Go Big Red: DCHS Weekly Message

Week 16: Snow Day!

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Decatur County Community High School

605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749

December 4, 2022 (Schedule at the bottom, Skip What You Want)

Follow us on Twitter at @DCHSREDDEVILS or

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Oberlin294/

Decatur community,

There are few things more exciting for a student than waking up to find that you have a Snow Day. Believe me, teachers get just as excited. I bet each of us could think back to a Snow Day from our youth (unless you went to school in the South your whole life). Hollywood has even made movies about the mythical days that are never on the calendar and often come at the last second.

When I think back, I remember a day in Little Rock, Arkansas. The streets were covered in snow, and we played the most memorable day of tackle football of my youth right there on the streets. It was the only Snow Day I ever had in Arkansas.

I remember my first as a teacher. My wife and I found out the night before and went outside and ran around in the falling flakes. Ah... to be a young teacher again.

I also remember the 4 straight Snow Days in the winter of 2002, the first one the beginning of a 9 day power outage in our home. Well, they're not all great.

This week was a busy one, filled with a Snow Day, a KESA Day, and a Dust Night. It may not have been the most exciting or memorable Snow Day (my first in Oberlin), but it gave me a lot of time to focus on our KESA OVT visit.

What can I say? They get a bit more boring as you get older.

SHOUTOUTS

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Shoutout to Dr. Applegate for making the call to close school. Through 25 years in education, I have seen the stress that comes with making the decision to have school or not on a snowy/icy day, and I have seen the unfortunate consequences of forcing a day of school on a bad day. Dr. Applegate was in frequent communication with our Transportation Director Brian Simonsson, and together they were able to make an appropriate decision.

Shoutout to Brian Simonsson. Our transportation director does the large majority of his work behind the scenes, but he always has our variety of vehicles ready to perform. He is always very aware of the surrounding circumstances. Aside from his assistance with the "Snow Day," Mr. Simonsson was also watching the severe wind last Friday, analyzing every angle to make sure that our buses would be able to run their routes. He is greatly appreciated throughout the district.

Shoutout to head of maintenance Kenny Black. Kenny has been out of the building for the past few months, and a tremendous weight was lifted off of all of our shoulders when he returned this past week. Rumor has it that Kenny is older than the building. No one knows DCHS like Kenny Black, and the building felt whole again with him roaming the halls.

Shoutout to all of the seniors and their parents that participated in the selling of the Puffins for the Post-Prom Fundraiser. The delivery was this past Thursday, and the turnout was a huge success. I didn't even know what a puffin was when I came here, but it they are obviously well known here in Oberlin.

Shoutout to Brenda Breth, Brandon Gehring, Krickit Ketterl, Wendy Scott, Gina Witt, and Debbie Withington. These were the members of the KESA team (read more below). These educators have spent an unknown amount of hours on the KESA process for the past several years. This year alone, they have each given up 5 days of school for just this process, the culminating day was this past Wednesday during our OVT visit. It is very hard to put into words the amount of "extra" that these staff members have endured. Next time around, the wealth will be shared, as we all come to know KESA together.

Things You Should Know

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KESA (Kansas Education Systems Accreditation)

This past Wednesday, we had our OVT (Outside Visitation Team) Visit, the final meeting in a 5-Year process known as KESA. Now, it's not completely over, but we have turned in our report, given our final presentation, and now wait for the State to evaluate our work.

Every school in Kansas must go through a process of evaluation to become accredited. This process has changed many times over the decades. KESA is the current process, a 5 year cycle that frequently adjusts its requirements and expectations. As an example, here is the state's current answer to the question, "What is KESA?"

"The KESA model is designed around system/district-level accreditation occurring at the end of a five-year cycle of improvement using an education framework called “The Five Rs” – Relationships, Relevance, Responsive Culture, Rigor and Results."

Those "Five Rs?" They will be gone after this year, a whole new process.

KESA is big and it is very hard to condense into a small section in a Weekly Message. I will address KESA a piece at a time over the next several weeks. For now, I am just going to leave with a brief list of steps in the process through the 5 years that got us where we are today. We will start talking about the guts of the whole process as the year goes on.

Step 1: School Buildings at the beginning of the cycle determine current strengths, weaknesses, and challenges, and complete a Needs Assessment.

Step 2: District Leadership Team reviews the Needs Assessment and sets goals for improvement.

Step 3: Site Councils are included in the process as outside stakeholders,. They are informed of the current state of the district and the goals put in place by the leadership team and are included in the process of improvement.

Step 4: An OVT Outside Visitation Team is created to help serve as guides through the process. After the final OVT visit in year 5, the OVT will submit a report to the state.

Step 5: Accreditation Review Council: This 15 member council makes the recommendation of accreditation to the state. This is really the final step. The members review the final reports from the district and the OVT. They then make their recommendation to the State Board of Education.

Step 6: The Kansas State Board of Education reviews the recommendation of the ARC and makes the final decision.

That's it for KESA this week.

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10 Students Represent DCHS at KMEA

Congratulations to the 8 Choir and 2 Band Members that represented DCHS this past weekend as members of the District Honor choir and Band at KMEA.

DCHS District Honor Choir Members:

Bryant Addleman (12)

Weston Barnes (10)

Cameo Counter (10)

Cheyanna Hale (10)

Addison Mathews (11)

Jordan Ruzicka (10)

Allyson Simpson (10)

Olivia Williby (12)

DCHS District Honor Band Members:

Sage Bryan

Theo Butterfield

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Testing

This past week, students took their winter FastBridge test, and they will follow it up this week with the Kansas State Interims. I discussed these in an earlier message this year when the students took the fall tests.

Here's a refresher on what FastBridge is:

What is FastBridge? As a universal screener, FastBridge is a test that is taken 3 times a year, fall, winter, and spring. It is a combination of reading and math tests taken by students throughout the country. Whereas state assessments compare students in Kansas and only include how well a student performs on content taught at grade level, a universal screener compares students to others throughout the country and measures their level across grades.

Upon completing the test this week and the closing of the testing window throughout the country, student results will be available, and each student will be identified as either advanced, on-track, slight risk, or high risk.

The Kansas State Interim Tests are also taken 3 times a year, and this week students take the winter test. These tests are mini versions of the Kansas State Assessment, a critical piece to the above mentioned KESA in the future. These mini tests tell us how our students are doing on specific state standards. As a group, it allows us to evaluate our curriculum and our instruction. As individuals, it gives us the ability to target areas of weakness for each student.

Parents and students, it is important to discuss doing your best on these tests. Without top effort, it is very difficult to use the information to help our students and teachers improve in the appropriate ways. It's also possible that students would be identified as needing assistance when they really just didn't put forth the effort.

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Community Open House

Patrons Encouraged to Tour USD 294 Facilities on Dec. 14 and 19

The USD 294 Board of Education invites community members to see firsthand the current conditions of Decatur County High School and Oberlin Elementary. The goal for the evening is to start a discussion on what facility improvements are needed, to help position the school district for success in years to come.

Tours will be held at 5:30 p.m. on both Wednesday, December 14 and Monday, December 19, beginning in the High School Auditorium, 605 E. Commercial St. Board members and school district staff will be on hand to guide the tours, answer questions, and give insight into the current challenges.

“Our community’s ability to thrive in the future depends on the quality of our schools, and facilities play a major role in the education of our children,” said Joel Applegate, USD 294 Superintendent. “Both of our facilities have served our community greatly over the years, and now is the time to look at plans that will allow us to continue to serve the community and our children for the next fifty years.”

For more information, contact Joel Applegate at 785-475-3805.

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Early Release Wednesday

This year, there will be Early Release Days from school on the first Wednesday of the month. Teachers will meet together in teams, and it will give them some much needed time to meet together in groups, work on data, and plan for the following month.

This Wednesday, December, 7th students will be released from DCHS at 2:00.

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DCHS Basketball Seasons Will Begin with the McCook Cattle Trail Tournament

My first ever dust cancellation occurred this past Friday, delaying the beginning of the season for our high school basketball teams. Our rival matchup with Atwood will have to wait for a later date. Take a look at the attached brackets to see what is in store for our teams.

GO BIG RED

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That's going to do it for this week. 13 days of school left before Winter Break. Can you believe it? Not much time, but a whole heck of a lot of things still going on.

Until next Week

Jeremy Holloway

Go Big Red!