Red Devil Ready:DCHS WeeKly Message

Week 20: Snow Day!

Decatur County Community High School

605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749

January 13, 2025 (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. At least I was able to read the entire Lord of the Rings series, including The Hobbit during that time. The movies had just come out during the holiday season that year.

What did I do this time? Work stuff!

They get a bit less exciting when you get older.

SHOUTOUTS

Shoutout to Sports in Kansas founder Chet Kuplen. Chet came to DCHS this past Thursday to speak to our students about the decisions that they make when it comes to posting on the large variety of social media sites that are out there today. Chet was able to share stories of his own that were related to how different it was for himself when he was a teen in the early 2000s, primarily due to the lack of a phone with the power of ours today. He also shared several stories that hit home with our students about kids just like them who had their lives turned upside down because of poor posting decisions. I know it made an impact, as several students were discussing it later, and teachers were sharing some of the conversations they had after. In all honesty, it would be a great program for anyone, including adults, to be a part of.

Shoutout to all of my staff that participated in our CTE (Career and Technical Education) Pathway inservice this past Wednesday. All of my staff were hard at work, but we had 6 teachers added to the already decent size list of CTE teachers that joined forces. I will explain CTE Pathways a bit more below. It is more on teachers' plates, but they were ready to embrace it for our students.

Shoutout to our band teacher, Mr. Brad Persinger. Prior to the break, Mr. Persinger brought his guitar students into the office to play holiday songs for a few of us. This was something he started last year, and the students once again did not disappoint. It's great to see such a wide range of students that have taken the class. Mr. Persinger is also preparing to take several of his band students to the K-State band clinic in a few weeks as well, another great tradition.

Shoutout to Business Essentials teacher Tamera Rice. Mrs. Rice has got off to an engaging first week back from break with her students and is teaching them about stocks by participating in the KSU High School Investment Competition. This is the exact type of real world, high interest type of activitiy that I know has the capability of sparking a genuine interest for several of our students, and I look forward to following along and sharing updates in the future.

Shoutout to Jess Allen and the maintenance staff. In early December, we had the mass, live-intruder drill with all of our responding stakeholders. We have an old building, and there were several items that were identified as issues that needed to be addressed. A primary issue was the classroom doorhandles. They are old doors, and to lock them, you had to open the door and insert your key on the outside. That is an obvious issue that we knew needed to be addressed. Over the break Jess and the maintenance crew updated every door with new doorhandles that are both ADA compliant and can easily be locked internally.

Shoutout to my Math and English teachers. This past Wednesday, they spent the afternoon looking at the varioius types of student data that we have to analyze and look at ways to improve instruction and help our students in the best way possible. I look forward to what I know these teachers will continue to achieve as we move forward. In a lot of ways, it is unfair when it comes to ELA and math, as so much success of a school comes down to how well your students perform on State Assessments in those subjects, according to the State.

Shoutout to junior wrestler Kyra Sowers. I am so proud of Kyra. Two years ago I wrote about Kyra being the first female wrestler for DCHS, and she went on to the State competition as a freshman. Last year, she improved as a sophomore and returned to the State competition. This past weekend, she won yet another tournament, this time, pinning the #1 ranked girl in her class at Norton. Kyra has put girls' wrestling on the map at DCHS, and she has set the bar high. I anxiously look forward to the rest of her season and her continued success over the next few years.

Shoutout to math teacher and forensics coach Gina Witt. This past Friday she hosted her annual Night of Forensics in the DCHS library. There were 20 kids that showed up, showing that our forensics team is growing. Mrs. Witt is a positive model of genunie passion, energy, and professionalism, whether it be the classroom or one of the many activities that she is involved with.

Things You Should Know

CTE (Career and Technical Education) Pathways

CTE stands for Career and Technical Education. There are actually hundreds of different CTE courses that can be offered to high school students across the state of Kansas if there is staffing and demand to do so. These courses are grouped into what we call Pathways, a series of of courses that together give a cohesive experience to our students. There are many potential Pathways that fit into one of the 7 generalized Clusters noted here:

1. Business

2. Family and Consumer Science

3. Public Services

4. Design Production and Repair

5. Agriculture

6. Media and Technology

7. Health

Currently we have these Pathways in place:

Agriculture Cluster (Mr. Ketterl)

Animal Science (Think Vets, Small and Large Animal Care, Ag Business.etc.)

Ag Technology and Mechanical Systems (Welding, Small Engines, Ag Mechanics, etc.)

Diversified Ag Science (Ag Leadership, Horticulture, Plant&Soil, etc.)

Design Production and Repair Cluster (Mr. Breth)

Construction and Design (Carpentry, Drafting, Architecture, etc.)

Media and Technology Cluster (Mrs. Scott/Ms. Saul)

Digital Media (Video Production, Journalism, Photography, etc.)

Looking to add these Pathways:

Public Services Cluster: (Mr.Williams/Mrs. Moore/Mrs. Springer/Mr. Gehring)

Teaching/Training (Education)

Government & Public Administration (Lawyers, City Workers, Law Enforcement, Police, etc.)

Health Cluster: (Mr. Bricker/Mr. Wendelin)

Health Science (Nursing, Doctors, Health Care, etc.)

I will go into Pathways, their benefits, and much more about them as we get closer to enrollment.

Attendance Policy

The state of Kansas requires each school district to have an Attendance Policy. It is part of each school's rating and accreditation.

The student pictured is a former Louisburg High School student that graduated 11 years ago. His name is Dylan York. I taught Dylan both English and History back when he was in middle school. This picture was taken when a news crew from FOX4 News in KC came to Louisburg to do a story on Dylan. Why? Dylan did not miss one day of school for his entire career, K-12, much less 6 days in a semester without a doctor's note.

Below is a an email that you will receive if your student's attendance becomes a concern. For some, it is simply a notification, and you are very aware, but these will be sent out starting the last week in January to bi-weekly from that point to all parents of students that are on pace to miss too many days, affecting the district's "Chronic Absenteeism" on the annual report. Next week, I will continue with an explanation of "Chronic Absenteeism," and what that means as defined by the state.

Hello,

You are receiving this email due to the fact that your student has missed several days of school and has exceeded or is on pace to exceed their maximum allowable parent-excused absences this semester. If you have doctor’s notes that you can provide for prior absences, please have them sent over to the high school so that we can update your records.

Here is the current policy:

Doctor’s Excused Absences: These absences do not count against your attendance total. The school reserves the right to verify these absences if there become too many. These absences are strictly related to illness and or injury. For the most part, these do not factor into the equation.
Excused Absences: These are absences that a parent can call in. You may not need to see a doctor every time you don’t feel well. These can be used at any time. Students are allowed 6 absences per semester without a doctor’s note. When they hit the 7th call in, it is unexcused without a doctor’s note.
Unexcused absences: Absences that are unaccounted for or are over the 6 excused days and no doctor’s note is provided.

School policy states that unexcused absences result in the following:

1. Loss of free time for the remainder of the semester

2. Potential ISS for repeated offenses

3. Truancy letter turned into the Decatur County Attorney if meeting the criteria below:

State Law says that truancy kicks in when there are one of the following:

3 unexcused absences in a row
5 unexcused absences in a semester
7 unexcused absences in a school year

Your student's current attendance: ______

Excused Absences without a doctor’s note: _______ (6 max per semester)

Unexcused Absences: _____

If you have any questions or further information, please feel free to reach out to us at 785-475-2231.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Holloway

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on how the attendance policy works.

Red Devil Ready

Well, that's it for this week. The Kansas City Chiefs were fortunate enough to survive this week without ever having played. I am actually writing this on Saturday night, so by the time this message comes out we will all already know if they will be playing the Houston Texans or my Denver Broncos. Roger May, Trevor Williams, Brady Gehring, Grant Anderson, Brennen Louderback, Josiah Pattangall, Coulter Coryell, and all of my other fellow Bronco fans, I'm feeling you. Whether it's happy or sad, I'm feeling you.

Until next week!

Jeremy Holloway

Go Big Red!