Welcome and Welcome Back!

Dear Chieftain Families,

Welcome to the 2016-17 School Year.  To our incoming sophomore families, welcome to Utica High, the home of the Chieftains.  Summer is flying by and starting on Monday, Fall Sports begin, and a month later, on September 6, the 2016-17 year begins!  Student back-to-school registration packets were sent out on Thursday, August 4 so you should be receiving them tomorrow or Monday! These are slightly different for each grade level.   

As the 2016-17 year is just around the corner, I wanted to make sure that you had updated information on registration, on the District Calendar and a few other pieces.  We still have a lot of work to do before the school year starts.  We are finishing up schedules as we add final pieces to our staffing.  We are also taking in new enrollees and are excited that we continue to grow at Utica High.  Though you may have accessibility to your schedule via the PowerSchool app, that schedule will not be finalized and may be completely inaccurate until it is received on your registration day. 

We begin the 2016-17 School Year with a new Vision and Mission for Utica High School.  This process engaged parents, teachers and students in the 2015-16 school year, and resulted in a vision and mission for Utica High that recognizes the evolving nature of education and the growth of Utica High.  The vision and mission are below:

Utica High School Vision Statement: Empowering students to reach their full potential as members of a global community.

Utica High School Mission Statement: 
The mission of Utica High School is to develop successful learners with the support of our community of educators, students, and parents. Our diverse student body will have an equitable, rigorous, and comprehensive education in a safe and supportive environment that promotes self-discipline, motivation, and excellence in learning. We aim to cultivate individual learners with active and creative minds, and a sense of understanding and compassion for others.

This vision and mission are the lifeblood of our school ecosystem.  They are the guiding principles upon which our school operates.  We believe that this not only recognizes the great work that has been done at Utica High School for over 100 years, but the great work ahead of us! The mission is inclusive, it is demanding, and it recognizes the evolution of education over the past 20 years since Utica’s mission was last updated.  Learning is a partnership, learning is academic and social-emotional, learning is shared and individual, and learning relies first and foremost on the student and their capacity to engage.  Our community has developed a vision and mission that it can be proud of and that will carry us into our next 100 years. 

As we embrace change in education, we have also embraced changes in communication and information. We do a lot of work online! Later this month we will unveil our new Webpage.  It will go live at our existing URL: www.uticahigh.org. Please forgive the dust on the site now.  We have not updated the site in sometime, but by late August our new website will be integrated into our School Messenger system. Updates that are emailed out will automatically update onto the website making information exchange seamless! We will be far more nimble with information.  We will still use our social media outlets and Email communication, so please bookmark the following pages:

Webpage: www.uticahigh.org
Blogger: http://uticaprincipal.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uticaprincipal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uticahighschool
UHS Athletic Boosters: http:// www.uticachiefs.com

You can also find a variety of UHS sports pages, the Utica Tribe, the Arrow (Newspaper) and other Utica High pages on Twitter and Facebook as well!  I often share stories and pictures from those other pages during the year.

There are a few other sites that are worth navigating to and familiarizing yourself with prior to the start of school.  Most parents are very familiar with PowerSchool at this point, but it will look a little different as we start the 2016-17 school year.  The look should not change its functionality.  In addition, our teachers and students utilize Office365 suite of software which gives students access to the office tools (Word, Excel, OneNote) both at school, online, and on their personal computers and mobile devices.  Finally, Utica Community Schools has made the Naviance College and Career Readiness software available to all families.  Aside from College Match, Scholarship Match and a variety of tools to explore college opportunities prior to and during students Junior and Senior years, it also provides incredible career readiness resources.  These links can be found below:

Naviance: http://connection.naviance.com/uticahs
Office365: http://learnoffice365.uticak12.org/ and http://office.com/getoffice365
PowerSchool: http://uticak12.org/parentportalinfo/

There is a lot of information that is important to you and your students as they navigate their first or last year at Utica High School.  Much of that can be found in the Senior High Student Handbook which is available at http://www.uticak12.org/uticawebsite/handbook/highschoolhandbook2.pdf or on the Utica Community Schools website. 

Finally, and this is detailed in the packet that will be mailed home, student registration will occur on Tuesday, August 23 – Thursday, August 25 from 8 – 11am in the North Auxiliary gym. Students and parents attending should enter through Door 11 outside of the North Aux Gym.   The dates are as follows:

Seniors: Tuesday, August 23
Juniors: Wednesday, August 24
Sophomores: Thursday, August 25 

All students will have their picture taken at registration.  You do not need to order pictures.  The picture is used for Student IDs, so even seniors will take their photo.  In addition, students will have the opportunity to purchase Homecoming Tickets (Saturday, October 8^th), their Warrior Yearbook and Arrow Newspapers, and athletic passes.  Students who are Juniors or Seniors ONLY may have the opportunity to purchase a parking pass.  Though exceptions have been made in the past for Sophomores to purchase parking passes, no such exceptions will be made.  Parking passes will be $35 via PaySchool or $40 in person.

That’s a lot of information, and there will be more coming!  As it is early August, we wanted to give you a chance to get ahead of the curve! Tryouts for sports begin in earnest next week, and our first games are a few weeks away!  It is an exciting time of year, and we look forward to the kids being back at the end of the month!  The Registration Packets and Parking Application (11 and 12 only) are are in the Email sent (8/5 at 3pm)!

Tom Lietz
Principal