Utopia ISD

Congratulations to Utopia High School Golf Teams for their outstanding performance at the 31-1A District Tournament on Monday. ALL of our golfers qualified for the Regional Golf Tournament! Lady Buffs team placed 1st overall. Team Members: 1st tie Kylie Bomer/Khloei Johnston, 4th Grace Hale, 5th Wing Li, Cora Dean. Buffs team placed 2nd overall. Team Members: 1st Nolan Steelman, 6th Payton Deichler, Johnny Cazares, Jay Cantu

Utopia High School students competed in their Academic UIL District Meet last week. These Buffalos are top notch representatives of Utopia ISD. Seven Buffalos are advancing to the Regional contest in 6 different events. Congratulation Buffs!

Spring is a super busy time. Please make note of the upcoming important dates in April: Thurs 4/1 - End of 5th six weeks. Fri 4/2 - Good Friday Holiday Tues 4/6 - STAAR testing (4th writing, 7th writing, English 1 EOC). Thurs 4/8 - STAAR testing (English 2 EOC). Mon 2/26 - "Bad Weather" Holiday

The Utopia High School Academic Team will be competing in their virtual district meet on Monday, March 22nd and Tuesday, March 23rd. All contestants in Prose need to come to school on Monday dressed for prelims. All contestants in writing events and computer science written need to be ready Monday morning by 8:30. The remainder of the contests will be on Tuesday beginning around 8:30 AM. We are looking forward to a great event!

The Utopia ISD library will be hosting its annual spring book fair Monday, March 22nd though Friday, March 26th. Please feel free to stop by and see what the book fair has to offer! All of the proceeds go towards purchasing additional resources for the library.

MEMORANDUM Date: March 9, 2021 Re: Board Resolution At the regularly held board meeting on March 8, 2021 the Utopia ISD board of trustees voted unanimously to approve a resolution regarding the wearing of masks and face coverings on school property. The resolution states: The Board of Trustees hereby releases teachers and students from the state mandate requiring the wearing of masks at school, subject to the following restrictions: a. Social distancing will remain in place where feasible in the school setting; b. Mask-wearing is encouraged at school events where large numbers of community members gather together; c. Mask wearing remains a personal choice and will be permitted at school; and d. The Superintendent is authorized to temporarily rescind this Resolution pending further Board action in the event of changed conditions, including an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the school population. The board also agreed to begin allowing parents and other visitors on campus during the school day. All visitors are required to check in at the front desk to have their temperature taken and complete a Covid-19 symptom attestation. Visitors will also need to obtain and wear a visitor’s name badge prior to visiting any other part of the school. Although Utopia ISD has relaxed some of the requirements related to Covid-19 we ask that each individual respect the personal space and wishes of others by maintaining social distancing whenever possible. Thank you, Michael Derry Superintendent

Utopia 3rd and 4th graders enjoyed the day at Cascade Caverns learning about rock formations, caves and fault lines. Thanks to all the teachers, parents and staff that helped out!

UISD is happy to announce the arrival of our new 15 passenger mini bus! Coach Dean and her students got to take the maiden voyage around town with Mr Derry at the helm! The mini bus is white because it is an “activity” bus. While the bus may not be used on a route, it does allow anyone with a class C driver’s license to drive it. This will open up the opportunity for sponsors or organizations such as FFA, one act play, golf, tennis, and cross country to drive the bus and only take one vehicle. The bus will save the district money on fuel expenses as well as wear and tear on multiple vehicles. We can not thank the UISD School Board enough for its visionary forethought and support of all of the students at Utopia ISD!

Important UISD Reminders: Monday, March 8 - Remote Learning Day for ALL students. Friday, March 12 - Early Dismissal at 12:52pm Friday, March 12 - Jr High Spring Fling (6th-8th grade), 5-8pm, Utopia School Cafeteria March 15-19, Utopia School Spring Break

I would like to update parents and community members on the latest information from TEA concerning the closing of schools last week during the bad weather. When the week first began TEA released a memo concerning how many days would be allowed without having to make them up. Every day after that the rules changed, so it was very frustrating and virtually impossible to pass on any information without it being changed within a 24-hour period. Very much like the Covid-19 information that was being received earlier in the year, things changed from day to day. It now looks like TEA has settled on what they will allow and how it must be handled. 1. Schools may file a "Missed School Days" waiver for instruction that was missed during the week of February 15-19. This waiver requires board approval, but may be filed retroactively. The plan is to request a waiver for the instructional days that Utopia ISD missed on February 16th - February 19. This will be a board action item at the regular board meeting on March 8. If approved the waiver will be filed and students will not be required to make up the missed days 2. The teacher in-service that was missed on Monday, February 15 will need to be made up. However, a second waiver is available from TEA to allow schools to offer up to five days of remote instruction while teachers are attending professional development. This waiver also requires board approval. The Utopia ISD board met in special session on Monday, March 1st and approve this waiver. The waiver has now been filed with TEA. If TEA approves the waiver, and there is no reason to believe that they will not, Utopia ISD will move to remote instruction on Monday, March 8th for students and the faculty and staff will come to school to complete their in-service training. By handling the missed staff development in this manner teachers and staff will not have to come to school on the Bad Weather Day on April 26th. I hope this helps clear up some questions that some of you may have had. If anyone has any other questions or needs clarification please feel free to contact me. Thank you, Michael

Utopia ISD OAP Dinner Theater this Friday, February 26, 2021 @ 6:30pm in the cafeteria. Limited tickets, please purchase ahead of time.

The Utopia Independent School District board of trustees is accepting applications for a vacant position on the board. Anyone interested should complete the application on the school web site at www.utopiaisd.net. Completed applications should be mailed to: Wayne Moore Utopia ISD School Board Vice-President P.O. Box 273 Utopia, Texas 78884 All applications must be received by March 7, 2021. For questions please call Mr. Moore by phone at (210) 213-3042 or by email at wmoore@utopiaisd.net

Utopia ISD will return to normal face to face and virtual instruction on Monday, February 22, 2021!

Coach Harris is requesting help getting the baseball field ready on Saturday, February 27th from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM for the upcoming season . Any and all volunteers would be greatly appreciated. No equipment is needed, just helping hands and able bodies.

Utopia ISD will remain closed to all face to face and virtual instruction for Thursday, February 18 and Friday, February 19. Bandera Electric Coop has notified the district that intermittent electrical outages will continue through the rest of the week. Maintenance and custodial staff will be working both days to repair broken pipes on campus as well as checking all electrical and plumbing. We cannot thank everyone enough that showed up today to help clean and dry out classrooms that had water in them due to burst pipes. Utopia is a very caring community where everyone pitches in when help is needed. Thank you so much!

Good morning UISD! I hope this message finds you warm and safe. As we start to thaw out this morning let's celebrate all the fun we had and the beauty we saw on our snow days! Please send pictures of your snow day fun to jmazurek@utopiaisd.net. We'd love to see our students, teachers, staff, administrators and school board members' smiling faces. We will collect all the pics and put together a slide show to showcase on social media later this afternoon. Start sending your pics now!

Good afternoon everyone! I hope this message finds each of you staying warm and healthy! The National Weather Bureau and local weather forecasts are calling for more freezing weather overnight and into tomorrow. Electrical companies are also expected to continue rolling power outages across the district as well. Due to the expected bad weather and power outages Utopia ISD will NOT be conducting school either in person or virtually on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. A decision on whether school will be open on Thursday, February 18th will be made later tomorrow afternoon. Please stay safe! Michael Derry Superintendent, Utopia ISD

Due to inclement weather, poor street and highway conditions, power outages, water outages, and internet outages all school operations and functions for Utopia ISD are cancelled for Tuesday, February 16, 2021. This means that there will be no remote or face-to-face instruction occurring on Tuesday. A decision concerning school operations and school functions for Wednesday, February 17, 2021 will be made tomorrow afternoon.

LATE START Due to inclement weather and in an abundance of caution Utopia ISD will have a two hour delayed start for school on Friday, February 12th. Buses are scheduled to run two hours later than normal. Safety is always the first priority of Utopia ISD therefore, road conditions will be evaluated early in the morning to insure the safe transportation of students.

WEATHER UPDATE Utopia ISD is actively monitoring weather conditions around the area. At present none of the roads in the district have been reported closed or hazardous. At this time school is scheduled to open and operate as normal on, Friday, February 12th. Should those plans change all parents will be notified via the district information distribution system using text, email, and voice message. Any school closing will also be posted to the Utopia ISD web page and facebook page.