UNES REDHAWK REVIEW

While I know that many may feel upset to know that Mrs. Yessi Santana is no longer with us at Upper Nyack, I'm pleased to share that Rockland BOCES was able to find us a new Family Resource Coordinator in record time!

Lizzette Ruiz, our new FRC, started Monday, February 26.

Lizzette is bilingual in English and Spanish. Before serving as the FRC Coordinator at Upper Nyack Elementary School, she served in several roles committed to supporting children and families. She worked as a Family Worker at Head Start, contributed as a Financial Literacy Community Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension, and served as a Social/Emotional Coach for a nonprofit in New York City, among other roles. In the first weeks, she'll be jumping in where Yessi left off and will be getting to know our systems, staff and families. Please welcome her warmly to our school community.

You can contact Ms. Ruiz (not to be confused with Asst. Supt. Dr. Lizzette Ruiz Giovanizzi) at lruiz@nyackschools.org.

CLICK HERE for her letter of introduction.

Mr. Paul Forbes will be coming to UNES on Monday, March 11! He will be meeting with the building equity team, presenting at a staff meeting, and then will hold a community conversation for parents. I am grateful for the district and the UNES PTA for their support in making this happen.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS - MARCH 11 6:30-8:00PM (UNES ALL PURPOSE ROOM).

All UNES parents are invited!

Paul Forbes is the Founder of Leading with Hearts and Minds, serves as the Chief of the Defining US Network, is the Former Executive Director within the Office of Equity and Access for the New York City Department of Education. A native New Yorker who was born, raised, and still lives in Brooklyn, he has dedicated his professional life to working with students and families from historically underrepresented neighborhoods and communities.

In his role as Executive Director for Educational Equity, Anti-Bias and Diversity, Paul provided oversight and support for the effective implementation and continuous development of the Implicit Bias/CRE initiative. He also helped develop a strategic vision to guide the implementation of training and professional development to schools, after-school providers, districts and Borough Support Offices on equity topics within education that includes implicit bias, culturally responsive education and discussions around systemic and structural racism.

If you're interested to find out more about Mr. Forbes - CLICK HERE

Thanks to our partners in the IDEA group and the Nyack Public library, we have a wonderful LIST OF BOOKS that can support our students' learning around Black History. Also, there was a great turnout to the IDEA/Nyack Library Books for Black History Month event on Saturday, February 24. See some photos below.

While I used to stand outside each morning, with the creation of our morning program and the presence of 300 kids in the cafeteria in the morning, I spend most of my time there. However, in standing outside last week, I noticed a few things:

• Please don't exit your car and outfit / hug your child in the car drop off line. Drop off is supposed to be quick and for us to be efficient with morning entry, we really need parents to stay in their cars on the line.
• Also, if everyone waits until the first spot for the kids to get out, this slows the process leading to kids arriving late. We will be positioning cones outside with signs - Drop off #1, Drop off #2 and so on up to Drop off #4. When you reach those cones, please unload. This way we can clear 4 cars at once and get everyone into school on time.
• Finally, I noted some people doing three point turns in the driveway and some even doing U-turns on Broadway. Please be reminded of our MORNING DROP OFF PLAN - CLICK HERE and please approach the school from Birchwood.

On Monday, March 18, from 6:00-7:30, UNES will be having its first ever Family STREAM Night! (PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT THIS IS RESCHEDULED FROM MARCH 11).

All students in grades K-5, along with their families, are welcome to attend. There will be various hands-on activities for the whole family to participate in. Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will also be using this event as an opportunity to showcase their own STREAM projects.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FLYER

Dr. Elcie Douce, the department chair for world languages, will be visiting 5th grade classes on Tuesday, March 5 from 11:30-12:30 to help our fifth graders to understand the foreign language selection for next year.

March is Women's History Month and International Women's History Day is March 8, 2024.

In celebration of women, we are very excited to offer 2 career day IN PERSON events to highlight women and their careers. We had a number of women from the community agree to come in to speak to our kids about their careers and we're deeply grateful. We have split this into 2 days to allow for presentations to be geared to the ages visiting that day. While this event is not open to the public (besides the presenters), it would be great to speak to your children about their experience.

The dates are March 6 (Grades 3-5) and March 13 (Grades K-2) from 9:40-11:15.

Thank you to Andrea Perez and Val Mondesir for spearheading this effort!

Thanks to Maire Warzecha, our students will once again have the opportunity to participate in the Rockland Boulders Reading Challenge, Read for the New York Boulders. The New York Boulders Reading Challenge will run for a three week period between March 4 and March 24, 2024.

Only at home, out-of-school reading counts. This can include books from school curriculum or self-chosen books, digital or print. Minutes may include time that the parent or guardian reads aloud to the student. Info will be coming home with your children soon!

Our UNES Talent Show has been rescheduled to THURSDAY, March 14.

THE FIFTH GRADE COMMITTEE IS HOSTING A BAKE SALE AT THE EVENT. PLEASE SIGN UP HERE TO BRING BAKED GOODS! Please contact Lisa Gould with questions.

Important to note, in order to participate in the Upper Nyack Talent Show, students are required to:

• attend the Mandatory Tech Rehearsal on Tuesday, MARCH 12 3:30 - 5:30PM.

• perform a Full Dress Rehearsal on Thursday, March 14 during school hours. Students in the relevant grades will be invited to attend as audience members.

The in school schedule of rehearsals on March 14 are as follows:

Grades K-2 - 10:15-11:15am

Grades 3-5 - 2-3pm

• Students must arrive by 5:30PM on THURSDAY, MARCH 14 for a 6PM UNES Talent Show 2023!

If you have any questions, please email Denise Charles at uppernyacktalentshow@gmail.com

Every year on March 21, people all around the world come together to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day by wearing brightly colored, mismatched socks. March 21 is symbolic because people with Down syndrome have 3 copies of their 21st chromosome.

AT UNES, WE'RE ASKING OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY TO WEAR CRAZY, BRIGHTLY COLORED, MISMATCHED SOCKS ON MARCH 21.

For World Down Syndrome Day 2024, they are calling for people around the world to End The Stereotypes. For people with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities, stereotypes can stop them from being treated like other people. They get treated like children, they are underestimated and they are excluded. Sometimes they are treated very badly or even abused.

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO ON ENDING THE STEREOTYPES.

A team of colleagues and I will again be participating the Nyack Penguin Plunge on Sunday, March 3 from 12-2pm. Before she passed, our beloved Rona Edwards was on the list of children to be supported by this year's plunge. We don't want to detract from the children being sponsored this year, but we will silently be doing this year's plunge in loving memory of our Rona. We are asking for the school community to consider making a donation to support the children that are facing life and death struggles in the community IN THIS LINK. We are also inviting the community to join us on that day, and if you are interested to see it in action, we'd love to have you root us on. CLICK HERE for more information and/or to make a donation.

Additionally, please see the information below from Rona's parents:

We want to invite you all to join us for the first Rona Edwards Memorial Blood Drive, co-hosted with the New York Blood Center (NYBC) and the Nyack Library. The event will be at the Nyack Library on Saturday, March 9th, from 11am to 5pm. The attached flyer has a link you can click to sign up for an appointment. We will accept walk-ins for any untaken slots on that day. If you schedule a time and later find you can't make it, please cancel your appointment by following the instructions in the confirmation you receive so we know it is available.

- Lindsey Wahlstrom-Edwards and Samtubia Edwards (Rona's parents)

The 5th Grade Showcase, "A Universe of Talents," will be held on Wed. March 27 from 6:00-8:00pm in the Multi-Purpose Room. Jody Ferber ( jody.redhage@gmail.com) is the lead organizer on this event. On Monday, March 25 and Tuesday, March 26, there will be rehearsals in the cafeteria on the stage to prepare for the show. Please mark your calendars and CLICK HERE for the signup form that was also sent home in red folders.

PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS BELOW FOR THE GRADE LEVEL CURRICULUM UPDATES FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY

• Kindergarten

• Grade 1

• Grade 2

• Grade 3

• Grade 4

• Grade 5

• Social Communications Class

• SPECIAL AREAS (MUSIC, ART, PE, LIBRARY, STREAM)

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DATES FOR STATE TESTING FOR UNES

(EACH BUILDING IS ADMINISTERING ON DIFFERENT DATES)

CLICK HERE FOR THE TESTING CALENDAR

ELA EXAM

UNES - April 15 & 16

MATH EXAM

UNES - May 2&3

SCIENCE EXAM

Grade 5 (Elementary) - May 14

Please mark your calendars for these upcoming meetings of our PTA:

THE PTA ZOOM LINK CAN BE ACCESSED AT THIS WEBSITE - CLICK HERE

March 4 - ZOOM MEETING

(March 11 will be the Paul Forbes Community Conversation)

Monday, April 8

Monday, May, 13

Monday, June 10

LOTS OF GREAT EVENTS COMING UP!!

• Tuesday, March 5 - Dr. Douce (World Language Chair) comes to 5th grade to discuss language selection for next year.
• Wednesday, March 6 and March 13 - Women's History Career Day Exhibition
• Thursday, March 14 - UNES TALENT SHOW
• Friday, March 15 - Superintendent's Conference Day - NO SCHOOL
• Monday, March 11 - UNES Family STREAM NIGHT 6:00-7:30pm
• Thursday, March 21 - ROCK YOUR SOCKS for World Down Syndrome Day
• Friday, March 22 - UNES FAMILY BINGO NIGHT
• Wednesday, March 27 - 5th Grade Talent Showcase 6:00-8:00pm

There are archives of my community newsletter on the UNES WEBSITE - CLICK HERE, as well as on the UNESPTA Website . If you can't find the old newsletters and are looking for info - you can find that info in these two places.

Building bridges for today's students to cross into tomorrow's world with equity, innovation and optimism.

Email: cdreves@nyackschools.org
Website: https://un.nyackschools.org/
Location: 336 North Broadway, Upper Nyack, NY, USA
Phone: 845-353-7260
Twitter: @NyackPrincipal