UHS Robotics Team Flaming Phoenix Won the Delaware State Championship!

February 6, 2017, 7:42 am

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This weekend the UHS robotics team Flaming Phoenix won the Delaware State Championship and will be moving on to the super-regionals! Months of hard work by each student and parent finally paid off. Their next stop will be to the 13-state Super-Regional tournament in Scranton in March to earn a spot in the World Championship in St. Louis at the end of April! Special thanks to Dr. Warner and Mr. Hwa for guiding the team to where they are.

To prepare themselves for competition, team members meet between 10-20 hours every week to design, build, test, and refine their robot, while still carrying a full course-load at Unionville.  Flaming Phoenix’s devotion to engineering excellence is quite exemplary!

Team members include -

Ansh Abbaraju, 8th Grade
Christy Ammon, Junior
Matthew Caputo, Junior
Matthew Farr, 8th Grade
Rachel Folmar, Freshman
Kaelyn Gaza, Junior
Austin Hwa, Junior
Brandon Tsai, 7th Grade
Justin Warner, Sophomore

Also, in addition to a spot in the Super-Regional, we won 3 awards on Saturday: Captain of the Winning Alliance, Connect Award, and Inspire Award 3^rd Place.

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UHS Student Promotes Public Speaking to Philadelphia Schools

February 8, 2017, 4:37 am

≫ Next: UHS Art Students to be Honored at the Tri-County Art Show

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David DeMarco (class of 2017) was recently asked to present to a group of over one hundred middle school students at Ad Prima Charter School in Philadelphia about the benefits of public speaking. In addition, he presented about how students can use speech and debate to help start a dialogue about social justice issues. David is currently ranked #1 in the Philadelphia/Valley Forge Area through the National Speech and Debate Association. 

Great job David!!!

UHS Art Students to be Honored at the Tri-County Art Show

February 8, 2017, 6:11 am

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Lyndsay Hastings - Tightrope

Dara Jin's - Hands

Irene Liu's - Snail

Congratulations to the following Unionville High School Art students who will be honored at ourfirst invitational, Tri-County Art Show.The Tri-County high school student exhibition  is a quota-limited show at Montgomery County Community College's West Campus at North Hall Art Gallery in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. 

The Unionville community is invited to join us at the reception on Feb.15thfrom 5-7 pm and welcome everyone who would like to attend!  Five Oil Paintings by Ms.Benson's seniors of #artstudio282 include work by Lyndsay Hastings, Dara Jin, Irene Liu, Lily Neff-Peterson, and Isabella Davulco. Three stoneware pottery pieces will be shown by Mrs. Dilworth's students Jessica Homitz ,Lauren Hughes, and Rayna Miller of #artstudio288.  

Exhibition is open to the public until March 24.

The awards ceremony will start at 6pm.

UCF Education Foundation Shoe Re-Use Program

February 10, 2017, 9:02 am

≫ Next: Congratulations to Four of our UHS Band Students

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Please donate to the UCF Education Foundation Shoe Re-Use Program

The Green Initiatives Committee of the U-CF Education Foundation, with the support of the district, is launching a district-wide program to promote sustainability by collecting your used sneakers and fitness shoes. This program touches many facets of sustainability.  It keeps shoes out of the landfill and promotes re-use, as well as develops an environmentally and economically sustainable industry for developing villages.

1. Collected shoes from our district will be shipped to Runners Village, Ghana. There they are sold, and the proceeds go to setting up tree farms (fruit trees, trees used for buildings, etc.) in the village. The locals are trained to maintain them, creating a perpetual source of income.

2. The entire program is funded by the proceeds from the sale of the shoes.
 

3. The unusable ones (about 20%) go to Nike Grind, where they are ground up and used on playgrounds and other purposes.

4. The MORE Foundation, who executes this program, expects to take in about 300K pairs of shoes this year, helping 10 villages.

5. There is a box in either the gym or main lobby of every school in the district. Please drop off your old sneakers - any size, any condition.This is an ongoing program, and the collection box will remain in the lobby throughout the year.

For more information go towww.morefoundationgroup.org or see flyer.

Congratulations to Four of our UHS Band Students

February 13, 2017, 4:31 am

≫ Next: UHS students pitch in for project that aids developing nations

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The Pennsylvania Music Educator's Association held the District 12 High School Band Concert at Rustin High School on February 11th.  PMEA District 12 consists of Delaware, Chester, and Philadelphia counties.

Megan Atkinson (French Horn), Michael Dirnberger (Clarinet), Casey Jennings (French Horn), and Isaac Lacombe (Trumpet) represented Unionville High School at the festival.  Michael and Casey are moving on to Region 6 Band in March.

Congratulations to all four Unionville High School students.

UHS students pitch in for project that aids developing nations

February 13, 2017, 12:35 pm

≫ Next: February Madness!!! Unionville Faculty Battles Kennett Faculty for the Basketball Title - Benefitting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

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Max Baines, Cade Chichton, Evan Surian, Sam Staropoli, Tyler Cameron, Robert Schofield and Tate Shughart

UHS Tech students came to the rescue to help Project C.U.R.E. send much needed medical resources to Tunisia.

Read more about the effort here

February Madness!!! Unionville Faculty Battles Kennett Faculty for the Basketball Title - Benefitting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

February 15, 2017, 10:36 am

≫ Next: THANK YOU! A note from the UCF Curriculum Department

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THANK YOU! A note from the UCF Curriculum Department

February 17, 2017, 10:24 am

≫ Next: Director of Student Activities - Community Input

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Dear Parents,

We deeply appreciate the time taken by so many of you who provided feedback during this year’s curriculum review. The following represents some of the ways that parents have given us very valuable feedback.

• We had over 100 parents participate in the Gifted Services parent focus groups. The input provided us with key insights to help us improve services for students - not only for those identified as being gifted, but for all students as well.

• Over 80 parents provided feedback in our annual Year 1 Curriculum Council survey. The focus of this survey was English Language Arts, Math, and World Language. This feedback will be shared, along with the feedback from the members of the Curriculum Council, with the teachers and administrators on the specific curriculum committees.

• We also had 173 parents respond to our Kindergarten-2nd grade survey. This survey focused on our K-2 program and was sent to all 2nd-5th grade families. The results of this survey have been shared with the committee and has helped inform their discussions a variety of issues related to our youngest learners.

We greatly value the voice of all stakeholders as we discuss and plan possible improvements to our program. We thank all participants for taking the time to help inform us of your perspective on what is working and what needs to be improved. Your partnership and support is critical as we continually drive to improve this excellent school district and empower our students for success in life.

Learn More...

• Working with the Curriculum Council and the School Board, we were able to get so many new and exciting programs launched this year.  Take a look at the Year 2 Curriculum Review Update - 2-13-17 to learn more about these programs.
• The Curriculum Department website provides documentation on all K-12 curriculum, Curriculum and Educational Technology Board Documents and an overview of the "Curriculum Cycle" process

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Director of Student Activities - Community Input

February 19, 2017, 10:28 am

≫ Next: Patton Middle School Presents The Lion King

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UCF Parents and Guardians,

The District is creating a new Administrative role focused on Student Activities.  As a Community, we recognize how participation in Student Activities contributes to the development of many vital (Wellness) traits like adaptability, resilience and optimism, which further empower students to unlock their greater potential for success in life.

We are inviting parents and guardians to join us for focus group sessions on this new role.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

The Board has asked the Administration to engage stakeholders in the development of a job description for this new position.  Over the next month surveys and focus groups will be used to collect feedback from stakeholders, leading to the development of a job description and employment search.

It is envisioned that this new position will oversee student activities, athletics and clubs across the District.  Our growing focus on Wellness, combined with our demonstrated record of excellence in Academics, better enables us to deliver on our mission “to empower students to succeed in life and contribute to society.”  As we refine the organizational structure to integrate activities, athletics and clubs, we will view these areas through the critical lens of Student Well-Being.

We appreciate the outstanding commitment and exemplary performance that Joe Derickson has brought to our current Athletic Director position and structure.  As we move forward with the new focus and organization structure, we know we are building on a fine foundation that Joe has helped develop.

Focus groups and surveys will be conducted with representatives from teams, clubs and student activities within our schools, and also with activity organizers from our greater Community.  After reviewing Stakeholder input on short and long term goals, a job description and the related organizational structure information will be presented to the Board for review (this spring).  Our  goal is to have the Administrative position approved by May and the candidate selected and starting employment by July.

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INVITATION and RSVP

We want to hear from you.  Please attend one of three sessions being held for parents and guardians.  These sessions will provide us with valuable information as we set the direction for this new role.
The sessions will be held over the next 3 weeks.  Please pick the session that is most convenient for you.  All sessions are from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM in the high school library.

1. Tuesday, February 21st
2. Tuesday, February 28th
3. Thursday, March 9th

Please RSVP to communications@ucfsd.net

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

DRAFT job description
Starter questions for discussion

Patton Middle School Presents The Lion King

February 24, 2017, 4:31 am

≫ Next: Please join us for our first ever parent webinar - March 6th at 6:30 PM.

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Please join us for our first ever parent webinar - March 6th at 6:30 PM.

February 24, 2017, 5:28 am

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Please join us for our first ever parent webinar on Monday March 6th at 6:30 PM.

The purpose of the parent webinars will be to focus on a technology topic as well as provide an arena for parents to ask questions about the different technology used at Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.

The topic for March’s parent webinar will focus on how to create a parent account in both PowerSchool and Canvas. PowerSchool, our student information system, can be used to check student attendance, grades, schedule information and much more. Canvas, our learning management system, can be used to monitor student progress in class, monitor upcoming assignments and homework and view teacher announcements and syllabus information.

UCFSD will plan on having a webinar once a month with different topics each month.

 

Please join us in this effort to expand communication and learning throughout the district and to you parents!

Please RSVP to Jon Mall - jmall@ucfsd.net

How to Raise an Adult Video

February 24, 2017, 4:57 pm

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≪ Previous: Please join us for our first ever parent webinar - March 6th at 6:30 PM.

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Julie Lythcott-Haims gave an inspirational talk to the roughly 500 attendees who came out to listen to her message.  She spoke from the heart as a parent of two students in the Palo Alto school system and as former dean of students for Stanford.

Julie connected with the audience who gave her a standing ovation.  Her message was one of wellness and perspective - urging parents to balance academics with wellness.  

There were two presentations.  One in the afternoon for all UHS students and one in the evening for adults.  Links to the videos of those present are provided below.

Student Talk (scroll to minute 36 to listen to her 5 take-a-ways for students)

Parent Talk

Lego Robotics Award!

February 27, 2017, 6:53 am

≫ Next: The UHS Indoor Color Guard and Drumline were both very active this past weekend.

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Team Aha Moment, a UCFSD lego robotics team was recently awarded the FLL Gracious Professionalism Award at the Champions Tournament held at the University of Pennsylvania. The team had earlier been awarded the FLL Research Award at the Penn Qualifier in Downingtown.

The team is comprised of Patton 6th Grader Matt Yu as well as Pocopson 5th graders Bridget Hoban, Chi Xu, David Perkins, Matt Yu, Janhavi Rotkar, Easha Gundecha, Arjun Suryawanshi, Josiah Hoopman and Nadine Srinivasan.

The UHS Indoor Color Guard and Drumline were both very active this past weekend.

February 27, 2017, 6:57 am

≫ Next: Speech and Debate Team - District Championship Tournament

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The Indoor Color Guard competed at the WGI - Winter Guard International, Mid-Atlantic Regional at South Brunswick HS in NJ. This was the groups first ever WGI competition. In the Scholastic A division, they place in 6th place in prelims, out of 18 groups and made the finals competition later that evening. They remained in 6th place and had a score of 72.24 in the finals competition. More information can be found at WGI.org. Qualifying for finals in their first national level regional was a huge accomplishment for the color guard.

The Indoor Drumline attended their first competition of the season at Ridley HS on Saturday. This was a MAPS (Mid-Atlantic Percussion Society) competition. There were 17 Drumlines in the Scholastic A division. They placed in 2nd place with a score of 76.95. What a great start to their indoor season! For more information go to http://www.mapsdrumlines.org/

Both groups will be attending the WGI national championships in Dayton Ohio in April. 

We are hosting a MAPS Indoor Drumline competition at Unionville HS on March 10th at 4pm. 23 Drumlines will be competing and our color guard will perform in exhibition at this show. 

Great Job!!

Speech and Debate Team - District Championship Tournament

February 27, 2017, 7:05 am

≫ Next: Congratulations to the winners of this year's National German Exam!

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Congratulations to the Speech and Debate team members that competed in the District Championship Tournament. The top two from each event in our district will represent Unionville at the State tournament at Bloomsburg University in March. This year, we had a record number of students qualify. 

Policy Debate-

• David DeMarco/Nick Yang
• Jessica Liu/ Natalie Kelly

 Lincoln Douglas Debate-

• Damian Hunt- 1st place (District 15 Champion for the 3rd year in a row)
• Richard Shin- 2nd place
• Nick Taylor- 1st Alternate

 Public Forum Debate-

• Amit Pampati/Alex Wang- District 15 Champion
• Noelle Lambert/Gaurav Sett- 2nd place
• David Kinane/Jake Ryan- 1st Alternate

 Parliamentary Debate-

• Sweta Prasad/ Arushi Sahay/ Zahra Husain- 2nd place

 Student Congress-

• Andrew Binder- 1st place 
• Dev Singh- 2nd place

 Prose Interpretation- 

• Suchi Jain- 1st place

 Poetry Interpretation-

• Crystal Yao- 1st alternate

 Extemporaneous Speaking-

• Jack Odom- 1st place (District 15 Champion for the 3rd year in a row)
• Ashwin Singh- 2nd place

 Extemporaneous Commentary-

• Adarsh Gadagkar- 2^nd place

 Informative Speaking-

• Sophia Qureshi- 2^nd place

 Persuasive Speaking-

• Anna Li- 2^nd place
• Parik Radhakrishnan- 1^st alternate

 Dramatic Interpretation-

• Andrew Huang- 1^st alternate 

On March 4th, they will be competing in the qualifying tournament for the NCFL National Championship, which will be held in Louisville over Memorial Day Weekend.

In addition, the National Speech and Debate Association just updated their ranking system. This association, which is separate from our state league, is made up of several thousand schools from across the country. Below are the current rankings of several of our varsity members.

David DeMarco- ranked #4 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the state of Pennsylvania; ranked #1 of all Policy debaters in the state of PA; ranked #1 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked #67 out of all of the Policy Debaters in the nation.

Damian Hunt- ranked #15 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; #6 out of all of the Lincoln Douglas Debaters in PA

Jack Odom- ranked #19 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked #55 out of all of the competitors in Extemp in the nation; ranked #2 out of all of the competitors in Extemp in the state

Amit Pampati- ranked #16 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked #10 of all Public Forum debaters in PA

Richard Shin- ranked #13 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; #2 out of all of the Lincoln Douglas Debaters in PA

Ashwin Singh- ranked #24 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked 65 out of all of the competitors in Extemp in the nation; ranked #3 out of all of the competitors in Extemp in the state

Alex Wang- ranked ranked #23 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked #11 of all Public Forum debaters in PA

Nick Yang- ranked #20 of all competitors in both Speech and Debate in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia district; ranked #2 of all Policy debaters in the state of PA

Team of Amit Pampati/Alex Wang- raked #89 of all Public Forum Debaters in the country

In addition, our school currently holds the #1 ranking out of all of the teams in Valley Forge/Philadelphia area, #3 in the state of Pennsylvania and are in the Top #200 in the nation according to the National Speech and Debate Association. 

Please join me in congratulating these students on their incredible achievements.

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Congratulations to the winners of this year's National German Exam!

February 28, 2017, 4:48 am

≫ Next: Congratulations to four UHS Seniors for their recent Award winning #worldclass achievements in the Visual Arts!

≪ Previous: Speech and Debate Team - District Championship Tournament

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Congratulations to the winners of this year's National German Exam!  Students winning gold and silver medals will receive awards and prizes at the AATG Spring Awards Ceremony on April 22nd at the Cannstatter Volksfest-Verein in Northeast Philadelphia. Several of the gold medalists are also eligible to apply for a study trip to Germany for this summer.

Please join me in congratulating the following students:

 

GOLD

Jack Odom

Emery Dana

Christopher Gehrke

Paul Knausst

Adrian Haase

CJ Diehl

Anna Iacocca

Hunter Courtney

Declan Fox

SILVER

Michael Iacocca

Michael Dirnberger

Allison Harten

Maggie Gearhardt

Amitha Halthore

Eric Renzetti

Reade Keefer

Julia Weber

Sören Scheckells

Abhinav Pandey

BRONZE

Matt Daniels

Matt Caputo

Sara Lezeu

Alex Patrone

Sarah Zrebiec

Owen Rogers

Lucas Barney

Sebastian Graper

HONORABLE MENTION

Harrison Bass

Meghan Berry

Alex Rajasekaran

Mary Cate Clark

Ian Quain

Sean Stewart

Andrew Goodridge

Peter Murphy

Francesca DiPlacido

Kendra LaFave

Garett Rogers

Jack Landolt

Jenna Gilpin

Lizzie Gaebel

Chris Nitz

Liam Sweeney

Marshall Teichman

Brad Williams

Kerry Blecher

Chris Shearer

Eric Weir

Sarah Dietz

Katharine Heldt

Evan Surian

Victoria Vaughn

Congratulations to four UHS Seniors for their recent Award winning #worldclass achievements in the Visual Arts!

February 28, 2017, 5:02 am

≫ Next: Chester County Press publishes story on Author Julie Lythcott-Haims Presentation at UCF

≪ Previous: Congratulations to the winners of this year's National German Exam!

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Please #catchthespirit and congratulate the following four UHS Seniors for their recent Award winning #worldclass achievements in the Visual Arts 

• First , Regional Portfolio Contest ,2017 sponsored by:

•IRENE LIU won FIRST place,cash prize, for her 2-D creative problem solving within portraiture series

•DARA JIN won SECOND place ,cash prize,for her technical expertise in collected 2-D media investigations

Secondly, the Tri-County High School Art Show sponsored by;

• Jessica Homitz ; AWARD for outstanding,individual work,in 3-D Pottery form and technique,
  Leaf Pot

• Lyndsay Hastings; AWARD for outstanding individual work in 2-D Oil painting forms and     technique,Girl on a Tightrope

 Be sure to see our tweets for photos of the outstanding art works! Twitter: @FaithDilworth, @habheidi #artstudio282

Chester County Press publishes story on Author Julie Lythcott-Haims Presentation at UCF

February 28, 2017, 5:56 am

≫ Next: UHS Senior Lea Tedesco earns recognition as the Longwood Rotary Club Student of the Quarter

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Author Julie Lythcott-Haims tells U-CF parents to let their kids achieve on their own

 

Helping families escape the trap of 'over-parenting'

www.chestercounty.com

UHS Senior Lea Tedesco earns recognition as the Longwood Rotary Club Student of the Quarter

February 28, 2017, 5:16 pm

≫ Next: UCFSD is Hiring - Summer Custodial/Maintenance Help

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Above Lea Tedesco is flanked by James Conley, Unionville High School Principal, to the left and Tim Rayne, President of Longwood Rotary Club, to the right. 

Laura Elfreth, Unionville High School guidance counselor, introduced our Student of the Quarter, Lea Tedesco, as an easy selection to make. Lea is focused on developing her language skills as the base for her career. She has been studying French and Spanish four and six years respectively, and started learning Italian a couple of year ago. Lea learned studying three languages simultaneously is a bit too many at once. As a result she has focused on French and Spanish, completing courses in both through the AP level. 

Lea is a member of four national honor societies, and a National Merit Scholarship finalist. Lea has also been recommended for the Widener Leadership Award scholarship. She is the stage manager for many of the school theatrical productions, including the musical they are rehearsing now. 

For the past three years, Lea has been volunteering twice a week at the Chester County Intermediate Unit to teach English, history and government to immigrants. "Teaching English to those who speak a language you are studying is a great way to learn", said Lea. Lea has also found these people are essentially always working to provide for themselves and their families.  

While Lea has not made her final choice of college, she is planning to work for the Peace Corp after graduation. 

UCFSD is Hiring - Summer Custodial/Maintenance Help

March 1, 2017, 3:00 am

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≪ Previous: UHS Senior Lea Tedesco earns recognition as the Longwood Rotary Club Student of the Quarter

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SUMMER CUSTODIAL/MAINTENANCE HELP

ALL BUILDINGS

June 19, 2017 to August 11, 2017 – MUST COMMIT TO FULL SCHEDULE

8-10 hours/day for 8 weeks – hours determined by supervisor

$10.25 per hour – Full Time

QUALIFICATIONS: The qualification requirements listed below represent minimum levels of educational achievement, training, skills and/or ability necessary.

Must be at least 16 years of age by June 1, 2017

Must be able to work full-time (40 hours per week)

Demonstrated aptitude for assigned responsibilities

Must be able to speak, understand, read and write English

Must be able to safely lift and carry up to 35 pounds a minimum distance of 10 feet

Must be able to climb and descend 10 steps on a stepladder, work on scaffold or lift

Must be able to stand and walk for up to 8 hours/day

Experience or willingness to learn

Be of good moral character (honest and trustworthy)

Skills to work with people – pleasant, positive, enthusiastic

Ability to read and comprehend manuals for minor repair tasks

Ability to use time effectively

Ability to maintain good personal hygiene and well-groomed appearance

Good organization skills – attention to detail

Ability to observe, assess a situation and problem solve

Ability and willingness to work as a team member and independently

Successful candidates will be required to obtain required clearances:

Act 151 Child Abuse Clearance

Act 34 PA Criminal Record Check

Act 114 Federal Criminal History Record

Act 168 Employment History Review (if over 18)

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017 at 3:30 p.m.

Apply online at https://ucfsd.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx

*Subject to Budget Decisions & Board Approval

Any questions, please contact Marie Lofe at mlofe@ucfsd.net or 610-347-0970, ext. 3304