Upsala Area Schools

The third and fourth grade students took an adventure to the Vintage Village in Osakis, MN last week. The students experienced doing a variety of chores by hand prior to electricity, and also what its like being in a one room school house!

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is excited to launch the Statewide Testing Redesign Survey. Your voice and the perspectives of your community are important to this effort as new academic standards are adopted in science, reading, and math, along with new assessments. Your feedback will help MDE ensure the results from the new assessments students take beginning in Spring 2025 are as clear and useful as possible. The survey is now open for submissions until May 19. It should take no longer than 15 minutes and responses will be completely anonymous. If you have any questions, please contact mde.testing@state.mn.us. https://prod-instrument-files.s3.amazonaws.com/INSTR_1188/MDE-Survey.html

It's teacher appreciation week this week! Thank you to our teaching staff for all that you do for our kids!

Drama awards were handed out last night at the Arts & Academic Awards. There were nine first-timers and 20 letter winners. Senior Awards were given to Jacob Gunderson and Isabelle Leners. Noah Boeckermann won the Directors Award and Best Supporting Actor. Genevieve Mrozek won Most Improved and Best Supporting Actress. Evie Aleckson received the Most Valuable Award and Best Leading Role. Another great year in Upsala Drama!

A couple of girls in the 7th grade Health class decided to complete their project on the bulletin board. Their project was to promote ways to "Go Green". What a wonderful job they did!

Free registration is now open for the Summer Reading Program! It will be held on Wednesdays in June and July. Because of construction we will bring part of the elementary book collection up to the high school and kids can get their books there! Visit our website for more information and to register: https://www.upsala.k12.mn.us/page/ar-summer-reading

Congratulations to Gina Gross & Jayne Glaser who receive this year's Sourcewell Pillars of Excellence Award, which honors outstanding school support staff in our region.

Congratulations to this year's Sourcewell Educators of Excellence: Jacob Drimel and Grace Rahn! Every Spring Sourcewell recognizes educators from area schools who demonstrate leadership and have had a positive impact on students and colleagues.

Congratulations to Grace Rahn and Jacob Drimel on receiving Teacher of Excellence Awards last night at an awards ceremony hosted by Sourcewell! Sourcewell also recognized staff members Jayne Glaser and Gina Gross with Pillar of Excellence Awards. Congratulations Jayne and Gina!

The 1st graders FAVORITE activity in Mrs. Bauer's class! Learning listening skills, cooperation, and teamwork.

Registration for tee ball and toss ball is now open. Both will be Monday and Wednesday evenings in June. Get more info and register on our website: https://www.upsala.k12.mn.us/page/summer-tee-ball We are still looking for an adult to lead the tee ballers. Email dancheney@upsala.k12.mn.us if you can help out. A small stipend is available.

Look at all those shoes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! But we are still about 10-15 bags short of our goal. The last few weeks of the drive are upon us. The Ireland/Scotland travelers appreciate your continued support!

Varsity Baseball Change! The USA Varsity Baseball game today has been moved from Clinton-Graceville to Swanville, the game will begin at 3:30pm in Swanville. Upsala Varsity Softball will be playing against Browerville at 2:30pm in Upsala. Junior High Baseball is still scheduled for a 4:30pm start against BBE in Upsala and Varsity Track & Field is still scheduled for 4:00pm in Howard Lake ... however we are keeping an eye on these and may need to cancel. Will provide updates when possible.

This year's elementary memory books have arrived and classroom teachers should be distributing them shortly to students who ordered one. We do have some extras available. If you would like one bring $16 to either Mr Cheney or the school office.

Here's the lunch menu for May. A pdf version can be downloaded from our Food and Nutrition webpage: https://www.upsala.k12.mn.us/page/food-nutrition

Softball Schedule Change: With Browerville/EV fields underwater, the Varsity Softball game scheduled for tomorrow (April 30) in Browerville will now be held in Upsala at 2:30pm. Storms are projected to start at 4:30pm. The Junior High Softball game scheduled for April 30 is cancelled. Baseball Schedule Change: The USA vs. Browerville/EV Varsity & JV Baseball games scheduled for today in Upsala have been cancelled. They will be made-up as part of a doubleheader in Browerville on May 14.

Congratulations to Avery for mastering her addition facts!

Coming to Grand March at 7:30 on Saturday? We are STILL accepting clean, gently used shoes for the Ireland/Scotland trip fundraiser! Shoes can be dropped off in the Upsala School Commons through mid-May. Thank you for your continued support!

This year's Arts & Academic Awards night is scheduled for Sunday evening, May 5 at 7:30pm in the auditorium. Awards will be handed out for band, drama and knowledge bowl. Students receiving recognition that night will be receiving invitations.

Our ninth grade class had a field trip to Alexandria Technical and Community College today. There we visited all of the campus and saw a variety of career training paths and more.