Red Devil Ready:DCHS WeeKly Message

Week 19: Happy New Year! 2025

Decatur County Community High School

605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749

January 5, 2025 (Schedule at the bottom, Skip What You Want)

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Decatur Community,

For the third straight year, I found myself traveling back home to Oberlin after visiting family in the Kansas City area on Christmas. In a slight rehash of the past, it was kind of like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

2022: Windchills double-digit below zero on the way home, sounds similar to a small Niagra Falls coming from my house upon arrival, a busted pipe with flooding and a kitchen ceiling that had collapsed.

Too catostrophic.

2023: Blizzard conditions that even Rudolph and Santa would give second thoughts. Cars on the side of the road, visibility about two feet in front of the hood, a decision to push on through at Salina. A fortunate, unscathed arrival. Oh, and of course, an intact kitchen minus the waterfall sounds.

Too Intense.

2024: Good weather the whole way, simply a cozy fog. Arrival home before dark. No cars on the side of the road. Most important of all, an intact kitchen minus the waterfall sounds.

Just Right (maybe too easy?)

Here's to a Just Right, maybe too easy 2025!

SHOUTOUTS

My shoutouts this week are going to be a little bit generalized to kick off the year.

Shoutout to the entire Decatur Community. It was a tough decision to leave a big school where I had been a teacher, coach, AD, and principal for over 21 of my now 28 years in education, but I have absolutely loved the experience of being here in Oberlin. The staff, students, parents, and community have been amazing, and I am finally starting to feel like I know more people than I don't. I thank this community so much for being so supportive, and I look foward to continuing to build relationships and doing everything I can to maintain all that is special about Oberlin while also striving to push us forward to the best place it can be for our students and the entire community.

Shoutout to my teachers. As an administrator, you are the biggest fan of your staff and want each of them to be successful and accomplish great things. We have a great group of educators that consistently try to up their game. I appreciate their efforts on a daily basis and their continued support.

Shoutout to our maintenance staff. They have worked very hard to get things fixed this year. After our massive lockdown drill, we knew that door handles were an issue. Over the break, all door handles were replaced and updated to help ensure safety for all. That's just the most recent example, but the positive attitude is always on display.

Shoutout to all of our substitute teachers. We have an outstanding group of veteran subs. The only issue? I wish there were more of them to go around. The advantage of being able to plan for a sub that can keep things rolling is understated. You don't lose anything when Barth, Breth, Dorshorst, Larue, Nelson, and Unger walk in the building. They are a part of this staff and familiar to our students.

Shoutout to our kitchen staff. They do a great job of working within the State requirements for school meals, including homecooked items, and maintaining a clean environment, all while doing it with a positive attitude.

Shoutout to our transportation services. It's not just getting kids to and from school, but also the coordination of athletics and vehicles for a large variety of both student activities and staff events. It would be easy to take for granted the fact that we take care of and maintain our own vehicles. Many districts do not.

Shoutout to our support staff. We have a veteran group of paras and support staff in our building that are easy to rely on. When you have a group like we do, there is very little wasting of time to train or explain how to do something. They are a part of the classroom and work very well with our students.

Shoutout to my secretary. The head secretary in a school building is extremely important. It's probably unknown to many just how many things that Mrs. Melissa Dreher does at school. She communicates with dozens of students every day, handles dozens of calls, participates in the lunch room, deals with finances, tackles attendance, prepares checks etc. It's a busy job, and I am extremely happy that she is my secretary.

Shoutout to the students. At the end of the day, being in education allows for you to watch your students grow up and change right before your eyes. It's always fun to look at the kid that has grown taller, sparked an interest in a certain career, or just simply matured and become more of a young-adult than a kid. I love that I know every student's name, and I'd like to think I know a bit about each of them, though the range varies greatly. I admittedly miss how thoroughly I got to know each of my students or players as a teacher or a coach.

Things You Should Know

FAFSA Night Monday Senior Students and Parents

Students and parents, on Monday night at 6:00, Mrs. Springer jspringer@usd294.org will be hosting a FAFSA night for senior parents and students in the DCHS library. Please see the attached flier.

What is FAFSA?

You need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form to be eligible for federal student aid such as federal grants, work-study funds, and loans. Completing and submitting the FAFSA form is free and easier than ever, and it gives you access to the largest source of aid to help you pay for college or career school.

In addition, many states and colleges use your FAFSA information to determine your eligibility for state and school aid. Some private aid providers may use your FAFSA information to determine whether you qualify for their aid as well.

Early Release Day on Wednesday, January 8

On Wednesday, January 8, USD 294 will have an Early Release at 12:00.

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

How about a list of things from 2024 to inspire us? This list has no order or preference, just shooting out highlights, and not all of them.

1. Homecoming Assembly. I love this tradition. You had guests return from out of state, some hundreds of miles away, and we had graduates from as far back as the 1950s. Congrats again to Queen Makadyn Ketterl and King Garrett Emigh.

2. Surviving the absolute onslaught of illness that occurred in December. Unfortunately, 2025 seems to be claiming quite a few victims out of the gate.

3. The 99th Halloween Cleanup. It was the third time around for me, and I don't know that we will ever have a more windy version. Jessiah McDougal did a great job as the General. Next year will be pretty special for #100.

4. A solid beginning to the high school basketball seasons and the beginning of the Breth Era.

5. Continued efforts of our School Board. There were quite a few new faces this year, but each has worked hard to ensure that the district is making sound decisions. It is a position that is almost exclusively voluntary, and we are fortunate to have the board we do.

6. Awesome musicals and concerts. The Addams' Family was great, and the concerts were top notch. I am always greatly impressed by the talent level of our instructors, and I love when they participate with their students. This year's musical brought in more views than any since I have been here.

7. The Second Annual DCHS Senior Citizens' Thanksgiving shattered last year's participation and reached 148. It is an event that I can only imagine will grow.

8. ESL program foundations. ESL stands for English as a Second Language, and we have been so fortunate to add both Elaine Marcuson as our ELL coordinatorvand Mr. Cepeda as an Apprentice.

9 A back to back championship for our junior high volleyball team. This squad has all of the ability in the world to make it a 3-Peat next year.

10. New course offerings that include Career and Life Planning, Business Essentials, College Speech, and online College courses through Colby Community College.

11. The new track was completed, though we didn't actually host any meets. I anxiously await our first meet this year and the possibility of hosting a Regional.

12. The success of the mass intruder drill that included every group of responders and a whole lot of community volunteers.

Here's to a Happy New Year, and a 2025 filled with many more special memories!

Until next week!

Jeremy Holloway

Go Big Red!