This Week:
This is a normal week of learning at UCA. You can find our daily schedule here.
Senior Retreat | Friday, August 25
Seniors will receive information today regarding the Senior Retreat happening this Friday! If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Sons at asons@weareuca.org.
Athletics | Below are important dates regarding athletics at UCA. Please note that all players must have physicals turned in before they can play in a sport. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Purnell at jpurnell@weareuca.org.
Varsity Soccer - First game on Monday, 8/21/23
Mandatory Parents Meeting - Tuesday, 8/22/23 at 6:00 P.M.
Baseball - Meeting Wednesday morning at 8:00 A.M.
Esports - Meeting Wednesday after school at 3:30 P.M.
Mandatory Parents Meeting - Thursday at 6:00 P.M.
Varsity Volleyball - First game on Friday
This week, new families to UCA will receive a code to create a parent Schoology account. This will give you access to your student’s online Learning Management System (LMS).
Reminders:
If you were unable to attend Parent Orientation, please pick up your folder of information from the main office as soon as possible. This folder includes our Community Handbook, forms to sign & return, and other essential documents.
Parent forms to sign & return are due in the main office by Friday, September 1.
Student Absences | It has been brought to our attention that there was a typo in the Community Handbook regarding notification of student absence. The Community Handbook instructs that, “Parents must contact the main office by calling (708) 980-1045 by 8:15 AM to inform UCA of their student’s absence.” Families should actually call this number to report student absence: (708) 980-1046.
Parking Lot | Please abide by the enter/exit locations at 16341 S. Park Ave. We ask all drivers to: (1) enter at the north entrance, (2) exit the south entrance, and (3) keep speed to 10 mph or less. You can refer to this video, created by UCA teachers & students, to see the do’s and don’ts of the UCA parking lot.
Looking Ahead:
Wednesday, August 30, 6:30p @ Calvin Christian | Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Advocacy Workshop
As you may know, the Invest in Kids (IIK) scholarship program, which ensures access for every child (K-12) to the school of their choice, has a sunset clause of Dec. 31st. If this program is not extended, students will lose out on state funding for school choice and donors will no longer have this tax credit program, currently offering a 75% tax credit. I'm reaching out to ask your help in advocating for an extension to keep the IIK program in place.
Bright Promise serves as our scholarship granting organization (SGO) and they're working alongside Empower Illinois and other SGOs to extend the program. Bright Promise and Empower IL were in Springfield earlier this year with administrators and recipient families to advocate for the program's extension. IIK funds have been left out of the state's budget, so we need legislators to act during the fall veto session to extend the IIK Act Tax Credit Scholarship Program.
To help encourage our legislators, we need to ACT NOW! You can help by attending this advocacy event at Calvin Christian School.
Thursday, August 31, 3:45 - 6:45 P.M. | UCA Car Wash
One of UCA's top fundraisers is our annual Car Wash! Money goes towards both student government activities and junior/senior prom. This year, our car wash is Thursday, August 31, from 3:45 until 6:45. We could really use donations of towels and soap. Please bring to the main office any supplies! And of course, please encourage people to come and get their car washed!
SAVE THE DATE | Curriculum Night, September 7, 2023
School Picture Day | September 23, 2023
School Picture Day will happy on September 23! Seniors will also take their senior class photos on this day.
policy highlight:
Each week of the first month of school, the Parent Newsletter will highlight a policy from the Community Handbook.
Students are expected to be in their assigned classroom at the beginning of each school day and at the beginning of each class period throughout the day. Being consistently tardy is a hindrance to academic progress and the learning environment of other students.
If a student arrives to class after a teacher has taken attendance, they will be marked tardy. Students arriving to class after half of the class period has expired will be considered absent for that period.
Once students reach a certain number of tardies, there will be disciplinary consequences. Please refer to the Student Conduct portion of the Community Handbook to read the consequences for receiving tardies.