Parent Newsletter

Email: sandersj@purcellps.org
Website: https://www.purcellps.org/o/phs
Location: 2020 North Green Avenue, Purcell, OK, USA
Phone: 405-442-0099
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purcellhs
Twitter: @purcellhsdrgns

Good Afternoon Dragon Family:

Best wishes for a safe, happy, and restful summer for all of our Dragon families. It's been a busy and eventful summer for PHS. Between sports, band, and summer school, I've been fortunate to see a lot of our kids and celebrate their hard work and successes. I'm glad as well that our staff is enjoying some well deserved R&R during the summer months. However we all look forward to the return of students in August. Please allow me to preview several points of focus as we approach a new school year.

The safety of our students and staff is always our top priority. Providing a safe learning environment is the foundation of any successful school. Please know we are currently reviewing all safety procedures and protocols and will continue to conduct ongoing reviews throughout the year. Parents can expect several points of emphasis to our safety procedures including permanently closed access points to the school, continued focus on security drills, timely communication with parents, and maintaining strong staff/student relationships.

Safety IS our priority and I will always believe our most important tool in keeping schools safe are the relationships built between staff and students. We will always promote a culture that encourages students to report any and all information relevant to safety. Our students also must trust that adults will always follow up on any report that could potentially impact school safety. Please know how seriously we take the responsibility of caring for and protecting your children. Never hesitate to contact me if you have questions or concerns.

We have a Safety and Wellness team that meets regularly throughout the year. They will meet prior to the beginning of the school year. I encourage parents to attend any and all safety meetings to provide needed input and help us strengthen our safety protocols. Please look for specific times for upcoming meetings in my July Back-to-School newsletter. I also meet regularly with my Principal's Parent Advisory Council and they provide relevant feedback and help provide me a needed parent perspective to school issues. We are all Dragons!

Jason

Go Dragons!

Always feel free to call or email me if you have questions,

sandersj@purcellps.org

405-442-0099 ext 505

The Parent Advisory council meets once each nine weeks with the Head Principal. They provide important feedback, voice concerns, share ideas, and sometimes ask hard questions. I greatly appreciate their support of our school and the relationships we've built to help continuously improve our service to the school and community. I'm currently seeking to add two new members to the council to represent the incoming freshman class (Class of 2026) and our upcoming Junior class. If you are a parent of an incoming freshman or junior and would be interested in serving, please complete the form linked below.

The only requirement is to attend regular meetings (4 times per year) and to provide a voice to other parents. The council provides valuable input on current and future school policy decisions including safety improvements. This position will replace Jennifer Rogers. Jennifer's daughter graduated last year and we are thankful for Jennifer's service.

Current members:

Kelly Eck

Maria Escobedo

Tevi Winters

We are super excited to welcome new freshman students and parents to the high school. We hope to help support a positive high school experience that supports your student's transition to adulthood. Thank you for entrusting us with your student and their education. We believe strongly at PHS that the relationships with staff and students are the foundation of a positive school culture. We believe students thrive when they have trusting relationships with adults and meaningful learning experiences in the classroom.

The parent newsletter is my primary mode of communication with parents. The idea is to create a one-stop-shop for school communication. Newsletters are sent to parents every two weeks. They are emailed directly and posted to the school website, facebook, twitter, and instagram accounts. Messaging is also provided regularly to school social media accounts. I encourage all parents to join at least one of the school's official social media accounts. There are links to school website and social media accounts at the top of every newsletter.

Our job is to serve the students of this school. Please never hesitate to contact me if you need help or assistance.

Jason

• We are currently reviewing in detail all school safety policy and procedures. There will be changes to school policy next year that will create inconveniences for staff, students, and patrons. The majority of these changes will be related to school access points. I will announce all changes in detail in my back to school newsletter in mid-July. We appreciate the patience and support of everyone as we work together to ensure the safety of all.
• We will continue to conduct emergency drills on a regular basis. We exceed the number of required drills by the State Department of Education. I will always communicate with parents prior to and after all emergency drills. We always notify local emergency agencies when conducting drills and appreciate their support and review of our procedures. The routine practice of drills helps students and staff feel more secure in their surroundings and confident in the response of staff in case of an emergency.
• We believe that staff and student relationships are the most powerful tool to ensure school safety. All students need at least one trusted adult in the building. We always encourage openness and transparency with students and will continue to emphasize ALWAYS reporting any type of information relevant to the safety of students and staff. Students MUST trust that adults will responsibly follow up on ALL reports concerning safety issues. This includes bullying, suspicious behavior, online threats, threatening behavior, or mental health concerns, etc.
• Our Stopit Anonymous Reporting APP is a powerful tool in helping us gather important information. All students have access to this app or website to easily report concerning information. Students are provided a yearly update and lesson in Advisory on how to use this tool responsibly. The Stopit Weblink is bookmarked on every student's laptop, linked to the front page of our website, and included in every newsletter. Students can also download the free app on their phone for quick access. The Stopit APP allows students to communicate directly with the principal while remaining anonymous. All serious Stopit reports are followed up on by an administrator.
• Parents and students should be assured that all credible reports involving potential safety concerns are fully investigated in accordance with school and district policy. Administrative and counseling staff follow procedures for conducting Behavioral Threat Assessments and coordinate when necessary with law enforcement.
• All school staff has access to the RAVE Panic Button This app allows any staff to push a button on their phone and immediately contact 911 and alert school officials simultaneously. This allows us to quickly provide information to staff and coordinate a rapid response in case of an emergency. This APP has been very useful on two occasions the past two years. Once with a small grassfire and again when a student suffered a relatively minor medical episode. The staff use of the RAVE alert APP allowed for a rapid and coordinated response.
• The dynamics of a modern high school present safety challenges. Most upperclassmen do not have traditional 6 classes per day schedules. This is a good thing. The world has changed and the educational needs of students has changed. Our students have internships, work experiences, concurrent classes both on campus and off, hybrid learning schedules, career tech courses, etc. However, regardless of the challenges and inconveniences that will exist with tightened safety procedures, these safety policies will be non-negotiables for everyone next year.

Enrollment confirmation is an opportunity to pick up schedules, complete missing paperwork, confirm and update emails and other contact info, purchase parking passes, sign your student up for emergency rapid check-out, etc. This is NOT an actual enrollment. Students were pre-enrolled in February and this is simply confirmation of enrollment. Students can meet with staff including Ms. Feroli regarding scheduling issues. Please check dates/times for individual classes.

Freshman will combine confirmation with orientation on the evening of 7/28. We urge all freshman parents to attend. This is a fun, engaging, event that is designed to help freshman feel comfortable and prepared for the start of high school. This will include a tour of the school in small groups, meet new and freshmen teachers while parents meet with principal and high school counselor.

Go Dragons!

I'm copying below points of emphasis for student dress code reminders as we approach the beginning of school. We have engaged in significant discussion over the last two years regarding school dress codes. While we do not support dress code policies that are overly punitive, are disproportionately enforced against girls, or have no impact on student learning, we do understand a school's responsibility to teach students life skills. These so-called soft skills are critically important to student success in the "real world". Quite simply it is important to teach students how we dress in certain situations may be entirely different in another. In other words, going to a local swimming pool calls for different dress than a job interview.

Here are a few changes to dress code policy and our points of emphasis for next year.

• Hats are allowed in the building. However they may not obscure or hide the face. For example, a baseball cap is acceptable. A floppy hat that hides the face would not be acceptable.
• Teachers have the right to prohibit hats in their individual classrooms.
• Hoodies are not allowed to be worn on the head in the building. They obscure the face and make it difficult to monitor cameras.
• The Principal maintains the right to determine if hats are acceptable. Again the main emphasis is that hats should not obscure or hide the face.
• Although we do NOT measure short lengths, students are expected to wear shorts that are acceptable and would be appropriate to wear in general public. The Principal and or Counselor maintain the right to determine the appropriate length of shorts.
• Only the principal, assistant principal, and counselor will make determinations of potential dress code violations. Students will only work with an administrator, administrator designate, or counselor of the same sex. Male staff will not address female staff regarding dress code violations and vice versa.
• Students will wear clothes that do not expose the midriff. This is non-negotiable. Please refer to the image below. All students are expected to wear clothing that covers all areas highlighted in the image below.
• For future reference I've copied below the proposed dress code for the 22-23 school year. Keep in mind all policies are pending yearly board approval of student handbook.

The last few years have presented enormous challenges to school attendance policy. Covid essentially forced us to excuse more absences than normal, encourage staff and students to stay home with relatively minor colds, and offer considerable more leniency with school attendance. However we will fully enforce school attendance policy this year as we return to hopefully a fully normal school year. The data is very consistent in this regard. Positive student attendance numbers support higher levels of student learning.

I would remind parents and students that attendance policies are not designed to be punitive or threatening in nature. We certainly understand that students must be absent from time to time for various reasons. We always encourage parents to communicate to the school special situations or specific needs of students. The point of an attendance policy is to keep kids in school where learning occurs and services can be provided.

key points of emphasis this year in regards to student attendance:

• Students will receive No Credit for courses when they exceed 10 total absences in a class for a semester. This includes excused and unexcused absences but not activity absences or suspensions.

Parents will receive attendance letters upon the 5th and 7th absence per semester for each class period.

• Activity absences are restricted to 10 for the entire year. Students must appeal to the Principal for an extension of days beyond 10 and must meet a certain criteria as defined in the student handbook.

School activity is defined as extracurricular activities, whether sponsored by the school or outside agency, which removes the student from class for more than half of a class period. Activities excluded from the 10 day rule are: class meetings, assemblies, field trips involving the class period only, and others such as State and National levels of school-sponsored contests. Suspensions are also excluded from this rule.

Please contact the high school if you are unable to access Parent Portal. This allows students and parents to access real-time grades 24/7, attendance information and update personal information. I include a parent/portal link for all parents/guardians on every Parent Newsletter. This link is located immediately below this message. It's very important all parents have access to parent portal.

Please complete this form linked here if you are need of a Parent Portal Account:

https://forms.gle/kcw4yFh9UghpFKW76

If you have any problems accessing Parent Portal please contact the school directly: (405) 442-0099

We are excited to announce we have partnered with Parchment to provide students past and present the ability to send e-transcripts to the schools and organizations of their choice. This is a free service to all users. This service is currently live and students can order transcripts online or make a request for our school registrar to send transcripts electronically to colleges of their choice.

How does it work?

• Click on the https://www.parchment.com/u/registration/20225/account to either create an account or order a transcript from PHS.
• This order link is posted to our website.
• You will have to create a free account to order a transcript. There are 3 easy ways to create an account and I'm linking an easy to follow help document here: https://parchmentsupport.force.com/s/article/Sign-up-to-order-transcripts?language=en_US
• We will email our current students a registration code this week for an easy account set-up for them.