Vernal Middle School

CORRECTION: Thursday, May 22, is the last day of the 2024-2025 school year. It is a Minimum School Day, which means the following schedule will be in effect: • Uintah High School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Uintah Middle School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. • Vernal Middle School – 7:45 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. • Eagle View Elementary – 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Lapoint Elementary – 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. • Ashley, Davis, Discovery, Maeser and Naples – 8:30 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. If you have questions about this schedule, please contact your child’s school.

CORRECTION: Thursday, May 22, is the last day of the 2024-2025 school year. It is a Minimum School Day, which means the following schedule will be in effect: • Uintah High School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Uintah Middle School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. • Vernal Middle School – 7:45 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. • Eagle View Elementary – 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Lapoint Elementary – 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. • Ashley, Davis, Discovery, Maeser and Naples – 8:30 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. If you have questions about this schedule, please contact your child’s school.

Friday, May 23, is the last day of the 2024-2025 school year. It is a Minimum School Day, which means the following schedule will be in effect: • Uintah High School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Uintah Middle School – 7:40 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. • Vernal Middle School – 7:45 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. • Eagle View Elementary – 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. • Lapoint Elementary – 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. • Ashley, Davis, Discovery, Maeser and Naples – 8:30 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. If you have questions about this schedule, please contact your child’s school.

Dear Parents, The Vernal Middle School’s College and Career Awareness program is providing a Reality Town activity for the 7th graders in our school. We have set Monday, May 19, 2025, as the day for our Reality Town experience, and WE NEED YOUR HELP! We need volunteers for the following simulated businesses: Bank Child Care Clothing Communications Dental Donations Entertainment Utilities Home Improvement Groceries Health/Grooming Housing Insurance (Car) Insurance (Health) Pet Shop LUE (Just My Luck) Medical Property Taxes Supplemental Income Transportation There will be a morning session from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. and an afternoon session from 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Please let us know if you can help. If you can share your full day with our students that would be greatly appreciated because having volunteers the entire day works best. Lunch will be provided for volunteers between sessions for those who stay all day. A half-day session would also be greatly appreciated, either morning or afternoon. We hope that you can participate with us. Your expertise is invaluable to our students. More information will follow for those volunteering to help. If you have any additional questions, please directly contact Mrs. Colin Kosi Colin (College and Career Awareness Teacher Email - kosi.colin@uintah.net Contact number: 435 781 3140 ext. 1852 Between 7:15am & 8:30am or 2:45pm and 3:30pm

This is an update on our district’s ongoing network disruption. We continue to investigate the issue with third-party forensic specialists. Certain systems remain offline; however, we are pleased to announce that we have made great progress in the recovery process and anticipate systems coming back online in the near future. With that in mind, classes will resume as scheduled on Monday, April 21. Students should charge their Chromebooks and bring them to school on Monday if they have them at home. USD administrators, teachers and staff members are encouraged to arrive at work a little earlier than normal on Monday to allow time for logging into certain systems with new, temporary passwords. This should help reduce delays to the start of the school day once students arrive.

UPDATE: The Uintah School District continues to work to restore its network. Through its cyber insurance provider, the district secured third-party technical support this afternoon to help with the process. Classes will be held Thursday. Teachers at the elementary schools, middle schools, and the high school have been asked to prepare lessons that don’t rely on network connectivity. Ashley Valley Education Center and Uintah Online students should work from home tomorrow. At this time there is still no evidence that student data has been compromised. The district does not store credit card information on its network. Payments for school meals and school fees are processed by a third-party company that isn’t impact by the network outage. Also, USD doesn’t keep employee data like Social Security numbers or banking information on its network. Automated calls regarding attendance and school lunch balances have been suspended until the district’s network is back online. Additional information will be provided tomorrow as it becomes available.

UPDATE: The USD network remains offline following a cyberattack. Work is being done to restore it. There is NO evidence student data has been compromised. The district does NOT store credit card information on its network. Some automated attendance calls went out this morning. Those calls were based on yesterday's attendance. Automated calls have been switched off for now. More info will be provided as it becomes available.

At about 2 a.m. today, the Uintah School District’s network was the target of a cyberattack. The district has disabled its network in response to this attack. The district’s Technology Department is actively working to resolve the issue. Principals at all our schools have been notified that the network outage may last awhile. The district doesn't plan to cancel classes due to the outage.

Attention Mustang Families! We have Parent Teacher Conferences next week on April 3rd. From 063:30PM - 07:00PM. Please plan on attending the open house style meeting. This meeting is an important opportunity to review academic achievements, address any concerns, and set future goals for your child’s success to finish the year strong.

A teacher found two .22-caliber bullets on the floor in her classroom this morning, March 17, as students were leaving at the end of 1st hour. She immediately notified school administration. The decision was made, in consultation with the superintendent, to place our school in HOLD status. The hold went into effect as 2nd hour classes began. During a hold, we clear the hallways. Staff members account for all students, lock the door to their room, and continue with instruction. All students and staff remain in their rooms until the hold is lifted. The hold allowed a school resource officer and school administrators to quickly and efficiently investigate the incident. The students who had been in the 1st hour class together were interviewed and searched. No additional ammunition was found. No weapons were found. The hold was lifted about 50 minutes after it began. Students were able to go to their 3rd hour classes on time. There are no threats to students or staff at Vernal Middle School. We are grateful to those who saw something this morning and had the courage to say something. They showed their Mustang Pride and helped us ensure that our school is a safe place for everyone. To learn more about the Standard Response Protocol used by the Uintah School District, visit https://www.uintah.net/o/usd/page/district-emergency-response.

Student Council applications for the 2025/2026 school year are now open. Contact Mrs. Rich in our front office (ext. 1810) for more information.

The Uintah School Board will discuss the district's proposed school fees policy for the 2025-2026 school year during its work session and business meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The work session starts at 4 p.m. in the boardroom at the district office in Naples. The business meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the same location. Learn more at https://bit.ly/SchoolFees2025_2026.

White Ribbon Spirit Week is coming up February 101th-14th! Please remember that school dress code still applies during spirit week.

Please note that when paying by check for school lunch fees, the check must be made payable to Uintah School District rather than to individual schools. This ensures proper processing and avoids any delays in applying payments to your child’s account. If you have any questions, please contact the Foods office at 435-781-3185.

Congratulations to our very own Denton Martin and Traysen Clyde for winning the Fall 2024 #StockMarketGame competition! The two boys took 2nd place out of 140 teams in Utah at the middle school level and received some pretty amazing prizes! These students learned about investing and built a portfolio that landed them a top spot in the competition. Thank you to Business and Marketing teacher Mr. Ottley for providing this financial education opportunity. @SIFMSAFoundation Go Mustangs!

Food Drive 2024: Vernal Middle School students participated in the great food battle against Uintah Middle School. Both schools collected a total of 3,350 pounds of food for our local pantries. Vernal Middle School won the battle, collecting 2100 pounds of canned food, while Uintah Middle School collected 1,250 pounds of canned food. The prize at the end was to shave Mr. Coonis' head who is a teacher at Uintah Middle School. Both school enjoyed watching that! Great job Mustangs and Hawks!

VMS Fine & Performing Art Showcase: Vernal Middle School's Encore department hosted two Fine & Performing Art Showcases, one in the fall and another one in December. Both showcases were a great success and and around 1300 people attended the events. The showcase featured displays by student artists and CTE students, as well as performances by the school’s band, orchestra and choir.

Students of the month: This year so far, saw a few amazing students being named Vernal Middle School's students of the month. September- Ian Hermansen, Scarlett Christensen, Betsy Goodrich, Paisley Johnson, Evelyn Stoddard & Cash Curtice. October- Raylan Buening, Eloise Lunberg, Kyler Haslem, Delila Harlan, Kale Wilson & Dominick Flores. November- Baylee Vigil, Avaya Batty, Bailey McCurdy, Channing Nelson & JT Sand. December- Natalya Linares, Presley Clyde, Kelly Sonneschein, Hayden Peterson, Gabriel Lawrence & Matthew Caldwell. January: Kotah Gross, Lana Henline, Liberty Wheeler, Moriah Edrington, Olivia Manwaring, Sophia Deluca and Gracie Cook. Congratulations Mustangs!

Highlights in 2024: Vernal Middle School has had a great year so far! Students and teachers have worked hard to be on the RISE, and in par with the district's motto for the 2024/2025 school year. New Assistant Principal: Mr. Jon Gorski joined the Vernal Middle School staff as the Assistant Principal. He has been a great addition to the team. He is excited to work with the students and teachers daily. Mr. Gorski's day is full of all kinds of tasks and assignments but he never fails to connect with the students in the hallways, and visit with teachers. Welcome Mr. Gorski!

We would like to remind you that there is no school Wednesday, Nov. 27, through Friday, Nov. 29. The district office and all district buildings will be closed Thursday and Friday. All USD schools and the district office will resume normal schedules on Monday, Dec. 2.