Parent Newsletter

Email: sandersj@purcellps.org
Website: https://www.purcellps.org/o/phs
Location: 2020 North Green Avenue, Purcell, OK, USA
Phone: 405-442-0099
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purcellhs
Twitter: @purcellhsdrgns

Graduation and why it's a big deal

One of the best things about social media (there are good things about social media!) is the ability to keep up with people from the past. I love the fact it allows me to keep up with students I taught over 25 years ago. It's exciting to see how their life progressed and to watch them achieve successes in their careers and families. It reminds me of the importance of our task to help prepare our students for their next stage of life. It's a reminder to us all as to why high school graduation is a really big deal!

It truly is a once in a lifetime experience that allows you to dress up and celebrate the end result of over 13 years of work dating back to your pre-school days. It's an opportunity to gather with family and friends and celebrate an epic milestone in your life. For some, it's the last time you will spend significant time with friends who have been a day-to-day presence in your life for over a decade. It can be a bittersweet experience. But it's a special experience that will provide one more opportunity to reminisce with friends about the special memories you made together.

Your high school graduation will become a landmark memory in your life timeline. It's symbolic of the first big transition in your life. It's the first sign that your life will be different now. You will have different day-to-day experiences, with different people in different environments. Expectations and responsibilities will also be different. Some of the normal stresses of high school will seem much more trivial. You will eventually become nostalgic for those carefree days even if they didn't seen that care-free then!

We take our responsibility to provide a special experience for our seniors very seriously. Amber Findley and Michael O'Neal, senior sponsors and graduation coordinators, are the best in the business. Shandra Elmore, high school registrar, Candy Tuck, front-desk secretary and attendance clerk, Cara Simonton, activity/athletic secretary and Melissa Feroli, high school counselor, and Rick Hammer, athletic director and asst. principal, work hard to organize all aspects of end of year recognitions, awards, and scholarships, David Hilger, Bryson, Tuttle, April Trumbo, and Scott Ward provide tech support. These are just a few of the individuals who work behind the scenes to make this experience special for our seniors.

We are proud of you 2023 Seniors! Enjoy this experience and take time to reflect upon the journey and appreciate the moment. Take a moment to thank a teacher, coach, secretary, teacher assistant, or anyone who helped make that journey special.

Jason

cell phone number: 918-873-0354

I was honored to recognize April Trumbo as our PHS Staff of the Month. I'm also thrilled to announce April was recently hired as our new high school computer teacher. We are fortunate to have April serving our students at PHS. But don't take my word for it, read the praise from one of her colleagues below:

"April has been an amazing member of our staff since she arrived! She has worn so many hats through the years and has done a wonderful job with each! She is great with the students and has a caring, happy demeanor that is contagious! She takes her job very seriously and that is evident every day! Although she has been taking classes continually on her path to her degree (I'm sure it was super stressful at times), she continued to work hard and focus on what needed to be accomplished at PHS."

--Candy Clark; PHS English Teacher

We are o proud of our TSA JH and HS programs for their success at State this week. Paul Wollenberg deserves special recognition for his leadership. Thanks as well to hs sponsor Scott Ward. 1st time for high school TSA competing @ State since 2016. Full results pictured below.

Thank you First United Bank. We are thrilled to have an updated and modernized marquee. This allows us to better communicate with our community and promote the achievements of our students and staff. We are grateful for your generous donation of over $44,000! Go Dragons!!!

Kaden Pliler & Reese Fleming: GOLD (Superior) Ratings

Addison Guinn & Dylan Licquia: Excellent Rating.

Thank you Cindy Donaldson for your work and success with our choir program this year.

Katy Keith, current junior at PHS, was selected to participate in the prestigious Youth Leadership Oklahoma Program this summer. Katy will also selected to serve as STUCO President next year. We are proud of Katy and her leadership!

Semester tests begin next week for seniors and underclassmen. I've copied the schedules below for both groups. Teachers will submit their semester test exemptions this week. I've copied below our semester test exemption policy. Please allow me to make the following points as clear as possible:

A semester test exemption simply means you are exempted from having to take the semester test and it will neither help or penalize your grade. Exempted students have the option to take the test if they choose.

Normal attendance policies are in place during hours in which students are testing. However, students who are exempted from the test will receive an automatic excused absence for that hour only. This absence would NOT count towards their exemption status.

❖ Semester or End of Year Tests:

Semester tests will count 20% of final grade.

❖ Makeup on core semester tests will be allowed if the student fails the test and students can retest for up to 80% credit. (Teachers will determine time and students must do remediation before the test is given). The higher score will determine the semester grade. *The re-test must be taken in a timely manner as determined by the teacher and principal.

❖ Students may be exempted from semester tests on the following basis: (please note that excused and unexcused absences both apply to the absence exemption policy for semester tests. Absences by arrangement and activity absences do not apply.)

3 absences and a A (per semester)

2 absences and a B

1 absence and a C

• We conducted a soft-lockdown drill last week during lunch. This was an opportunity to practice safety protocols during an unstructured time. Unstructured times are the parts of a school day when students are not in class and not directly supervised. Of course these are normal periods of time for high school students. It's important to remember that many of our students are 18 years of age or older and are expected to supervise themselves as any adult would. We were very pleased with the rapid and calm response of our students and staff and we were able to secure students and staff in less than 2 minutes.

• Thank you to the Purcell Police Department for their continued support and presence of our school safety protocols. I've included a picture below of Officer Kyle Mobley who is a regular presence in our school and help monitor and check our entrance and exit points.

• Prom and Graduation Season can be a dangerous time for teens. We urge all parents and guardians to emphasize safety to teens during this time for celebrations. I've listed below some simple tips for prom and graduation season safety.

• We are entering the most active period of severe weather in the middle of spring event season. Please review your severe storm plans and review our plans that our linked below. It's important to remember that the school automatically is placed in lockdown mode if we are under a tornado warning. Students and staff would be moved into designated areas and no one would be allowed to enter or exit.

Thank you Purcell Police Department and Patrolman Kyle Mobley for helping us keep our schools safe. Officer Mobley regularly comes by and assists me with door checks and monitoring our school. We appreciate you!

• Our Academic Awards and Senior Awards Assembly are Thursday, May 4th (please see announcements below).
• The Academic Awards Assembly is where we announce all classroom awards, Oklahoma Academic Scholars, National Honor Society, Oklahoma Honor Society, Top 10 Percent, Letter P Award Winners, Students of the Month, Honor Roll Recipients and more.

• The Senior Awards Assembly recognizes senior scholarship winners and other special awards.
• We will be sending parents individual results for freshman and sophomore NWEA MAP results from the spring assessments. This will allow you to measure your student's progress in Math and Reading over the past year. Expect those results over the next few weeks.
• See below information for Summer Learning Extensions (summer school). This includes the enrollment form for any student wishing to attend Summer Learning Extensions in June. Please click on the link below to enroll your student in summer learning extensions.

The 2023 PHS Prom was held on a beautiful Saturday Evening at the Grand Canadian Theater. Our 2023 Junior Class Prom Committee and sponsors Jasmine Quinonez and Sam Resendiz did an amazing job planning, organizing, and orchestrating such a great event. Students enjoyed the extra wrinkles that were added this year including the red carpet walk and 360 camera. A fun time was had by all. Thank you to the following PHS staff members who volunteered their Saturday evening to chaperone. A special thanks to Jasmine and Sam for their hard work and leadership.

Scott Ward

Jack McNeely

Jon Corea

Krysta Matthews

Mayra Munoz

Irma Calixto

Amber Findley

Melissa Feroli

(I hope I didn't miss anyone!)

Also a special thanks to McClain County Sheriff's Department for providing security.

Thank you Candy Clark and the PHS Key Club for sponsoring and organizing an amazing Talent Show this past week. I'm proud of all of our students who shared their talents and creativity with the rest of the school. There were truly inspirational performances. I'm equally proud of our student body for their support and encouragement for their classmates. This was truly a special day and event.

1st Place: Camdyn Frankenberg & Parker Reed

2nd: Kaden Pliler

3rd: Emanuel Escobedo

4th: Frankie Linker

Congratulations to Haley Kretchmar, Hudson Andrews, and Carli Thomas for qualifying and competing at the Central Area Speech Contest recently.

Congratulations to our PHS Track Athletes who qualified for the State Track Tournament. Also a huge thanks and congratulations to our coaches for their hard work. It's been a great season.

At the time of publishing the newsletter we did not have official results from the Boys. I will update once those results are available. We will also make a social media post celebrating our athletes.

Girls State Track Qualifiers:

Shot Put: Ella Resendiz & Hannah Whitaker

Discus: Ella Resendiz & Tinley Winters

Long Jump: Hannah Whitaker

Please be sure to check the Dragon Athletic Website to access schedules for spring sports. Slowpitch Softball, Baseball, Tennis, Golf, and Track are in full swing. Please look to follow individual sports on their social media sites and follow PHS Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Website for updates.

Softball, Track, Baseball, and Golf have plenty of dates over the next few weeks

https://www.purcellps.org/o/phs/page/athletics

MATC Assessment Center is offering appointments for driver’s permit testing multiple days per week for students in our surrounding communities.

We are happy to offer this service so that parents and students don't have to wait weeks or months for appointments at some DPS locations. Students age 15 ½ and up are eligible for testing.

Registration can be done through our school website at this link: Mid-America Technology Center Exam Selection | Registerblast by choosing Public Examinee, DPS, DPS Class D Written exam and then a date and time that work well for the individual. Registration and payment is done through the site. Examinees only need to bring their birth certificate or a valid passport when they come test. The test is untimed and 20 multiple choice questions. Results are printed immediately and they can proceed to DPS locations without an appointment to expedite the permit process.

Affordable opportunities close to home for PHS students interested in an Engineering Career.

Chickasaw Nation Packed Promise- Now Accepting Applications. Chickasaw students in PK-12 that receive free or reduced cost school meals and reside within the Chickasaw Nation. Participants receive monthly box of food.

packedpromise.com or call 844-230-3785 to apply.

Please contact the high school if you are unable to access Parent Portal. This allows students and parents to access real-time grades 24/7, attendance information and update personal information. I include a parent/portal link for all parents/guardians on every Parent Newsletter. This link is located immediately below this message. It's very important all parents have access to parent portal.

Please complete this form linked here if you are need of a Parent Portal Account:

https://forms.gle/kcw4yFh9UghpFKW76

If you have any problems accessing Parent Portal please contact the school directly: (405) 442-0099