South St. Paul High School Weekly

Happy Friday Packer Families,

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend an educational conference. It was a great conference were I learned many different strategies to better serve our students. In addition to the strategies I had the opportunity to listen to some experts talk about issues our students are facing. I would like to share some of the things I learned.

• Studies have shown that people experience greater satisfaction, with themselves and their lives, when they successfully complete difficult tasks. That struggling with a task and completing it successfully is part of learning and growing and inorder to learn one must struggle. Really interesting!

I shared this information with our high school students this past Tuesday in my Tic-Taki with Ochocki. Start the conversation with them about their struggles!

On a different note, this past Wednesday the SSP Education Foundation held their scholarship night for SSP High School seniors. This year 140 seniors received some type of scholarship from the SSP Education Foundation with the total of all scholarships totalling over $455,000.00. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Please make sure to read over the rest of the newsletter because some very important information can be found in the newsletter. Just some of the topics are:

• The List of the SSP Educational Foundation Scholarship Recipients,
• Important information regarding Vaccinations for 12th graders (this year's 11th graders),
  
• SSPPS Graduation Rate Increase,
• and much, much more.

Have a wonderful weekend. Go Packers!

Sincerely,

Chuck

Mr. Chuck Ochocki

South St. Paul High School Principal

700 2nd Street North

South St. Paul, MN 55075

(651) 457-9402

cochocki@sspps.org

Packer Pride: Today. Tomorrow. Forever.

May 17: Packer Plus W.I.N. Wednesday

May 24: Packer Plus W.I.N. Wednesday

May 29: No School, Memorial Day

Hey SSP High School Drivers, Students and Teachers alike!

Got a fly ride? Did you flip your whip? If you've got a cool car and want everyone to see it, or if you just want to see how your fellow students, and even some teachers, roll, then we have an event for you!

On Saturday, May 20th, from 10am until 1pm in the TRHS Student Parking Lot, TriDistrict CAPS is hosting the first ever "TriDistrict CAPS and Cars Student and Community Car Show."

Just want to come and see what TriDistrict students and staff are driving? Enter the TRHS lot off of Delaware, starting at 10am.

Have a car you want to show? Go to this website: bit.ly/CAPSandCARS2023 for more information, and to register your vehicle for the show! Drivers showing their vehicles will get a follow up email with instructions for day-of-show procedures. "

Minnesota law requires that all children are vaccinated against certain diseases or have a legal exemption on file to enroll in school. Students entering 12th grade will be required to have documentation of (or a legal exemption) for the booster dose of meningococcal vaccine. (Most students received the initial dose of this vaccine when they entered 7th grade.)

Teenagers and young adults are at higher risk for meningococcal disease, a serious illness that can lead to an infection of the brain and spinal cord. This booster dose is important to make sure they are fully protected. Here is a link for more information: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/meningococcal/basics.html

If your child has already had the meningococcal booster shot, which is usually given at age 16, please bring in his/her shot record to the Health Office. If he/she has not had it, plan to get this. We are a "No shots, No school" school district. Your child will not be admitted to classes if we don't have a record of the shot. He/she/they will be sent home.

The four-year graduation rates for the Class of 2022 were released earlier this week by the Minnesota Department of Education. A preliminary look at the data shows the 4-year graduation rate for the South St Paul High School class of 2022 is 89.9%. This is 5 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the class of 2021 (84.4%) and above the graduation rate for the class of 2020 (88.6%). The statewide average 4-year graduation rate is 83.6%, which has been stable over the past five years. Read more here.

Packer Athletes working hard to improve themselves and their teams! All SSP athletes (and aspiring athletes) grades 6-12 are invited to join the Summer Strength and Speed program. No better way to be challenged and improve than around fellow SSP athletes and coaches.

More info: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19yeIoWjaP6SsVI-FffwF3BwZBGB72xWm/view?usp=sharing

Link to sign up: https://www.vancoevents.com/us/events/landing?eid=20950&embed=1

Work with a volunteer tutor for help with homework assignments in any subject. Open to K–12 students, no appointment necessary. For more information click on the link:

Homework Help

We are changing how we will be doing attendance on W.I.N. Wednesdays for Trimester 3. Students will no longer take their own attendance. If a student needs to be here on a W.I.N. Wednesday AND does not show up for there class, we will mark them absent. You, parent/guardian, then will receive a message from the school letting them know that they were mark absent for a class they were supposed to attend.

So, the communication loop for our parents/guardians for W.I.N. Wednesday will be:

1. Teacher emails parent/guardian on Tuesday that the student needs to come in because of their current grade.
2. If that student does not attend class on W.I.N. Wednesday, teacher will mark student absent and the parent/guardian will receive a message letting them know their student did not attend class.

Every day, over 3,500 youths start vaping. In 2018 alone, the number of high school students who vape nearly doubled. There is a vaping epidemic in this country, especially among teens.

To help all of us better understand vaping, I have created a 4 part series about vaping called Vaping 101: What Parents/Guardians Need to Know. Please check out the first three videos (they are short).

Vaping 101: What Parents/Guardians Need to Know- part 1

Vaping 101 What Parents/Guardians Need to Know- part 2

Vaping 101 for Parents/Guardians Need to Know- part 3

Vaping 101 for Parents/Guardians Need to Know- part 4

Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) is a program that allows 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students to earn college credit tuition free while still in high school, through enrollment in and successful completion of college courses. With traditional PSEO, these courses are generally offered on the campus of the postsecondary institution; some courses are offered online.

Want more information about PSEO at SSP High School? Please check out this video: PSEO Video

Open Door Mobile Pantry: Free food distribution once per month at Kaposia. Open to all residents, No appointment or personal information is required to receive food. The next distribution is February 13 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm.

Saturday Food Distribution: Neighbors Inc is hosting Saturday food distributions for anyone in need. The third Saturday every month from 10:00 am - 11:30 am at Neighbors Inc in South St. Paul.

Free Take ‘n Bake Meals: Free meals are available to residents each week at Central Square. Meals are available Mondays after 3:00 pm and can be picked up anytime before Saturday at 2:00 pm while supplies last.

Every Meal: Every Meal is FREE for all families. Meals are placed discreetly in student’s backpacks before going home each weekend to help fill weekend food gaps. Families with multiple students can sign up for a bag for each student. Click here to apply.

With the holidays coming up, stay healthy and safe! Test for COVID before visiting family and before coming back to school. Pick up a free COVID test from any school health office or fill out this link to get a test kit sent home with your student. Free tests for staff and students. All positive test results for students and staff should be reported to Nurse Shawne at skrueger@sspps.org.

Email: cochocki@sspps.org
Website: https://www.sspps.org
Location: 700 2nd Street North, South Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651-457-9402