Viewmont High School is a public high school located in Bountiful, Utah. The school is a member of the Davis School District. The principal, as of 2016, is Jason Smith. In 2011, VHS was identified by Newsweek magazine and the Washington Post as being in the top 5% of all public high schools in the United States. Viewmont students average 23.44 on the ACT. In addition, Viewmont graduates 97% of its seniors, with over 40% earning college credit through Advanced Placement and Concurrent Enrollment classes. In 2010-11, the top 20% of graduates generated approximately $4 million in scholarship offers. Viewmont also offers a full range of artistic, athletic, and career and technical programs.
School information
Sports
Viewmont High School offers many sports, such as football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, volleyball, cross country, track and field, golf, tennis, swimming and American football. Viewmont has won the state title in wrestling in seven out of the last ten years. The Viewmont men's tennis team has won three state titles in recent years. The Viewmont men's and women's swimming teams have won two state titles each in recent years. Swimmer Drew Bonner set the state record on February 12, 2016, in 500-yard Freestyle at 4:32.53. Viewmont is a 5A school, along with nearby schools such as Bountiful, Woods Cross, and Farmington.
Clubs
Viewmont has a wide variety of clubs, including:
Bookstore
The Viewmont Bookstore is a student run store open every day at lunch. They sell a variety of food items, such as Frazil frozen drinks, Tacotime Burritos, Chick-fil-A, Little Caesars Pizza, and Joy Luck. They also sell a variety of Viewmont apparel.
''Danegeld''
The Danegeld, the Viewmont school newspaper, is written and published by students several times a year. The newspaper has been in print since 1964, and in 1968 its name was changed from The Big V to the Danegeld. The Danegeld staff has also created an online blog that allows students to openly discuss articles.
Vikings Give
For years, Viewmont held a fundraiser to support students in Salt Lake City who attend Guadalupe Elementary School. The monetary amount differed from year to year, but consistently reached upwards of $25,000 in its final years 4–5 years. The money was used to buy Christmas presents that the children would otherwise not receive. Other local charities were also given part of the students' fundraising efforts. Students who wished to attend the trip to Guadalupe must participate in fundraising activities and help shop for the children's wish lists. In 2016, the Guadalupe was replaced with a new program called Viking Gives. In the most recent years of establishing the new program of “Vikings Give”, Viewmont has been able to earn upwards of $80,000.
VHS Marching Band
The VHS Marching Band competes in local marching band competitions in the 4A class. They also march in a number of local parades. They took third in 2A in 2015 at the state championship in Red Rocks, St. George. In several other competitions that year, they placed third.
Pathways, advisory and SRC
For the 2007-2008 school year, each student at Viewmont was placed into one of five pathways: Arts, Business, Humanities, Science, or Technology. The pathways "allow students to develop their interests and specialize as much as they would like". Students go to an advisory class twice a month based on their grade and pathway. SRC is a mandatory study hall for students that failed one or more classes the previous term. SRC is also mandatory for all sophomores during the first term of each school year, or for any age student who desires to receive help in any particular subject. It is held during the first part of lunch every school day except Fridays. In addition, Viewmont has "Link Crew", a new sophomore transition program, which matches incoming students with a group of upperclassmen to help connect and educate and facilitate inclusion for all new students.
Notable historical incidents
On the night of November 8, 1974, Viewmont High School was the site of serial killer Ted Bundy's abduction of 17 year old Viewmont High School student Debra Kent. That night, Viewmont Highschool Drama club was presenting the playThe Redhead. During the play, Bundy was seen repeatedly inside Viewmont High School auditorium, asking students as well as the Viewmont dance teacher to go outside with him. At one point Bundy was sitting watching the play behind the Kent family, and at another point pretending to be a theater usher, both before and after Kent was abducted in the school parking lot and presumably locked in Bundy's car parked there. Bundy later confessed that he did not finally kill Kent at Viewmont High School, but abducted her to his apartment where he later killed her. Another Viewmont High School student, 15 year old Susan Curtis, who also attended the school play that night, was abducted and killed by Bundy on the 27th of June 1975.
