Last week’s spirit week was more than just for Spring Fling, it was in direct celebration of Founders Day, a UPrep holiday annually celebrated on the last day of February when the school went public in 1976. Founders Day commemorates and acknowledges the seven former Roosevelt teachers who passionately built this school from the ground up. Co-founder Terry Nelson Froggatt, a former math teacher at Roosevelt, found UPrep to be a “wonderful community.”
“The vision is that we could take the students and bring them to their hopefully full potential,” Froggatt said.
In the fall of 1976, UPrep opened with 52 students. Though by January, 74 students were enrolled. Grades 7-10 were offered before 6th grade was added in the early ’80s, and 11th and 12th were added as the first 10th graders accelerated, according to co-founder Pat Landy, a former French teacher at Roosevelt.
“That first graduating class was our proving ground in a way,” Landy said. “They paved the way. They made our name known that students from University Prep could handle the college curriculum of their choice and that they would want our graduates.”
Carol Sue Janes, an alumni from UPrep’s first graduating class in 1979 who joined as a sophomore in the school’s first year, found her experience to be exciting.
“It was very fun being asked as part of the student community ‘what color should we have as our school colors?’ And ‘why don’t you all vote on what the mascot will be?’” Janes said. “It felt like you were part of a team with the teachers. I felt very special.”
Originally, classes were held in the Temple Beth Am classroom buildings. The lot the school currently sits on was undeveloped. Former theater teacher Paul Fleming joined UPrep in 1981 when only around 100 students attended. He retired 42 years later in 2023. Fleming found UPrep to be “supportive” of him as a teacher.
“I started to help found the Gay Straight Alliance,” Fleming said. “What was important to me was to make that statement to our students that it’s okay to be who you are. It’s a safe space for you.”
As UPrep approaches its 50th anniversary next year, the founders continue to look forward to the progression of the school.
“Times change and we can’t be the same. But we can have the same values,” Landy said. “We can still want students to be lifelong learners, to have a place and to be involved. That’s been first and foremost. I’m really proud that’s how we’ve made our decisions and continue to make those decisions.”
