Go Big Red: DCHS Weekly Message

Week 19: Happy New Year!

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Decatur County Community High School

605 E Commercial St, Oberlin, KS 67749

January 1, 2023 (Schedule at the bottom, Skip What You Want)

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Decatur community,

Happy New Year! I hope memories were made over the break that will be positive ones for everyone to keep forever. I hope there was plenty of valuable family time, thoughtful gifts, and gratuitous thanks throughout.

Needless to say, mine was eventful. After a great time spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with family in the Kansas City area, I returned last Monday morning to the beautiful sound of rain cascading from the upstairs bedroom bathroom into our kitchen, accompanied by the horrifying sight of a collapsed ceiling, fallen cabinets, broken dishes, and a flooded basement.

Playing the role of "Day Late" Santa and his helpers, a disaster team arrived from Hays, (the owner literally with a white beard} my insurance agent moved quickly, Board member Zac May loaned me his Shop Vac, and a collection of plumbers started the surgical process of finding the exact spot of our tragedy.

Diagnosis? You guessed it, frozen pipe.

No doubt, there is a lot to be upset about, and definitely disappointing, but, to be honest, I am just thankful for all the support that showed up, thankful that my family was still in KC for the week when I returned, and thankful for the fact that I was out of school as there was so much cleaning and communicating that had to be done all week.

Memories I won't forget.

Thoughtful workers playing the role of Santa and his helpers on the day after Christmas.

Gratuitous and immense thankfulness on my behalf.

SHOUTOUTS

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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 20 years, but I have absolutely loved the experience of being here in Oberlin. The staff, students, parents, and community have been amazing, and I look forward to many more years as I continue to build relationships with as many people as I can.

Things You Should Know

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Attendance Policy.

During the first semester, I began to talk about KESA. I will leave the KESA article in the next section for you to reflect. This week I want to focus on attendance, because attendance is a big part of a school's rating, and every student that misses too much school counts against us.

The student pictured is a former Louisburg High School student that graduated 10 years ago. His name is Dylan York. I taught Dylan both English and History back 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 KESA report. Next week, I will continue with an explanation of "Chronic Absenteeism."

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 SDL 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

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KESA (Kansas Education Systems Accreditation)

Every school in Kansas must go through a process of evaluation to become accredited. This process has changed many times over the decades. KESA is the current process, a 5 year cycle that frequently adjusts its requirements and expectations. As an example, here is the state's current answer to the question, "What is KESA?"

"The KESA model is designed around system/district-level accreditation occurring at the end of a five-year cycle of improvement using an education framework called “The Five Rs” – Relationships, Relevance, Responsive Culture, Rigor and Results."

Those "Five Rs?" They will be gone after this year, a whole new process.

KESA is big and it is very hard to condense into a small section in a Weekly Message. I will address KESA a piece at a time over the next several weeks. For now, I am just going to leave with a brief list of steps in the process through the 5 years that got us where we are today. We will start talking about the guts of the whole process as the year goes on.

Step 1: School Buildings at the beginning of the cycle determine current strengths, weaknesses, and challenges, and complete a Needs Assessment.

Step 2: District Leadership Team reviews the Needs Assessment and sets goals for improvement.

Step 3: Site Councils are included in the process as outside stakeholders,. They are informed of the current state of the district and the goals put in place by the leadership team and are included in the process of improvement.

Step 4: An OVT Outside Visitation Team is created to help serve as guides through the process. After the final OVT visit in year 5, the OVT will submit a report to the state.

Step 5: Accreditation Review Council: This 15 member council makes the recommendation of accreditation to the state. This is really the final step. The members review the final reports from the district and the OVT. They then make their recommendation to the State Board of Education.

Step 6: The Kansas State Board of Education reviews the recommendation of the ARC and makes the final decision.

That's it for KESA this week.

GO BIG RED

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How about a list of 10 things from the first semester to inspire us? This list has no order or preference, just shooting out highlights, and not all of them.

1. Homecoming Assembly. I loved this tradition. You had guests return from out of state, and we had graduates from as far back as the 1950s.

2. KESA Year 5 is over.

3. Halloween Cleanup. It was my first time seeing this, and it was a great level of participation that showed tremendous civic engagement.

4. The girls' basketball team is off to a great start. After losing their first game, the girls have now won 5 in a row.

5. Cohesive School Board. Regardless of location, I have always enjoyed my School Board members. What stands out here is the cohesiveness of our School Board. They are a positive group that communicates well, and you can see the genuine concern that they have for their schools and community. Every one of them is an Oberlin grad. That is amazing.

6. Awesome musicals and concerts. Seussical was great, and the concerts were top notch.

7. Amazing experiences provided by teachers. Trips to the court house, slaughter house, Kansas art locations, Sappa Park, K-State Band Fesival, Career Fairs, and more. Our teachers have tried very hard to bring learning to life and give real world experiences.

8. Wrestlers off to a great start. Josh Juenemann is still undefeated, and he appears to be a true contender for that championship.

9. An undefeated junior high football season, perhaps the first. Add that with stellar performances by the junior high volleyball and basketball teams as well, and the future holds a lot of promise here at DCHS.

10. A group of veteran subs that is willing to work and be flexible with their times.

Great recollections, but the best don't rest on their laurels.

The second half has begun. 2023 is on the clock.

It's time to make our adjustments.

It's time to take advantage of a fresh start.

It's time to continue with what we started.

Until next Week

Jeremy Holloway

Go Big Red!