Decatur County Community High School
605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749
September 29, 2024 (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 a few weeks each year that really stand out when you look back at them due to the magnitude of events that are taking place at home. This week is a week for the ages. I don't know that I can recall a week in my career that we were hosting events on 5 of the 6 days of the week, some days multiple events. Take a look:
Monday: JV Football
Tuesday: Home XC and HS Volleyball
Thursday: JH Football and Volleyball
Friday: HS Football
Saturday: HS Volleyball Invitational
Shoutout to each and every one our custodial staff which includes Jess Allen, Jack Farr, Renee Harman, and recently hired Dusty Ozaeta. We are very fortunate to have consistency in our custodial staff, and there is a lot pride that goes into their work. October 2nd is National Custodian Appreciation Day, and I want to make sure that I recognize them here. If you get a chance, remind them how important they are. Kind of coincidental that the busiest week of the year falls on this week.
Shoutout to 8th grade student Jenna Fuentes. This past week, they had their Co2 car races. Jenna's car was undefeated as she won the title. I remember all the time spent on making my Pinecar back in middle school. It looked nice, but the design was flawed for the goal. Jenna's sleek-middle design brought back memories of defeat that the rest of the 8th grade students in her class now share. Congrats, Jenna!
Shoutout to our new tranportation coordinator Rick Toulsee. When Brian Simonsson retired last year, I think there were a lot of people concerned about how efficient transportation would run. I want to tip my hat to Rick. He has done an outstanding job of coordinating everything this year, and he brings a constant positive attitude to work that radiates down to his employees.
Shoutout to the students and community that jumped on the bandwagon and started following the DCHS Instagram page. Mr. Gehring set the goal of 200, and this Friday the students were rewarded with donuts. Make sure to follow the Instagram page to get up to the minute updates on all DCHS activities. dchs_red_devils
Shoutout to the JH football team for an amazing run. Last Thursday, the JH football team lost to Quinter. It was the first time in almost three years that we had lost a game at that level. It's never easy to take a defeat, but I have every bit of confidence in this group to bounce back and contribute to a bright future for DCHS. Congrats on an amazing run!
Shoutout to the Decatur County Safety Alliance. This past Wednesday, a group of approximately 30 met at the Gateway to discuss school safety and response. This was an initial meeting to gather information for a smaller group to create an updated safety plan in the event of a school emergency. Members of USD 294, the local and county law enforcement, the fire department, the hospital, the city ,and more were all present for the discussions that covered a variety of scenarios. A special shoutout goes to Jeff Burmaster who did an excellent job of leading the meeting.
Shoutout to our JH volleyball teams. This past weekend both the A team and B team went 3-0 at St. Francis. It was a great way to end the week for a team that has played well all year. As the season end approaches, our girls have done a great job of getting ready to defend their league championship from last year.
Shoutout to coaches Brandon Hardwick and Kyle Breth and the entire football team on a big win. The Red Devils offiially cracked the top 10 in rankings last week, and they look to move up after taking down St. Francis on the road. There are some games in a season that you look at and say to yourself, "We are going to learn a lot about ourselves in this one." We have had a few of those to some degree. We learned that we can contend with a good team when we fought against Dighton. In reality, St. Francis was undefeated, but we learned we could beat a ranked team and win a game we really should win. This week there is no doubt about the ability of our opponent, as rival Hoxie brings their undefeated record to town. Oberlin has played an undefeated opponent every game they have played this season, and we will look to continue our trend of giving a team their first defeat. What will we learn about ourselves this week?
ACT WorkKeys
Over the next month, several students will be participating in a variety of ACT Tests. Below is a quick schedule of when the tests will take place. I will go a bit further into each one as we get closer to taking them.
1. ACT WorkKeys: This Wednesday, October 2. (All juniors)
2. ACT: Tuesday, October 15 (Students grades 10-12 that have paid)
3. PreACT: Wednesday, October 16 (all 9th grade students)
First up? ACT WorkKeys! All juniors will take the WorkKeys assessment.
What is the ACT WorkKeys? First used in 1992, ACT® WorkKeys® assessments are the cornerstone of the ACT workforce solutions. The assessments help you measure the workplace skills that can affect your job performance. WorkKeys assessments are: Unique—Unlike other assessments, they don't simply give an indication of reading and writing competency.
Why take the ACT WorkKeys?
For starters, lots of professionals take this test as well. For many employers, they will pay you more if you have a specific WorkKeys score. Many professionals seek out this test to simply raise their pay with a credential if they know their employer will accept it.
Another reason is simply interest. This test exposes you to a lot of information and skills that are applicable to many professions. By the end, it is possible that you will learn a bit about yourself, or the test may lead you to specific professions that you were unaware of.
It's free 1 time through the state of Kansas and offered to juniors. Remember, many people pay to take this test.
A final reason would be to allow students to see their strengths. Several people entered into their current professions because they were either told or discovered for themselves that they were good at it. The WorkKeys test will let you know where you are the strongest and may help you better pick your career path.
The WorkKeys test is a series of 3 tests of 55 minutes in length: Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace documents.
DCHS Recognized with FAFSA Award
Recently, DCHS was recognized as 1 of only 18 high schools in the state of Kansas that had a completion percentage of 70% or over on the FAFSA.
What is FAFSA?
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form you need to fill out to get any financial aid from the federal government to help pay for college. Each year, over 13 million students who file the FAFSA get more than $120 billion in grants, work-study, and low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Education.
Many states and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine which students get financial aid—and how much they’ll get.
The FAFSA asks for information about you and your family’s finances, including tax returns, so parents may need to help complete it.
Mrs. Springer held a FAFSA night last year for the seniors and will do so again this year. This is a real shoutout to her and her efforts to stay on top of the students as well.
As September begins to pass the baton to October, you would hope that just possibly the weather would follow suit and allow summer to officially pass the baton to fall, but that's not quite how it looks to be playing out. This week calls for 80s once again (the optimist in me says at least it's not 90s), and next week, when all of the days of the week have escaped September's embrace and none of the activities are at home, the glorious 70 degree weather finally shows up here in Oberlin.
Have you every had a really busy week? Well ..........there's definitely something do do.
Until next week,
Jeremy Holloway
Go Big Red!
Varsity Volleyball Season Record (3-9)
L vs Wheatland 25-23, 22-25, 14-24 (0-1)
L vs Hoxie 13-25, 22-25 (0-2)
W vs Quinter 25-16, 25-16 (1-2)
W vs Dighton 24-26, 25-21, 25-22 (2-2)
L vs Rawlins 21-25,14-25 (2-3)
W vs Rawlins 26-24, 14-25, 28-26 (3-3)
L vs Wallace County 16-25, 25-23, 15-25 (3-4)
L vs Cimarron 25-19, 11-25, 18-25 (3-5)
L vs Golden Plains 17-25, 23-25 (3-6)
L vs Wheatland 25-22, 24-26, 16-25 (3-7)
L vs St. Francis 17-25, 22-25 (3-8)
L vs Golden Plains 25-12, 21-25, 24-26 (3-9)
L vs Gering 18-25, 14-25 (3-10)
L vs Cambridge 22-25, 19-25 (3-11)
W vs Valentine 25-10, 25-17 (4-11)
L vs Cheylin 18-25,17-25 (4-12)
W vs Logan 25-21, 25-10 (5-12)
Decatur County Community Junior/Senior High School
Email: jholloway@usd294.org
Website: https://www.usd294.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/DCHS
Location: 605 East Commercial Street, Oberlin, KS, USA
Phone: 785-475-2231
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Decatur-Community-JrSr-High/372347636275932
Twitter: @DCHSREDDEVILS