DeKeyser News

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

September 2025

VIP Parking – Amy Nowaczok

Hispanic Heritage Month

Deaf Awareness Month

Habit 1: Be Proactive / Purposeful People Character Trait: 3-to-Be

NWEA Fall Reading & Math Testing Window – K-6: September 2, 2025 - September 26, 2025

Monday, Sept. 15

• Happy Birthday Kimberly Carlson! 🥳

• Happy Birthday Megan Staniek! 🥳

• Hispanic Heritage Month

• Arts In Education Week

Tuesday, Sept. 16

• Happy Birthday Aleece Tousignant! 🥳

• National IT Professional Day

• DeKeyser Celebrates Constitution Day

Wednesday, Sept. 17

• No School – Professional Development

• 6:30 am - 10pm - Chick-fil-A Fundraiser - See Flyer

Thursday, Sept. 18

Friday, Sept. 19

• Frozen Friday - $1 Popsicle Day

• Talk Like a Pirate Day

Safety remains a priority for our school. DeKeyser Elementary is once again providing training to our students on our safety protocols. The protocols identify actions that students may be asked to take in the event of a potential incident: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate and shelter.

The training is provided through a short, animated video. In the video, the teacher – Mrs. Appleton – and her students walk through the different responses in a very relaxed and engaging way for younger children. The script was written by our staff.

The protocols will continue to be part of the training while practicing our regular school safety drills, such as fire drills, security drills, tornado drills, evacuation procedures, etc.

The video is available for you to review at this link: UCS School Safety: Standard Response Protocol - Elementary - YouTube

If you have any questions, please contact our office.

September 2025

VIP Parking – Amy Nowaczok

Hispanic Heritage Month

Deaf Awareness Month

Habit 1: Be Proactive / Purposeful People Character Trait: 3-to-Be

NWEA Fall Reading & Math Testing Window – K-6: September 2, 2025 - September 26, 2025

Monday, Sept. 22

• First day of Fall

Tuesday, Sept. 23

• Rosh Hashanah

Wednesday, Sept. 24

Thursday, Sept. 25

• 4:00pm-5:00pm Macomb Crew Soccer-Session 1 (Gym)

• 6:00 – 8:00 Parent Advisory Meeting (Gym)

Friday, Sept. 26

• FUN RUN

• Johnny Appleseed Day

• Scholastic is hosting live author events on Friday's in September!

9:25 - 9:40 Whole School Pledge & Picture

9:40 - 10:25 First Grade

10:15 - 11:00 Kindergarten

10:50 - 11:35 Second Grade

11:25 - 12:10 Sixth Grade

12:10 - 1:10 LUNCH

1:10 - 1:55 Fourth Grade

1:45 - 2:30 Fifth Grade

2:20 - 3:05pm Third Grade

The personal use of non-school issued cell phones or other electronic communications devices (ECDs) by students is prohibited at any time while in school or in a district vehicle...Elementary students may bring device to school, but the devices must remain in their backpacks or locker area.

Personal use of the device shall be limited to the time before and after the school day and only when students are outside the building. ECDs shall not be used during instructional time, lunch, passing time between classes or on any school bus without permission of a school official. The use of an ECD’s picture-taking or internet connection capability is not permitted without permission of a teacher or administrator.

Utica Community Schools will not be responsible for the theft, loss or damage of any ECD.

District staff, students and parents have recently received a large number of phishing emails, coming from UCS staff, with the subject "You are invited!" When someone clicks to view the invitation, or on any of the links in the email, they are prompted to login with their email credentials. Once they provide their credentials, their account is then compromised and used to send out more of these attacks to others in the district.

If you receive one of these emails, do NOT open, do NOT click on the links, do NOT respond or submit personal information to these requests. Contact the Helpdesk and let them know that you've received a suspicious email and then delete it.

Remember to always be cautious when clicking on emails that you were not expecting, and NEVER provide your login information when requested by email.

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!

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.

Thank you so much to all the families that attended our first PTCG meeting on Tuesday! We had the most amazing turnout and appreciated all of your support tremendously. We are looking forward to a fantastic year together!

We have our first PTCG Restaurant Night at the Chick-fil-A on Hall Road this Wednesday, September 17th. This Spirit Event is from 6:30am-10:00pm with 20% of all proceeds going back to our school community! For in-person ordering, you can begin your order by saying, “I'm with the Spirit Event." (You must let them know you‘re with the Spirit Event, otherwise, your order will not count toward the fundraiser.) For Mobile App Ordering on the Chick-fil-A One App, during Checkout, select the "Support Community Care Event" button, and enter the code- Dolphins. Thank you so much for your support!!

Get ready to lace up your sneakers for DeKeyser's 17th Annual Fun Run coming up on Friday, September 26th! This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for our school, and we need your help! PTCG is asking our amazing DeKeyser community to share the news of our Fun Run event with family members and friends while collecting pledges/donations for participating in this great activity. Since this is our 17th year hosting a Fun Run, our school goal for is to reach $17,000!

Students are able to collect donations from family and friends to earn INCREDIBLE rewards and prizes for their fundraising efforts! Donations can be accepted online if families share our DeKeyser FUN RUN page using our new collection site called Zeffy to track donations and meet the goals for higher levels of prizes. Here is the link to share our school's Fun Run page for collecting donations: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/dekeyser-fun-run

You can share the link for our DeKeyser Fun Run page via email, text messages, or social media with your friends and family. Families can also send in CASH or CHECK (made payable to DeKeyser PTCG) donations using the Fun Run envelope coming home with your home this week. You can send any cash/check donations into school and give them to your child's teacher.

If your family prefers not to collect pledges for this fundraiser, please consider making a personal donation to DeKeyser PTCG on behalf of your child(ren) to help support us with buses for field trips, events/activities for the year, school assemblies and programs, teacher/student materials, and MORE! All pledges and donations are due by Friday, September 26th. Please remember that 100% of the donations go to our school. We appreciate your support!

If you would like to volunteer at our Fun Run with passing out water, managing student safety around the running path, grabbing popsicles, and more, please click here to sign-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B49A8AE2AA1FEC61-51393693-funrun#/

Is your child interested in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics)? Are they looking to broaden their horizons and try out a new opportunity? Night on Mars is the perfect event for you! For children in 2nd to 5th grade only, Night on Mars is a fun, interactive design and building event that will help children explore their interest in science and robotics. It will include an immerse experience along with a creative design and building activity, all free of charge. Not only will they have tons of fun, but you and your child will be informed on our high school robotics team, Crevolution 2851, and Project FIRST First. Project FIRST First is an excellent opportunity to allow your child to begin/join a robotics team in their school. All you have to do is show up! We hope to see many of you there.

Consider signing up for Utica Community Schools texting service. This is a service for parents who would like information texted directly to them. The texting service provides school news and announcements, district information such as emergency school closing situations, or updates issued from UCS departments, such as transportation. To join this system, please text “Y” to 67587

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.