DeKeyser News
October 19, 2025
Principal: Mrs. Shannon Hathcock
Administrative Assistant: Mrs. Lisa Russo
Clerk: Mrs. Heather Mansour
Location: 39600 Atkinson, Sterling Heights., MI 48313
Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Office Phone Number: (586)797-4400
24 Hr Attendance Line (586)797-4499
Fax (586)797-4401
Email officedekeyser@uticak12.org
Website: DeKeyser Elementary / Homepage (uticak12.org)
Facebook: DeKeyser Elementary School
School Hours: 9:05 AM - 3:55 PM (full days) and 9:05 AM -12:09 PM (half days)
Morning SACC (DeKeyser): 6:45 am - 9:05 am
Afternoon SACC (Messmore): 3:55 pm - 6:00 pm (Students bussed from DeKeyser to Messmore)
Breakfast Hours: 8:45 - 9:05
UCS 2025 - 2026 School Calendar
The complete 2025-26 UCS Calendar is now available. Follow the below link to see important dates for the remainder of this year. Please note: October 31 – Halloween – is the end of the first quarter and will be a half-day for elementary students.
What's Happening at DeKeyser
October 20th - 24th
October 2025
VIP Parking – Danyette Embry
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
Bully Prevention Month
Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind / Purposeful People Character Trait: Respect
School Bus Safety Week (Oct. 20 – 24)
Safe Schools Week (Oct. 20 – 24)
Digital Citizenship Week (Oct. 20 – 24)
Monday, Oct. 20
Halloween Grams
Spirit Day: Mindful Monday – Wear Cozy PJ’s
Spirit Day: -Detroit Lions Spirit Wear – Monday Night Football
3:55pm-5:15pm Crayola Wild World Animal Rescuers (Art)
6:00 – 7:00 – Cub Scouts
Tuesday, Oct. 21
Happy Birthday Melissa McDonald! 🥳
Apple Day
Halloween Grams
Spirit Day: Digital Explorer Day – Wear Safari Hats or Travel Themed Clothes
6th Grade SMART Moves – 5/6 Collaboration Space
6:30 – 8:30 DeKeyser Dolphins – Lego Robotics Team Practice - Cafeteria
Wednesday, Oct. 22
No School – Teacher DPPD
Thursday, Oct. 23
Halloween Grams
Pumpkins Due Back to DeKeyser
Spirit Day: AI for Good Day – Wear Bright Colors
9:15 – 11:30 – PTCG Candy Sort - Cafeteria
4:00pm-5:00pm Macomb Crew Soccer –Session 1 (Gym)
6:00 – 7:30 – EDAC Parent Meeting @ Bemis
6:30 – 8:30 DeKeyser Dolphins – Lego Robotics Team Practice - Cafeteria
Friday, Oct. 24
Frozen Friday - $1 Popsicle Sale
Halloween Grams
Spirit Day: Future Ready Friday – Wear School Colors or College-Career Gear
Spirit Day: Wear Blue or Green - Who do you support? Michigan or Michigan State
4:30 - 5:15 - Cars / Trucks arrive
6:00– 7:30– Spooktacular / Trunk or Treat
UCS Celebrates Digital Citizenship Week
Friday, October 24th
What's Happening at DeKeyser
October 27th - 31st
October 2025
VIP Parking – Danyette Embry
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
Bully Prevention Month
Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind / Purposeful People Character Trait: Respect
DeKeyser Halloween Spirit Week Coming Soon!
Red Ribbon Week (Oct. 27 – 31)
Monday, Oct. 27
3:55pm-a5:15pm Crayola Wild World Animal Rescuers (Art)
4:15 – ATG Parent Meeting - TEAMS
Tuesday, Oct. 28
6th Grade SMART Moves – 5/6 Collaboration Space
6:30 – 8:30 DeKeyser Dolphins – Lego Robotics Team Practice - Cafeteria
Wednesday, Oct. 29
National Cat Day
Bubbles Boutique – School Store Open Durning Lunch
Beautification Team – Students meet during lunch recess
Thursday, Oct. 30
Halloween Grams Delivered today
4:00pm-5:00pm Macomb Crew Soccer (Make-Up Date)
6:30 – 8:30 DeKeyser Dolphins – Lego Robotics Team Practice - Cafeteria
Friday, Oct. 31
Happy Halloween
½ Day – 12:09 Dismissal – PM Specials
End of 1st Quarter
11:30 – Parade (Outdoors)
12:09 Dismissal
Halloween Parade
Friday, October 31st - 11:30 - Outside
We are excited to announce that DeKeyser Elementary will have a Halloween parade again this year! The parade will begin at 11:30 a.m. Students will parade around the outside of the building.
Parade will begin at the front of the building and we will walk students around the entire building. Students will get dropped off at their classroom door where they will watch the rest of the parade.
Parents should line up outside of their child's classroom door.
6th Grade students will be in special during this time. They will be led around the building by their specialist teacher. 6th grade teachers will send home more information prior to the parade.
Please consult with your child's teacher to see what acceptable items are able to be sent in for the classroom party.
See the information below about Halloween costumes at school.
Halloween Costume Guidelines
Halloween is a time of year where some of our students get super excited about picking out their Halloween costumes, and as parents/guardians we know that sometimes those "popular" costumes are hard to find the longer we wait to go shopping. With that being said we thought it may be helpful for you to have an idea of what those "school appropriate" costumes are here at DeKeyser. Keep in mind, or as we like to put things in perspective with our older students.... we have students as young as 4-5 years old and while some costumes are "age appropriate for them", they may not be appropriate for the all-school parade. After reading the guidelines below if you have any questions regarding the suitability, please contact the office or your child's teacher.
Students should refrain from violent characterization and may not use any fake weapons, fake blood, or any references to victims or perpetrators of violence for their costume choice at school. Violent characterization is unacceptable for school parades and where younger students might be frightened. If deemed inappropriate by school personnel, students will be asked to remove the costume and/or wash their makeup.
Book, cartoon, folk heroes, historical figures, and period costumes are all good ideas to consider when thinking of the perfect costume.
Since Halloween is a half day of school, students will be allowed to wear costumes to school. Check to be sure that your child can walk freely, and that the costume will be comfortable enough for the classroom setting. Masks may be worn (frightening masks not permitted) but those that impede vision should be left at home. Plan to have your child bring any costume props (wigs and other add-ons) to school in a bag or backpack.
Maturation Programs for 4th & 5th Grade Girls
The Macomb Intermediate School District will be offering additional maturation programs for fourth and fifth grade girls along with their mothers or guardians. These sessions will provide an opportunity to address questions related to growth and development. See the flyer below with important dates and registration information.
Report Card Information
Dear Parents,
Report cards will be posted in your PowerSchool account after 4:00 p.m. on Friday, November 7, 2025. Here are the top three things you need to know:
• Access to the report cards will not be available through the PowerSchool app. The report cards are available by logging into your account through your favorite browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).
• We strongly encourage you to make sure you can access your account by a web browser. If you need technical assistance, please contact our school office.
• You must have a PowerSchool account to see the report card. If you do not have an account, please follow the instructions at this link.
For more information on how report cards will be shared, where to access the report cards, how to request a new password or set up a PowerSchool account, please see this link.
DeKeyser Visitors & Volunteers
Important Information:
We are asking for your support to help keep our students safe.
All visitors to our school will now be required to swipe their Government Issued Photo ID upon entry to the main office. This swipe will provide an immediate check against the sex offender registry. This process is for anyone who is going past the school office.
It is strongly recommended parents/guardians download the Raptor Safe app in order to create a visitor profile. The Raptor Safe app offers a convenient and secure way for visitors to manage and verify their identify before arriving at school. This profile provides a Raptor Passport which can be used to quickly and easily check in at the school office via the app.
If you plan to volunteer in our classroom, work directly with a student and/or chaperone a field trip, etc. you will need to have a volunteer background check on file. The new volunteer application form is located at this link: www.uticak12.org/volunteer. The background check involves multiple state and federal law enforcement databases.
We greatly appreciate the involvement of our families and the difference you make at DeKeyser Elementary. Thank you for your partnership with this extra step that will improve safety in our school.
PTCG News
The candy monster is all filled up and we're ready to crown our new CANDY CHAMPIONS for this school year! Let's hear it for Mrs. Welke's kindergarten kiddos donating over 100 pounds of candy for our Spooktacular Trunk or Treat!! Woo hoo! PTCG is super excited to provide this generous group with a pizza party for all their Halloween help. We'll be in touch with Mrs. Welke to choose the perfect day for a pizza lunch! Congratulations!
Thank you so much to all the families that donated candy these past two weeks so we can pass it all back out to our dolphins on Friday, October 24th from 6:00-7:30pm at Spooktacular Trunk or Treat! We only have 20 families so far that are willing to set up their trunk or a table (provided from the school) to help us pass out over 1,000 pounds of candy to our kiddos. PTCG is still looking for more families to join us with their cars to provide more trunk-or-treating fun for our kiddos. If you'd like to participate, please click here to sign up by Wednesday: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B49A8AE2AA1FEC61-58816358-spooktacular#/ If you're setting up a trunk or table for this event, set-up time runs from 4:30-5:30pm so we can make sure all vehicles are parked and arranged before Spooktacular kicks off at 6:00pm. We look forward to seeing you there!
PTCG sends a tremendous THANK YOU to Sarah Keilman for picking up and distributing 30 pumpkins to our families this week to get them all painted and decorated for our Pumpkin Raffle at Spooktacular! Please remember that we'll be selling Pumpkin Raffle tickets for $1 on Friday evening for lucky families to try and win one of these amazing pumpkins and bring home for Halloween! Be sure to keep an eye on our DeKeyser PTCG Facebook page to see pictures of our incredible pumpkins when they return to school by Thursday, October 23rd! Thank you to all the families helping out with these pumpkins!!
Community Events / Opportunities
Grade Level T-Shirts
We Love Our Volunteers and Visitors!
We are asking for your support to help keep our students safe. If you plan to volunteer in our classrooms, work directly with a student and/or chaperone a field trip, etc. you will need to have a volunteer background check on file. The new volunteer application form is located at this link: www.uticak12.org/volunteer. The background check involves multiple state and federal law enforcement databases. We greatly appreciate the involvement of our families and the difference you make at DeKeyser Elementary. Thank you for your partnership with this extra step that will improve safety in our school.
A few reminders:
- Please have all required documentation ready before you begin.
- The application must be completed in one sitting.
- One application can be used for multiple schools
- Once approved, you will be cleared to volunteer in UCS schools
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the DeKeyser Office: OfficeDeKeyser@uticak12.org or 586-797-4400.
Thank you for supporting our students and school community through volunteering!
School Age Child Care
Utica Community Schools is pleased to provide an opportunity for School Age Child Care (SACC)!
DeKeyser Options are as follows:
Morning SACC: Monday - Friday 6: 45 am - 9:05 am (Currently registering on a waitlist)
Afternoon SACC: Monday - Friday 3:55 pm – 6:00 pm at Messmore Elementary
Students will be bussed to this location after school.
Please click on the link below for more information and the opportunity to register your child for SACC.
UCS Text Messaging Service
UCS App
Utica Community Schools has a new mobile app! Search for 'Utica Schools' in your phone's app store and download the free app to stay up-to-date on district and school news. The old mobile app 'Utica Community Schools' is no longer supported and should be deleted from your devices. Download at the App store here and Google Play here.