First, Missouri. Next: the US...
Our 2024 FFA Meats team is the MISSOURI STATE CHAMPION meats team and they are headed to compete at the NATIONAL level(!) on Tuesday morning! Here's our plan:
HS students: Report to the gym upon arrival on Tuesday morning.
7:55 am - Recognize team, wish luck, send out to Morgan Street
8:00 am - Fire truck escort out of town, leave from Morgan Street (launch pad) - public is encouraged to line the street
Congratulations, and good luck to:
Ben Gochenour
Conner Reeves
RJ Pannell
Tytan Wiseman
Mr. Crews
(from Mrs. Crews's 10/18/24 email to Seniors & their adults)
Seniors & Their People -
Here are some monthly updates from my office to keep everyone in the loop about Senior happenings. This is lengthy, but hopefully answers some upcoming questions along the way!
1. FAFSA
Yikes! I attended my annual FAFSA Update meeting yesterday and got tons of great information to share. The projected opening date for FAFSA is still December 1 but we were strongly encouraged yesterday to wait until after 1/1 to host a Frenzy event. The last opening date possible is January 1 and the professionals have a feeling the shift may still happen. It is the law requiring the Department of Education to have it accessible. This will be the 2025-26 FAFSA Form. Please plan on Thursday, January 9 as our new event date. I will have handouts at Parent/Teacher Conferences next Thursday regarding a Financial 101 night this Fall to get IDs set up as well as scholarship updates to you. Stay tuned!
2. Shadowing
Job Shadowing is OPEN to Seniors who attended the mandatory Shadowing Orientation Meeting in my office the morning of September 26. Students are able to complete their Fall hours anytime in October or November as long as their placement has been approved. Forms are outside of my office and can be turned back in there as well.
3. SWE
The Supervised Work Experience notification deadline was October 1 as indicated in the September update and Weekly Counselor Newsletters. Students who submitted interest have been reached out to regarding next steps!
4. Online Scholarships
Scholarships will be posted on Google Classroom, the Counseling Bulletin Board and eventually my Counseling Website. The QR code for the site is listed on the bottom of all of my newsletters. If you are wanting to add your transcript to sites such as MyScholarshipCentral or the like, I will be sending May 2024 (the most updated final data) transcripts to each student individually on Monday 10/21 for use. They will be marked as student copy and cannot be used in other capacities.
5. ACT
If you haven't signed up for ACT prep help and still need to take or retake the test, please utilize the Question of the Day sent to your inbox for practice. You can set it up HERE by answering the first question and then signing up with your credentials. I also still have practice tests to take home in my office!
6. APPLY!
If you (the student) are planning to apply to a school/post grad program, please do it EARLY! Take your visits now and see what is out there. If there are several schools you are back and forth about, work through the decision making sheet in your Senior Guide Books. If these schools offer a free application, go ahead and apply - you are not locked in until you make your decision and accept the admission. If you are having issues with this, we can sit down and talk about pros and cons. This goes for anyone absolutely in the dark about where to start. Let's get this done before Thanksgiving so you go into your breaks with a better peace of mind. Continue to submit your transcript requests! The week of October 28 will be our Senior Apply Week to encourage everyone to get applications completed and submitted!
7. Life Academy
Life Academy is continuing to be a monthly project. Last month featured 8 mini lessons on subjects such as email etiquette, store returns, making appointments, voting, mail and calling 911. This month is all about Automotive information. The remainder of the year is listed below:
November - Employment: Onboarding and Beyond
December - Home Economics: Cooking, Sewing and More!
January - Living on your Own
February - Finances: Account Management, Insurance, Savings, Taxes
March - Safe & Sober: Docudrama
April - Self Management: Safety, Critical Thinking
8. Checking In
End of quarter check-in time has arrived! The student survey is HERE. The adult survey is HERE.
If you have questions along the way, please reach out! I'll have handouts at my table during P/T Conferences for a variety of upcoming happenings. Have a great weekend!
LC
The Handbook Highlight is a recap of a handbook policy or entry that our Students/Adults need to be aware of. If I'm taking the time to include it, it's something to pay attention to - either because I'm seeing that people aren't clear on it, people aren't complying with it, or I'm about to start cracking down on it.
Failure to Serve Detention
1. Failure to serve a 30-minute detention results in a 60-minute detention
2. Failure to serve a 60-minute detention results in a 90 minute detention
3. Failure to serve a 90 minute detention results in a 3 hour detention
4. Failure to serve a 3 hour detention results in Transition room
On September 20, I informed the HS student body that due to issues with students wearing hats in the building during the school day, hats are not to be IN the building during the school day.
Hats should be left in vehicles or lockers. They can be left in the HS office if you need a place, but if It's on a student during the day, it will be sent to the HS office...with a referral.
If you know that you won't be at school on a certain day for an appointment, meeting, etc. - besides telling your teachers (which is great!) - please let Ms. Mindy know.
You can do so by emailing her at mwiseman@slaterschools.net.
Parents can call Ms. Mindy at 660-529-2278, ext. 107.
Students, we're seeing a daily discrepancy between the number of students who say that they are NOT eating lunch at school vs. those who come through the line to get a tray each day. On average, we're serving about 15 more students a day than what we're expecting. With HS lunch being the last shift of the day, we run the risk of not having enough food prepared.
We want you to eat lunch. We also want to know that you're going to eat lunch. And...we can see the morning lunch count for each student. If you're not sure, go ahead and tell us you're going to eat at school.
Menus are further down on this newsletter and on the TV screens in the hallway.
Bon Appetit!
Our new Student Information System (Teacher Ease) and our texting program (Thrillshare) are not exchanging information properly right now.
This means that new phone numbers (new students, parents) aren't loading into the program for text alerts and some email notifications. We are aware of the issue and working with both companies' customer service.
We are sorry for the inconvenience. Stay tuned for updates!
Students learned in the first week of school that they must be in good standing to participate in extracurricular events/activities. (This includes attending those events as a spectator.)
Students must be in attendance at school for four consecutive hours on the day of the event to be able to play in or attend an extracurricular event/activity.
Our first Eligibility List of the school year will run on Monday morning at 8:00 am. This list determines GOOD STANDING, as defined in the Student Handbook. It reads,
GOOD STANDING
To be considered a student in good standing, a student must not be in violation of the attendance policy, have outstanding discipline referrals OR appear on the current F list.
In order to participate in extracurricular events including (but not limited to): dances, field trips, school-sanctioned sports events; a student must be in good standing.
Students in grades 6-12 that are not in good standing will have closed lunch and be required to sign in daily in the cafeteria.
The handbook also reads,
ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS
...
High School and Junior High students’ extracurricular eligibility is determined by the current F List. This report is made available to HS and JH teachers and coaches and is computed approximately every two weeks. A student who is on the F list for one class may practice but not compete in any events for the duration of that F list, while students who are failing more than one class on any F list may not practice or compete in any event. Eligibility may only change at the issue of each new F list.
To recap, If a student is not in good standing, he or she is not in good standing until the next Eligibility List runs (September 23). Students who are not in good standing may not:
- Leave the cafeteria at lunch (must sign in on South Wall)
- Play in extracurricular events (may continue to practice with one failing grade or low attendance)
- Attend extracurricular events as a spectator (Members of athletic teams may attend and sit with team at Coach/Administrator discretion.)
If a student is not in good standing, he or she (and their adult(s)) will receive an email notification from Ms. Mindy that includes a letter from me explaining the information above. If a student who is not in good standing fails to sign in for Closed Lunch, the following Handbook policy will be followed:
CLOSED LUNCH
Failing to sign in for Closed Lunch
Grades 9-12
1. Warning
2. 3 hour detention
3. 1 day in the Transition Room for each day not signed in
Contact Info
Email: jclements@slaterschools.net
Website: slaterschools.net
Location: 515 Elm Street, Slater, MO, United States
Phone: 660-631-5298
Twitter: @SlaterPrincipal