News from the Nest

Greetings DCHS Family!

It is hard to believe that the end of the first 9 weeks is upon us and we have 1/4 of the school year down! We have much to share and highlight so I hope you take some time to read through our newsletter!

We have a busy week as we get ready to head into fall break and have 2 days that impact attendance:

Wednesday, Oct. 4-Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School for all students)

Thursday, Oct. 5-PSAT Test Day (No School for Seniors--Community Service, job shadow, and Career & College Exploration Day)

Friday, Oct. 6-Last day for students to have vaccines updated. If students do not have updated vaccines or arrangements to do so confirmed with nurses students will be excluded from attending school until this is remedied.

Friday is our last day as we head off for fall break. Fall break is 2 weeks this year so no school from Oct. 9-Oct. 20!

Finally, we are so glad to serve your students. We are Decatur Central High School where we are committed to being better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today because we are HAWKS, and that's what HAWKS do!

Tom Wachnicki

Principal

Wednesday, October 4

No School-Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thursday, October 5

PSAT Day for Grades 9-11. No school for seniors.

Saturday, October 7

Host SAT--7am-Noon.

https://dchawks.com/events

All students must be up to date on their vaccines by Oct 6th. Students not having updated vaccines will be excluded after this date.

If you are uncertain of your student's immunization status, please contact Mary Conway in the nurse office at 317-856-5288 ext 01998.

The nurses will be in attendance at Parent/Teacher conferences if you have any questions or you would like to update vaccine status.

Dry and fresh food items will be available for drive thru pick up for any families with children enrolled in MSD of Decatur Township Schools!
When: Select Thursdays 11:30AM – 12:50PM (dates listed below)
Where: Decatur Central High School, Door 10
How to apply: Complete the intake form below and submit! (required for each distribution date). The form must be completed by the Tuesday before the pick up date.

Food Pantry Intake Form

Pantry Pick-Up Dates:
August 17th
August 31st
September 7th
September 21st
October 6th (Note: this is a Friday)
November 2nd
November 9th
November 30th
December 14th

Please use the buttons below to keep up with your student's work, attendance and grades!

Please make sure you update your settings in your parent Canvas accounts. The button to access your account is below. If you do not know how to do this, this LINK will take you to the district IT page that will explain how to do this. I would recommend getting notifications when a teacher makes and assignment and when the assignment is graded. You can set the notification to alert you when those actions are done by text or by email. This is an effective way to monitor how your student is doing in classes.

Students taking credit recovery courses will be able to continue to do so via our Apex Learning system. A reminder that a recovery grade is no higher than a C so please encourage your students to do their best in their classes.

Students may only use clear backpacks for the 2023-24 school year. All students will be provided a backpack the first day of school in CCR. Please see the policy information below.

As you know, students are to use clear backpacks only during the school day. Athletes that drive to school are to leave their athletic bags in their cars until after school. Students that are dropped off by parents in the morning should be dropped off at Door 14. We will have a storage room just inside Door 14 where students will store their bag for the day. Bus riders will immediately report to that same storage room and store their bag for the day. This needs to be done before getting breakfast or going to classrooms. The storage room will be open each day at 8:15 and will be monitored during drop off and pick up.

All students will be required to wear a student ID each day. Students will be provided an ID and lanyard on the first few days of school.

Although this doesn’t seem like a safety issue I want to point out that it is. Decatur Central uses cameras to monitor the building and being able to identify students using this technology is vital. Hats and hoodies when worn make it difficult to identify students so students will not be allowed to wear a hat or have their hoodie up during school hours.

Further, anything that covers the face such as a balaclava is not allowed during school hours.

These items will be checked daily, including checking that students are in dress code such as pants at the waist, no bare midriffs, etc. Students will be given an opportunity to correct items.

We have begun using E-Hallpass as of last Thursday, August 10. This app is on the iPad so students need to make sure they have a fully charged iPad each day. Use of E-Hallpass allows us to monitor who is in our hallways and when, thus making our building more secure and functioning in an environment conducive to learning.

DCHS has many opportunities for students to participate in clubs, activities and the like. Research is very clear that the more a student is involved in the activities of their school the better they do academically. This new section of our newsletter will begin featuring different opportunities we have for your student to get involved at the school!

This past weekend, our FFA leadership team traveled to the Indiana FFA Leadership Center where they attended sessions on how to work together with different personalities, team building, ethical leadership, conflict management, and team planning time.

On Monday, our FFA hosted a community clean up in the Outdoor Classroom. By the end of the event, we had a total of 10 trash bags full.

On Wednesday, we hosted the IN FFA State president and reporter in our ag classes to attend a workshop on positive thinking. Our members also attended the District Kickoff to meet several other FFA chapters in the state.

Our forestry and entomology teams traveled up to Purdue University to walk the Purdue Arboretum Green Trail to collect leaves! This year our students are putting together a kit for our chapter to use for years to come.

Congratulations to our hardworking ag students this past week!

Students have been hard at work as they get ready to perform!

The Performing Arts Department is excited to announce the fall musical, Freaky Friday! This production includes students from all areas of performing arts. Auditions will be August 21, 22, and 23 and the production open November 17, 18, and 19.

We will continue our policy of requiring high school and middle school students to have their ID on them when they attend evening events. Students will present their ID upon entrance to each event. Students K-8 must be under the supervision of a responsible adult to attend high school events.

Wednesday, October 4th - Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thursday, October 5th - PSAT Day for all 9th-11th grade students - 12th grade students are encouraged to do a college visit or job shadow

Wednesday, November 1st 6:00-8:00pm - Mandatory Senior Parent Meeting

Wednesday, November 1st 6:00-8:00pm - Parent University - Informational event for all parents of students in grades 7-12