AP registration deadline approaching

Athletics - cross country going to state!

Athletics - winter sport participation

NAU Goals for Grads survey

RUHS club list

Winter guard/drumline - fees and participation

Athletics - fall sports wrap up

Korean exchange students

Major Road Construction

Parking - Sierra Estates update

Tutoring is here!

UHSFAA - student microgrants

UHSPA - info

Yearbook - info

The deadline to register for AP exams in your MyAP account is next Friday, November 1st.

• Log into MyAP, Look under “Courses & Assignments” for information about each exam

• Click on the yellow “Register” button for each course you plan to take the AP exam

• Be sure to double-check your selections in MyAP prior to November 1!! Selections in this platform are your official AP registration. You will be responsible for paying the $40 deposit/exam for anything ordered even if you didn’t realize you were registered. You will also be responsible for paying the $40 deposit/exam for anything cancelled after this date.

Additionally, below is the bitly link for the AP Registration and Understanding and Agreement form. Families MUST complete this form as a part of the AP registration process whether they are choosing to test or not. It provides info on registration, deadlines, cancellations and fees. Most importantly, we will be using this form to verify the need for the various fee waivers we provide to students. This is also due strictly by November 1 at 8:59pm, thank you in advance for providing this information.

2025 AP Exam Registration Understanding & Agreements Form-UHS

Congratulations to our boys and girl's cross country teams that qualified for the Division 1 State Championship race!! Go get it!

And a huge thank you to all who voted our very own Amelia North as the Arizona Republic's Athlete of the Week. Together we were able to beat the Phoenix teams!

Students who want to participate in winter sports (Boys/Girls - Soccer, Basketball and Wresting) need to fill out an athletic packet and turn into Ms. Bull Calf in the athletics office, basement room in the north gym. Once tryouts start, we will not accept packets. Contact either Ms. Bull Calf or athletic director Mr. LaVetter if you have any questions.

JUNIORS:

Join the UHS Counseling team for our quarterly College-Ready Seminars focusing on how juniors can prepare for applying to college. Each quarter we will focus on a different topic to assist juniors & families in their college planning by breaking down the process and helping you work smarter, not harder! We highly encourage all junior students and families to attend each quarter so they are best prepared for next year.

[Q1] College Admissions Testing – September 24 (rescheduled from 9/10) – Every junior parent/guardian and student was emailed links & more info on 9/30, so check your email if you missed this!

[Q2] Building Your College List – November 19

[Q3] Financing College – February 4

[Q4] Planning & Preparing for the College Application Process – April 15

---All seminars take place on Zoom starting at 6:00 pm. See attachment for more info; we also made zoom adjustments so those links will be updated when we have them set. We look forward to seeing you there!

ALL STUDENTS:

Many colleges and university representatives visit UHS each year, primarily in the fall semester, to share admissions and application information. Unless noted otherwise, all grades are welcome to attend these visits. While we try to schedule visits when class is not in session, sometimes they do fall during class time. When you sign up for a visit, you will receive an email confirmation that can be used as your pass to leave class to attend the visit; however, you have to clear it with your teacher prior to missing any class for a visit! Students can review the current schedule and sign up for visits here: CCCC (tusd1.org) (go to the College & Career section, then look at the info under College Visits) Next week: Northern Arizona University on Tuesday at 8:10 am

Online Health and PE classes have now started. If you would like to be enrolled, please email Mr. Encinas. To be eligible for online Health, you must have taken or be currently enrolled in AP Macro/Microeconomics, or you must have already taken Honors Economics. Please contact Mr. Encinas with any questions.

Peer tutors! If you want to be a volunteer peer tutor, look for the QR code around the U-building to sign up, or email Ms. Brownstone. If you are interested in receiving free peer tutoring, look for the list of tutors in the CCCC or ask your counselor!

Study Smart Tutoring strives to prepare students for college, careers, and lifelong success. Through the Achievement Tutoring program, they can support students with math and reading schoolwork. They aim to provide tools so each student will improve and maintain their learning skills. This FREE tutoring service is available to TUSD students. Please complete this form Results Learning Tutoring Registration Form-Tucson (google.com) to reserve a seat for your student in this enrichment program. The form will ask for the student’s “state student ID number,” but you can leave this section blank as long as the tutoring is for a student in TUSD. Contact the TUSD Family Resource Centers if you have any questions - Family Resource Centers (tusd1.org)

We want to hear from you! Your voice and input are critical as we consider how school can and should best prepares students for success in life after high school. We are working with NAU's Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy to collect feedback about skills, goals, and outcomes for Arizona's high school graduates.

The survey is anonymous. A respondent may provide their email address if interested in participating in an optional focus group (date and time TBD based on responses). The questions ask for respondent opinions about goals for AZ graduates and the importance of a list of skills in preparing for post-graduate success. No questions are related to anything on the list found in ARS 15-117.

Please take a few minutes to complete this Goals for Arizona Graduates survey by Nov. 4, 2024. Your time and responses are greatly appreciated.

Here is the latest 24-25 RUHS club list. Find a club that fits you and join the community!

Rosters are being made for winter colorguard and winter drumline! There will be a change for all band/colorguard students moving forward, starting with this winter's participants in the extracurricular competition component of each organization: all students will have the participation fee option added to their as soon as rosters are received in the finance office. All students wishing to participate in the extracurricular competition component of their team must have their fee paid BEFORE rehearsing or performing. This will go into effect also for the coming school year with marching band participation/competition. We are re-vamping the method of loading fees into InTouch for an easier experience, and we will be in constant communication when they are ready to be accessed. Thank you for your support as we work to ensure all fees are collected and thus as much financial support as possible is granted to our amazing programming.

Get your season pass for $30 in the finance office. This ticket allows you to get into all home game event excepting post-season competition/play. All proceeds generated from purchasing this pass stay at the school.

If you wish to participate in a winter or spring sport you can get your athletic packets done NOW. This will save time during the rush to get these done right before a season starts. Stop by Ms. Bull Calf's desk in the UHS admin office to pick up and drop off packets, or if you have questions.

See below for direct links to each sport offered for the Fall season at Rincon/University High School.

Cross country - boys VAR

Cross country - boys JV

Cross country - girls VAR

Cross country - girl JV

Football - VAR

Football - FR/SO

Golf - boys

Golf - girls

Swim and dive - boys VAR

Swim and dive - girls VAR

Volleyball - girls VAR

Volleyball - girls JV

Volleyball - girls FR/SO

Girls’ Soccer, pre-season practices

Pre-season for girl's soccer begins this week on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school on the soccer fields. You must be cleared with the Athletics office before you can participate. Please bring appropriate equipment and protective gear. See Coach Ecelbarger in room 214 or the flyers around campus for more info!

The Asian Pacific American & Refugee Student Services department is hosting exchange students from South Korea for the second year running, and University High School has been invited to participate this year. We will be hosting 10 students for 3 weeks from January 17, 2025 to February 8, 2025, and we are looking for 10 host families to house these students. The department has prepared some detailed information as well as a registration document if you are interested. Please contact Mr. Ranjel directly if you are interested in this amazing opportunity, I am personally very excited to be host to the wonderful students.

The City of Tucson Transportation and Mobility Department has created a road construction plan that aims to permanently change the 5th/6th Street Corridor by reducing the four lanes currently existing down to two lanes, with construction beginning soon. The project is called a “road diet” project as it will reduce the lanes of east/west vehicle travel, by adding/maintaining a center lane for turning and pedestrian bike lanes. This construction will impact travel to and from University High School and is anticipated to affect student drop-off/pick-up in the area.

At this time, the Department of Transportation and Mobility has projected that the work will begin in mid-September 2024, beginning with a water line installation along 5th Street from Wilmot Road to Country Club Road. The waterline work is anticipated to take about 18 months to complete and will reduce travel down to two lanes. The roadway reconstruction along this segment of 5th Street is not expected to begin until the waterline work is complete.

For more details, visit the 5th/6th Street Corridor Project.

Park Tucson has received complaints throughout the semester from neighbors in the Sierra Estates neighborhood (just south of Rincon/University High School) about unsafe student parking on residential streets. Vehicles are reported parked too close to fire hydrants, stop signs, and driveways.

Park Tucson parking agents will be visiting this neighborhood to address these parking violations and to potentially issue citations. These citations can get costly very quickly. We know parking on and around our campus is challenging for multiple reasons, but regardless of where you park we implore you to follow all traffic regulations. Our neighborhoods around campus really don't mind if students park there (they live by a robust, full-sized high school!), but they are completely within their rights to call law enforcement or complain when cars are parked or driven illegally or recklessly.

UHS offers tutoring in a variety of subjects, and the schedule has now been finalized. Please see the UHS tutoring schedule on Canva for the full listing of available and regular tutoring sessions. You may also speak with any of your teachers at any time to arrange a time to work with them directly if they are not included on this list. You may go to any teacher of any subject for tutoring or help, it doesn't have to be your teacher! You can also follow the QR code below to see the flyer.

The UHS Foundation and Alumni Association (UHSFAA) seeks to support UHS students, particularly those who are first generation college bound and who are focused on building opportunities for themselves. Through this, the UHSFAA student microgrant is offered for application. Microgrants are awarded to students in need of anything that furthers their educational development. Grants of up to $500 per student per year are available at the discretion of the UHSFAA board of directors and UHS principal, and are based on available funds. Microgrant awards are through application, and can be given for many different kinds of needs: classroom needs including costs associated with internet access, textbooks or personal academic supplies, summer programs, professional education and internship needs, such as travel and public transportation costs, lunch costs, supplies or clothing needs, immunizations, and more. Requests for funding should be for proposals that can be 100% covered by the grant; requests to partially fund larger projects will not be considered. Please provide at least ten days lead time before the funds are needed so the UHSFAA can have adequate time to consider your application.

We are starting to settle into our roles with UHSPA. If you are not signed up to receive our newsletters, click the "Suscribe" link at the bottom of this update :)

Future meetings will be on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Please park in the north parking lot off 5th street. Come up the stairs and the door will be unlocked. Turn left inside the doors. The library will be on the left.

• We still have a need for Junior and Senior parents to serve as general members on our board. This is a low time commitment. You will get a couple of emails a month on things like grant requests and will need to review and vote.

Our UHS families have been amazingly supportive of our classroom supply drive. The Wishlist will stay open to reflect current classroom requests. Teachers/ staff please send needed supply requests to uhspa@uhs-pa.org. Anyone shopping on Amazon and wanting to send an item of appreciation to the school can check out our Amazon Wishlist to support our most recent classroom needs.

** Sign Up for Remind- text [student grad year code] to 81010 -- ([student grad year code]: @uhspa2025, @uhspa2026, @uhspa2027, or @uhspa2028) ** Subscribe for communications from UHSPA ** Email the UHS Parent Association **

Week 11

Now that yearbook is building their portrait pages, we have identified some students whose registration identified them as NOT allowed in the yearbook. We are sending home forms (it will be delivered in first period class) with instructions on how to update this status if this was an error. Please ask your student if they received one of these forms.

Yearbook Purchasing

The yearbook is discounted to our cost ($65) for a limited time. To make sure to get the lowest price, please purchase your yearbook soon. Visit Lifetouch website and our school code is 15096125.

Seniors

We have almost all our seniors photographed now! THANK YOU!!! If you have not scheduled your senior photo for yearbook, last chance from Silhouette:

Your deadline will be here before you know it!

Please give us a call, text or email ASAP to book your free Senior Yearbook Portrait Session.

Many of our schools allow any backdrop and pose for your yearbook image if you choose to upgrade.
Click here to view our session types

Need a full senior session? We have those too! Check out the session information below.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Give us a call or text 520-886-1710

Our office hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00-5:00.
For photography, we follow the sun!