The "Voice" of VPSS

I would like to first welcome all of you back to the second half of the 24-25 school year. I first want to wish all of you a Happy New Year and hope that your holiday season was spent with family and friends.

As we get set to return, I want to remind all that the second semester is one that is filled with lots of activities, state mandated testings, and benchmarks that students and schools have to meet. I am asking that all parents and guardians help us to remind your student that their education is not something they can take for granted. We need your help in getting our students to refocus after time away and to remind them of the importance of all the study decisions and social decisions they make that could have lasting effects on their futures. We all want the same successful outcome for our students, so please help us by pulling in the same direction as us and making the school day a priortity.

I want to thank all of you for helping us with our Attendance Matters initiative and am happy to report that we had 19 of 20 schools improve on first half attendance. I know sometimes attendance and sickness is a struggle that naturally occurs, but making sure your students are there when they are capable of being there has been a great accomplishment for all. Thanks again.

Finally, I want to remind you that Mardi Gras is late this year and that we are about to hit an 8-week uninterrupted period in which major instruction will take place. Please remind your child of the discipline and academic expectations that have been set.

Again I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and welcome all back to the second semester of the school year.

Yours In Education

Thomas J. Byler

Superintendent

As most know by now, the network outage in early October was a result of a cyber attack on the network system. We are continuing the updating of our system which includes a complete rebuild of our servers, new processes in place for security, and contracted outside cyber services with round the clock network monitoring. As school systems across the country have moved to more technology and many of those appearing in networks, the rate of cyber attacks on school systems has increased over 35% in the last year. We assure you that we are taking the necessary steps to upgrade for our system.

As with any network event, we are finding out what areas of our network were potentially compromised and what, if any, personal information may have been breeched. As we move forward, we will be mandated by law to send out the necessary paperwork to all of our stakeholders of areas which may have been potentially affected. Many of us have received letters such as this from many companies in the recent years. We just want to be transparent in our reporting of this information and we will be sending out any necessary documents that we are requred to send out by law.

We thank all of you for your patience and support during this crisis situation and we will continue to work on completing this issue and upgrading for a more protected network in the future.

PLEASE CHECK YOUR SCHOOL CALENDARS FOR SPECIFIC SCHOOL EVENTS

Monday, January 6th

• Third Nine Weeks Begins

• Report Cards Distributed

Saturday, January 11th

• Vermilion Parish Jr. Livestock Show

Monday, January 13th

• VPSB Workshop- 6pm "Vision 2030"

Wednesday, January 15th

• People Power - Abbeville Community Schools - 9 am and 6pm

Thursday, January 16th

• VPSB January Board Meeting - 6 pm

Monday, January 20th

• Martin Luther King - No School

Wednesday, January 29th

• EARLY DISMISSAL DAY