Principals Message
Principal’s Message June 2, 2023
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
June is finally here! It’s been an exciting year with lots of fun events like our Color Run, Fall Carnival, STEM Night, and the just completed Art Night. Thank you to the PTA and all the volunteers for making this year so successful.
We’ve also been on lots and lots of field trips this year, had many dance and drama informances, and had fun enjoying the 3rd grade play. And the fun isn’t quite over yet as we have several more days of school to go until the last day, which this year is June 9th. Our last week of school has our Talent Show on Tuesday, our 6th Grade Promotion on Thursday, many class and grade level field trips throughout the week, and Yearbook Signing and our final Trait-of- the-Month assembly on Friday. On June 9th, our last day of the year, at around 12:35 p.m., we will start to gather out front to lower the flag one more time and to sing the school song one more time before the official end of the year. Please join us there if you can.
Thank you for all you have done to help your child have a safe and successful school year at Uintah. It has been our pleasure to work with you and your child/ren to help them grow physically, academically, and emotionally. Please be safe this summer wherever you may be or travel. If you will have a student here next year, we look forward to another fun, academically challenging, and successful year here at Uintah. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message May 9, 2023
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy May! We hope your month is going well. Here at Uintah, we have many, many activities happening this month such as field trips, Art Night, Field Day, and end-of-year testing. We want everyone to be able to participate in all these activities, so please do what you can to help your child/ren get to bed early so they get lots of rest and can get up, get a great breakfast, and come to school ready for whatever opportunities and challenges the day will bring.
This month’s Trait of the Month is effort. We know the students have worked so hard this year to learn their ABCs and 123s along with learning how to be better humans in their interactions with others. We are in the final stretch of the year, and it will take more sustained effort on everyone’s part to finish out the year strong, so students can show us what they have learned this year on their end-of-year testing. Please encourage them to do their best on these assessments as it does make a difference for our school.
With this emphasis on hard work and effort, I believe we need to balance our lives by also encouraging students and adults to play hard and have fun. We can all do this at activities this month such as the PTA Arts Night on the 19th, Field Day which is on the 2nd of June, and on the many field trips that the students, teachers, and chaperones will take as the year winds down. Look to your child’s teacher for more information on the many activities happening in their classroom. Let’s celebrate all the hard work and effort this year and have some fun together with our Uintah community while doing so. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message April 1, 2023
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy April! It looks like Mother Nature is playing an April Fool’s joke on all of us with this weather, but we do need the moisture for our plants, trees, animals and us! Speaking of plants, the District Facilities Management crew has arranged for us to work with the non-profit Tree Utah to help plant some much needed trees across our property! This was supposed to take place during the first week of April, weather permitting. We will see what Mother Nature has in store for us, but we should be getting some more trees here soon either way. And the great thing about working with Tree Utah is that a requirement of theirs is that students MUST help plant the trees! It’s a win-win! We look forward to this activity whenever it happens. Thanks to our Facilities Services department and to Tree Utah!
As we move into April, we are fast approaching our testing season, which this year will start the first week of May. Teachers and students are working hard to prepare for these high-stakes assessments. We know that a wholistic education is much more than any one test score on an end-of-year assessment, which is why we strive to give students at Uintah a broad range of learning experiences. However, we do have accountability to parents, District leadership and the state, and many of these groups use End-of-Year test scores as part of that accountability, so please help your child get plenty of rest and eat a good breakfast to be prepared when they do test. We appreciate your support with this.
Lastly, we want to give the Uintah PTA a shout-out for their support of teachers and paraprofessionals this past month. Thank you for supporting the hard-working people at our school. We also know that our annual Arts Night is fast approaching and will be on Friday, May 19th, so please save the date. We look forward to celebrating all the wonderful art that happens at Uintah. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message March 8, 2023
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
March is upon us, and it’s come with lots of snow! Thank you for your help with the asynchronous day a few weeks ago and for your continued support to help your child get to school safely despite the snow or other inclement weather. We still need your help to decrease tardies and absences as much as we can. We know this can be difficult to do with the various illness floating around in the community, so please keep doing all you can do to help your child stay healthy and be at school and on time. Good attendance really does make a positive difference for children.
We want to give a huge shoutout to the PTA and the whole Uintah community for their generosity to help fund more field trips this year. Here are a few that have just happened or that will be happening soon: Visits to the Hogle Zoo, the Rose Wagner Theatre, the Clayton Play, the Discovery Gateway, the Capitol Theatre by multiple grade levels, the Ogden Nature Center and many more! Field Trips provide our students much needed real-life experiences that can’t always be replicated at school, so thank you, again, for your generosity to make these field trips and many more like them happen this school year.
Also know that our 3rd Grade is busy working on their play, The Aristocats, which will debut later this school year. Keep up the great work, 3rd grade. We look forward to seeing the fruits of your hard work and effort. Thank you to the PTA for supporting the Uintah school play with funds to purchase the rights to the play and support props and other important play needs.
And remember that the last week of the month, March 27-31, is Spring Break. We hope everyone – teachers, students and families – are able to spend some quality time together and enjoy time away from school. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Uintah Principal
Principal’s Message February 3, 2023
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy cold February. We’re glad that temperatures are moving upward and that more snow and storms will help move the yucky air out of the valley at least temporarily. Remember, if it is colder than 20 degrees, we have students stay in from recess. If it is a yellow or orange air day, we have those who are sensitive to air quality stay inside. When it’s a red air day, everyone stays inside. Let’s hope for some warmer temperatures and enough changes in the weather to keep the air healthy.
Our February Trait-of-the-Month is Kindness, which goes somewhat along the lines of Valentine’s Day and love. We encourage everyone in our Uintah community to show kindness not just this month but always. One way we can show kindness is in how we drop off and pick up children. Consider the following:
Please remember that how we act toward the homes and families surrounding our building has an impact on them and how they think about and feel about our school. Please avoid parking in their driveways or blocking them with vehicles.
Please use and have your children use the crosswalks instead of running across 1300 South or 1500 East. Besides being illegal, it is so, so dangerous to you and to your children. We want everyone to be safe and stay safe. Remember, we have an open gate on the west side of the field so that students can be dropped off on 1500 East and walk across the field to the school. Many also drop off children on side streets by the crosswalks so they can make it across the road safely. Please remember to show kindness to not just others, but to yourself as well in following these safety rules.
One other area where we can be kinder to ourselves is with our evening and morning routines, so that more of us arrive to school on time. We have over 100 students who have been tardy 5 or more times so far this school year, with too many students having well over 10 tardies. 100 students is around ¼ of our school! Please consider the negative impact that arriving tardy has not only on your child, but on their classmates and teacher. I know getting children to bed early and then up, ready, and out the door in the morning is difficult! Many of my own 9 children still struggle in these areas (Teenagers are an interesting breed, too!). As a result, my wife and I have had to adjust our family’s habits and routines to help our children be more successful in the morning, so they get to school on time. I encourage all of us to take stock of what we can do differently to help our children be able to get up, get ready and to be on time to school, and then make the necessary changes. It really will make a positive difference in their life and at our school.
Thank you for all you do to support our Uintah community. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message January 2, 2023
Unicorns United
Happy New Year and welcome to 2023 Unicorns! We hope everyone had a safe and fun break. We’re back into the swing of things here at Uintah. This month we’ve got some fun activities coming up. We have our Trait-of-the-Month Assembly on Friday the 13th where, because we had so many donations to our Uintah Goes East pantry drive that I will get to have at least one pie in the face! Good thing I like pie! Our Science Fair is on the 18th and our PTA Science Fest Night for the whole family is on Friday the 20th, so please come and join us for this fun activity. The end of the 2nd quarter is also this month on the 27th, which marks our half-way point through the year. It seems to have flown by!
At this beginning time of the year many people look toward setting new goals and making resolutions. Here are a few of suggestions that are school related that you may wish to discuss with your family. Perhaps it would be a great time to recommit to getting to bed early and waking up early so everyone can arrive to school on time. Perhaps we could recommit to eating a great breakfast before school or work or to remember to bring cold-weather clothing to school to have fun at recess. What other school-related goals would make for a great resolution for your family to discuss?
One safety goal that is worth repeating is to please have students use the crosswalks by the school when crossing the street. We’ve seen several students running across 1300 South right in front of the school during traffic, which is super scary and dangerous. We would much rather have a student a few moments tardy than being injured
coming to school, so please, please be safe when coming to and going from school. Let’s have a great month and a great new year here at Uintah! Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message December 1, 2022
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy December! We hope that you and your family are healthy, safe, and warm! There are definitely a lot of illnesses going around that are not COVID, so please do all you can to help your child to stay healthy. We know that it can be difficult to keep a child home when they are sick, but we do ask that you do so to help minimize the spread of all illnesses including COVID as it is still out there. We have plenty of masks for students and adults to wear in the building, too if you desire. Let’s all do our part to keep as many people healthy as possible through these winter months!
Our schoolwide Trait of the Month for December is generosity. Our PTA has a great charity drive that goes along with this trait: Uintah Goes East. This is a charity drive to collect needed items for the East High School Pantry, which supports the students who attend East High. See the SWAY for more information on the specific items that are needed and how to donate.
We hope that everyone has a great December planning for and enjoying the holidays. We also hope that everyone has a fun and relaxing time during the upcoming Winter Break, which starts on the 23rd of the month. School will resume on Monday, January 6, 2023! Take care. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message November 2, 2022
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy November! We hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. With Thanksgiving this month, we decided our positive character Trait of the Month here at school should be appreciation, and we have so much to be thankful for and to appreciate. Along those lines, here are some things and people that we can appreciate and be thankful for. First, thanks to a grant that the district recently received, every homeroom classroom in our building received an air purifier! Thanks to Paul Schulte and others at the district office for making this possible. Another appreciation goes out to our custodial staff who have helped to clean and maintain our wonderful building and grounds all through the fun times we had in October and every day. Thank you to Mario, Glen, Max, Oliver and Tim. We appreciate you! Another shout out of appreciation goes out to our office staff who do such an amazing job helping with communication between school and home along with bonked heads, scraped knees and the occasional bout of throw up. Kudos to Annie, Vanessa and Marianne. We appreciate you. Another group of people we appreciate is our hard-working and amazing teachers and paraprofessionals. Their work with children makes a positive difference in the lives of children every day. We appreciate you and are grateful you are here at Uintah. And lastly, a huge appreciation shout-out goes to the PTA and the entire Uintah community for their fundraising efforts this past month. We so appreciate the hard work and generosity of the entire extended Uintah community. What do you appreciate and are thankful for? Let’s share the spirit of gratitude and appreciation as the Uintah community is definitely one that has so much for which to be thankful! Happy November and go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message October 24, 2022
Unicorns United
Dear Uintah Community,
Here are several important items for you to know and consider.
First, a huge shoutout to the Uintah PTA and the entire Uintah community for the Uintah Color Run and the fundraising total of $54,000+! Thank you to everyone who helped in any way. And the Uintah Fall Festival had a huge turnout with lots of fun games, food and other fun! Thanks again to the fabulous PTA and to everyone who helped and who came to support these two wonderful activities. We have such a great and supportive community here at Uintah!
With all of this gathering and mingling, we need to keep in mind that there are lots of unhealthy bugs going around that are not COVID. We've had many people at school, both adults and kids, who have come down with illnesses that are not COVID, but that are still communicable causing many absences among students and adults. Please, if your child is sick, keep them home until they are well enough to come and are no longer contagious. We know this can be difficult with childcare, but it is important that we keep the transmission of illness to a minimum here at school. Wearing a mask can also help minimize the transmission of illness, so consider having your child wear a mask as needed. Thank you for your attention to this. Let's support each other to have as safe and healthy a school year as we can.
Lastly, Halloween is coming up next Monday, October 31st! Our annual Halloween parade will also be that day. See your child's teacher for more specific details on what we have planned. We are also planning on having a Zoom feed for the parade so the classes can see each other and so that others who can't make it to the parade can join in the fun. Look for more info with a map and a Zoom link coming later this week.
Thank you to everyone for making Uintah a great place to learn and grow. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message May 9, 2022
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
May is now in full swing and along with it comes our End-of-Year testing. We appreciate all the hard work and effort students, teachers, and parents have put into student-learning this year. We want all the students to feel comfortable and confident when they go to test, so please help them get to bed early, arrive on time, and get a great start to the day with a yummy breakfast. We’ll take it from there!
This month’s Positive Character Trait of the Month is patience. We have defined patience to include having self-control, showing tolerance for other people and situations, and being calm when things don’t go your way or things take longer than you think they should. With all the stressful things going on in the world, in our lives, and even here at school, we hope that by focusing on patience and calming strategies and techniques, students and staff will be able to feel less stressed and more ready to face the activities of the day.
Finally, we have quite a few retirements this year at Uintah. As you may recall, our beloved custodian, Ms. Lorna, retired in March. At the end of this year Ms. Ann Busico – PE, Ms. Melissa Mendez – 5th grade, Ms. Marianne Plumridge – Secretary, and Ms. Carol Theurer – 3rd Grade will also be retiring. We have also learned that Ms. Hilary, our amazing art teacher, will not be back next year as well. We will definitely miss all these wonderful people and wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Please take a moment to wish them well when you get the chance.
Go Unicorns!
Bruce P. Simpson
Principal’s Message April 11, 2022
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
We hope everyone had a great time during Spring Break recharging and taking a break from the normal school day-to-day activities. We’re had a great Uintah Unicorns United Spirit Week last week and are gearing up for our upcoming testing cycle, which will take place for most grade levels starting sometime at the beginning of May.
This month’s positive character trait goes right along with where we are at in the school year as well. April’s trait is perseverance, and we define that with the students by saying: Perseverance means you keep going even when things are hard and you feel like giving up. Sometimes these last few months can be difficult in multiple areas, such as attitude and behavior. Another area that can be difficult is attendance. We understand that we are still under the effects of a global pandemic, so when your child/ren are healthy, please do all you can to get your them here on time and ready to learn. There are so many wonderful learning experiences that a child misses when not present in class, and we want everyone to have those learning opportunities. And please continue to do all you can to help your child get lots of rest and eat a good breakfast, so they are ready for learning every day and testing when it does begin. Look for more info on when your child will be testing coming home from their teacher.
Besides testing, we have some fun activities planned for the end of the year as well. The 3rd grade play is happening this week, so good luck 3rd graders! The annual Maturation presentation for 5th and 6th graders will be in-person on Friday, April 15th at 9:00 a.m. at the school, and we invite all parents of 5th and 6th graders who can to join their child for that presentation. Tuesday, April 19th is the final Asynchronous day for the year, so look for info coming home from your child’s teacher about work to do that day. And Friday, April 29th is a non-student day with no work being sent home. As a result, Thursday April 28th is a short day.
We also have the annual PTA Arts Night coming up on the 13th of May, and it will be in-person this year! Yeah! We are also planning on Field Day this year, and look forward to having some fun together outside that day, which has yet to be scheduled, but will take place sometime at the end of May. There are lots of other fun activities happening, so look for more info coming home from your child’s teacher. Here is to a great remainder of the year at Uintah. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message March 7, 2022
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
I hope your March is going well. We are two-thirds of the way over with the year with the end of the trimester having just taken place, so we are heading into the home stretch! As you know, there have been several changes with health guidelines recently from the CDC, our County Health Department, and the Mayor of Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City School District quietly updated their guidelines last Friday as well. Click here for the updated guidelines. I encourage you to read over them as they will undoubtedly change things for us moving forward. One of the ways that this will change things for many families is that more and more students and adults will be removing their masks while at school. This is in line with the updated guidelines, so we plan on it happening more and more as we hopefully move toward the end of the pandemic. We also know that the pandemic is not yet over and that there are many, many reasons for people to keep masks on. We respect everyone’s decisions on these matters and will work to help the children understand that this is a family and personal choice, and that we can and will still be able to work and play together safely as we move forward the rest of this year. We will continue to be vigilant about current COVID situations and will follow District and local, state, and national guidelines in these matters in case things change. I would also like our school community to know that 80% of the students in the school have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with the vast majority of those students having received 2 doses and some even a booster.
We are also working on next year’s School Community Council Trustlands Plan, so please join us for details and the discussion about that at our next Community Council Meeting on Thursday, March 10th at 4:45 p.m. on Zoom. Details and how to log into the meeting are on our website at https://uintah.slcschools.org/community/school-community-council-scc. We’d love to see you there!
Thank you to the PTA and to our Librarian, Ms. Edgley, for helping with the Story Cupboard Book Fair this past week. Our teachers would also like to thank everyone who donated books to their classroom libraries. It was nice to have more people back into the building and to have more of a normal Book Fair experience.
One very important announcement we have is that after serving the students of the Salt Lake City School District for 43 years, with 25 of those being here at Uintah, our beloved Custodian, Lorna Woodson, will be retiring at the end of this month. Please make sure to thank her for all her hard work over these many years and wish her all the best on a well-deserved retirement. We are sad to see her go, but are excited for her and wish her well on this next journey in life. Thank you, Ms. Lorna!
I’m also sure everyone is also looking forward to Spring Break, which is coming up at the end of this month from March 28th through and including April 1st. We hope everyone has a safe and fun March and a fun time during the break, too! Take care. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message February 8, 2022
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy February! This month, besides celebrating Valentine’s Day and all of the fun we’ll have there, we are also focusing on the positive character trait of honesty. The definition of honesty we use is being truthful in what we do and say. Being honest can be difficult for any of us to do, but more especially it can be difficult when we make mistakes or do or say something we know we shouldn’t have done. Often, when I meet with a student who has made a poor choice, the discussion turns toward honesty, specifically being honest with ourselves about the choices we have made and the thinking that led us to those choices. When we are honest with ourself, it is easier to be honest with others, which leads to making the right choice especially when that may seem difficult. Another trait that helps with being honest is knowing that when we do make mistakes, we will still be loved, valued and accepted for who we are, and that we will be supported to learn from our mistakes. Kids are learning and make mistakes every day; it’s part of the learning process and necessary to growing and having and keeping a growth mindset, which is why keeping January’s trait of acceptance in mind will help us cultivate an environment of support that helps us and others when learning from the mistakes we make. I hope that we can continue to show love, acceptance, and honesty in our Uintah community this month and always. Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message January 6, 2022
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a restful and safe holiday break. We are glad to be back with students and are moving forward into this new year. With COVID cases on the rise, we are grateful for the City Council and Mayor Mendenhall for extending the mask mandate. We will continue to wear masks when at school and follow all the other COVID guidelines including increased hand washing and social distancing as much as possible. We know that lines are long to get a COVID test and are grateful for the time and effort that it takes to get one when you or any of your children have any signs of COVID. We want to help everyone stay as safe as possible, so please continue to communicate with our office staff and your child’s teacher regarding any health issues that need discussion.
We are focusing on acceptance this month as our Positive Character Trait of the Month and discussing it with the students and adults in the building. One of the definitions we are using for acceptance is that it means understanding and celebrating the ways that each person is different and unique, and that we show acceptance when we make others feel valuable and loved regardless of our differences. We hope that this positive message spreads throughout our school and into our homes and the community. Have a great January! Take care.
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message December 8, 2021
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
I hope your December and Holiday Season is going well! This month our school is focusing on empathy and trying to understand how others are feeling and thinking. One way we can help learn to show and practice empathy and help our community as well is with our Uintah Cares Goes East donation drive to help the East High Pantry with donations of items such as shampoo, soap, feminine hygiene products, and packaged snacks. Please have children bring donations to school and either drop them in the box outside of the front doors or in one of the boxes on the benches in the front entrance way. Thank you to the PTA for arranging this activity.
Thank you for all you are doing to help students to stay safe as we continue to attend school during this pandemic. To help with this, we have another COVID shot clinic here on Friday, December 10th from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. All brands of COVID shots will be available for 1st, 2nd and booster shots. If you have the need, please come by and get immunized.
We wish everyone a wonderful and safe Winter Break and hope you find joy and happiness as you spend time with family and friends celebrating the many holidays and traditions that we have in our community. We look forward to seeing everyone after the new year on January 3rd. Take care.
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message November 2021
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
At this time of thanks, we at Uintah would like to thank all those children and adults who have made this school year successful! We are also grateful to have had the COVID vaccine clinic here this past Friday and for all those who were able to attend. The follow-up COVID vaccination clinic will be on Friday, December 10th from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. All brands of COVID vaccine will be available for everyone ages 5 and up; kids under 18 will need an adult present for vaccination. You can get 1st or 2nd doses or a booster dose at that time regardless of where you may have received other doses. Look for more reminders going out closer to the event.
The PTA is planning on delivering all youth and adult t-shirts by December 10th at the latest but possibly earlier depending on when they get them. Thank you, PTA! Speaking of clothing, we have quite the build-up in the lost and found of coats, water bottles, and more. Please ask your child to check there if they are missing anything. We will make the items available to parents to look through before and after starting next week.
We hope that everyone has a safe and fun Thanksgiving Break over the next several days, and we'll see you next week! Take care.
Bruce Simpson
Principal Uintah Elementary
Principal’s Message October 12, 2021
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
I hope that everyone's week is going well. October is moving right along here at Uintah. Don't forget that Wednesday, October 13th is a full day and that October 14th and 15th are Fall Break with no school. We hope everyone traveling for the break is safe and that everyone wherever you are has a fun and safe time during the break!
Thank you for the support last week for our Asynchronous learning day. The teachers were able to attend some wonderful professional development that will help students better read, write and do math. Another topic the faculty and staff have been focusing on for the last bit is our School Support Plan goals, which I wanted to share with the community. We are committed to helping students learn and enjoy their time here at Uintah.
| LITERACY GOAL | NUMERACY GOAL | ACHIEVEMENT GAP GOAL | CULTURE GOAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| L.A. K-6: On the EOY Acadience Reading Assessment or the Reading Inventory given in April 2022, 5% more K-6 students will score proficient than were proficient on the BOY Assessment. | Math K-3: On the EOY Acadience Math Assessment given in April 2022, 5% more K-3 students will score proficient than were proficient on the BOY Assessment. Math 4-6: On District Interims or RISE Benchmark tests given regularly throughout the year, 77% or more of students will score proficient. | By the end of April 2022, Uintah will close the achievement gap by 6% for our SWD and MLL as measured by the EOY Acadience Reading and Math tests or the EOY RI or Rise Benchmark assessments. | By the end of the 2021-2022 school year, 100% of Uintah students will be recognized for either exemplifying one of the monthly positive character traits or being a Spotlight Student of the Month during the monthly azzoombly or assembly. |
Along with academics, this month we are also focusing on responsibility and are discussing it in classrooms and on the morning announcements, so talk to your child and ask them what responsibility means to them and how they are showing it here at school and at home.
The PTA is also busy at work here at Uintah. We have the annual PTA fundraiser happening right now throughout the month of October. Fliers went out through Peach Jar, but here are links to them as well. PTA Fundraiser Flier 1 and the PTA Fall Fundraiser Stretch Goals. Visit www.uintahpta.org to donate if you haven't already. We appreciate all of the donations that have come in and will come in and are grateful for the partnership we have with the PTA.
The PTA is also hosting the annual PTA Fall Halloween Carnival on Friday, October 22nd from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the field and west playground. Food trucks and other activities will be conducted outside to help with social distancing, so come and have some fun! Masks will still be required when social distancing is unable to be achieved at the activity. Check out the flier here for more information. PTA Fall Carnival.
Our School Community Council (SCC) has also been busy. We held elections for the Chair and Vice Chair positions. Amanda Funai is our new SCC Chair and Ellen Schwede is the new Vice Chair. Annie Cowley is our secretary. On the committee we also have parents Melissa and Robert Jansen, Erika Hill, and Amy Taylor along with principal Bruce Simpson and teachers Angie Carter and Carol Theurer. We still have more spots for parents open, so please attend the Zoom meeting next month if you are interested and want to become a voting SCC member. We would love to have you as part of the ongoing discussions.
We are also in need of some supervision help here at school if you are interested. We could use a few more people to help out with lunch supervision in the cafeteria and outside. These are paid school support positions, so if you are interested, please check out the job openings on the district website and apply. We would love to have you helping this part of the Unicorn Team. Click here for more information and to apply.
Another important piece of information that we want everyone to have is where to pick up students in case there is an evacuation emergency. No one wants anything to happen that would necessitate the need for such plans, but it is best to be prepared and to communicate where students would be available in case there was a need to evacuate the building to another location. Our emergency evacuation location is Bonneville Elementary school. See the following fliers with more information and the exact school address if you don't already have it.
Evacuation Location English
Emergnecia o Evacuacion
Enjoy the rest of the month! Go Unicorns!
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message September 8, 2021
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Uintah Community,
I hope that everyone had a great and safe long weekend. We have had a great first few weeks so far this year and are looking forward to a wonderful rest of September. This month we are focusing on respect, so ask your child what they are doing to show respect at school, at home, and in the community. Students can also earn a Unicorn Club ticket as they follow the school rules. We have many students who are doing a great job following the rules and showing respect.
Please see this month's Uintah Sway for more information about things happening this month such as Picture Day and Parent-Teacher conferences. https://sway.office.com/oYUHqtpyFLhbypIa?ref=Link
Speaking of Parent-Teacher conferences, they are coming up at the end of this month on Wed. September 29th and Thu. September 30th. These will be on Zoom again as most parents found that format worked very well for them. Please follow the directions below to sign-up for a time that works for your family.
1. Select the Online Scheduler link: http://web.archive.org/web/20200812084140/https://www.canyoncreeksoftware.com/scheduler/ut/slc/
2. From the Online Scheduler Home Page
a. Choose UINTAH ELEMENTARY from the drop-down list and click “GO”
b. Enter the school password (uintah)
c. Enter your student’s “Student ID”. If you do not know their Student ID, use the LOOKUP STUDENT ID button to access the system.
d. Verify the student’s birth date.
e. A list of your student’s teachers will be displayed. Check the box next to the name of each teacher(s) with whom you would like to meet.
f. If you have more than one student in the school you can see all of your students’ teachers’ schedules at one time by answering YES to this question “Do you want to schedule conferences for another student?” then repeat the steps above for your other students. If you only have one student, answer NO to that question.
g. You will then see the available time slots for each teacher you selected.
h. Select the times that work best for your schedule.
i. Enter your email address (recommended) if you would like an email reminder sent to you. (Your email address is kept private.)
j. Once you have finished, you can confirm your appointment details and print your conference schedule.
k. Write down the Confirmation Number (you will need this number to cancel your appointment) If you need help, please call (801-584-2940)
Uintah's After School program started Tuesday of this week. We know that many parents have expressed a need for any resources regarding after school care as our After School program is currently full. To help with these needs, I have compiled a list of programs that currently serve Uintah in some way by providing after school care along with transportation to their program. The following list is by no means exhaustive nor is it endorsed in any way by the Uintah or SLCSD in any way. These are simply the programs that I have noticed are serving some of our students as we have seen they provide transportation from the school in some form of bus or van or parents have contacted me saying that the program is where their children go after school and they want other parents to know of the resource. If you are interested in any of these programs for your child/ren, please research them for yourself. Again, I am only providing this information as a courtesy and not as an endorsement in any way. Here are the programs in no particular order. I hope this information helps in some way. Take care.
Camp Wildlife After School Program run by St. John's Community Child Development Center. From their website: St. John’s school-age program is just as much fun as our summer camp, but on a smaller scale. We pick up at your child’s school, serve them snack, work on their homework, then it’s on to some fun. Our after-school adventures include field trips, park visits, sports workshops, Makerspaces, and so much more. This program runs Monday through Friday. See their website for more info. https://campwildlife.org/after-school-care/
World Martial Arts After School Program. From their website: If you’re looking for the best after school martial arts program with transportation provided in Holladay, Salt lake, South Jordan and Riverton, you’ve come to the right place! Parents all over the Holladay, Salt lake, South Jordan and Riverton area and Salt Lake, south Jordan, Riverton areas, also, are singing the praises of our amazing after school Taekwondo program with transportation provided for kids! Finally, a truly VALUABLE way to make sure the kids are picked up from school, and have a positive, inspiring experience every day. See their website for more info. https://utahkick.com/sq-after-school-martial-arts-2/
Art First/Arte Primero After School Program. From their Director: A fine art studio for children. Where imagination is inspired and set on stage through Spanish! Our main goals are to create a world filled with cultural understanding through art and language and to empower children by nurturing their creativity, confidence, problem-solving skills, and non-verbal communication skills through their expression in the arts! Art First offers after school and summer camp programming. After School pick up, homework help, literacy appreciation & fine art. Currently we pick up from Emerson, Hawthorne & newly added Uintah Elementary (Starting Sep. 20th). ArtFirst ArtePrimero emphasizes the art of the Great Masters: Fernando Botero, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama 草間 彌生, Alma Thomas, Diego Rivera, Hayao Miyazaki, Takashi Murakami, Amy Sherlad and so much more! For more info see our website www.arteprimero.com 801. 467.5ART. Register today! Muchas Gracias!
Boys and Girls Club Sugarhouse. From their website: The Sugar House Club opened its doors in 1968, and today serves over 2,500 kids annually through licensed child care and sports programs. Elementary Programs at the Sugar House Club are fully licensed by the state of Utah, and all Club members have access to: Full size gym, Fully equipped computer lab and technology center, Program curriculum developed by experts at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, A dedicated staff of trained Youth Development Professionals, Breakfast, lunch, and healthy snack provided daily. See their website for more info. https://www.gslclubs.org/find_a_club/sugar-house-boys-girls-club.html
YouthCity After School Program. From their website: Preparations for the 2021-2022 YouthCity After School Program are well under way. We are excited to have your child participate in our program this school year. Please complete and submit this packet to a Community Programs Manager to enroll your child in our program. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your children. We look forward to a successful school year. See their website for more info. https://www.slc.gov/youthandfamily/findaprogram/
Bruce Simpson
Principal
Principal’s Message August 4, 2021
Unicorns United - Embrace the Power of Yet.
Dear Uintah Community,
Happy August! We are excited to have students back in a few short weeks, so enjoy the rest of the summer and be ready to come back for a great school year. All classes at Uintah will be in-person this year. We are so grateful for the hard work and dedication that the teachers, paraprofessionals, the office staff, and our custodians put in last year teaching on-line and in-person; it really made a difference in how well students learned. I can't say enough about how lucky we are to have them here working with students. I was informed today that Uintah Elementary had the highest growth rates for students of all of the schools in the district. That is because of everyone's work this past year to make a positive difference in the lives of students, so thank you parents, students, teachers, paras, secretaries, and our wonderful custodians. Way to go!
As you may have heard, we have new start times this year all across the district and here at Uintah as well. The SLCSD School Board has asked schools to go to one of two start times, and Uintah will be on the 8:00 a.m. start time meaning the first bell will ring at 7:55 a.m. with the Tardy Bell at 8:00 a.m. School will end for students at 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and will end at 12:45 p.m. on Fridays and short days.
I think that a big question on many peoples' minds is what will the school be doing to help children stay safe this year. We want all of the children and adults to be safe this year and every year. Because the legislature took away school districts' ability to mandate masks, we will be STRONGLY ENCOURAGING MASKS on all adults and children while they are on our school property, vaccinated or not, as per many health organizations' suggestions. Our HVAC systems are still set up as last year with the same increased airflow amounts and filtering systems. We will also be following our COVID protocols put in place last year as much as we can given any changes made from the legislature such as loss of mask mandates. Our safety protocols helped last year, and they will help us to move forward as safely as we can now. I am confident enough in what we are doing this year here to help students and adults to be safe that my youngest son will be attending Kindergarten with us this year. I look forward to him getting to know the wonderful Uintah Community as I have.
Despite all of these safety precautions, I know that some still feel uneasy about returning. Please know that we will respect families choices and wishes and will support families however we can. There is an online only school option the district is offering for those who wish it. Information is on the district's website. Some parents have expressed a desire to have their child/ren return to Uintah once they are fully vaccinated. We will welcome students back with open arms whenever they come. We will also respect parent and student choices about mask wearing and will work to ensure that no one is harassed for either wearing or not wearing a mask while here.
Again, we hope that everyone has fun during these last few weeks of summer, and we will see everyone back soon. Look for more information about our Back-to-School night coming up on Monday, August 23rd starting at 5:00 p.m., too. Stay safe and take care.
Bruce Simpson
Principal, Uintah Elementary
