Principal's Corner

Dear Students and families,

Welcome to another exciting year at Decatur High School. We are committed to “every student, every day.” This is more than a tagline to us; it articulates a core belief that resonates throughout our school. I know you will recognize the atmosphere as one of dedication, collegiality and academic rigor. One of our school goals is strengthening our school community. In that respect, I am committed to sending a monthly newsletter, keeping our website up to date and informative, and calling upon our students and families to be involved in key decisions at Decatur High School.

Schedules
I know you were hoping that your schedule would be enclosed. However, with new staff and new scheduling software, I needed to allow more time to do the detail work involved. We expect to mail them on Tuesday, August 7th. Enclosed in that mailing, you will find the schedule, your students’ graduation plan, and a schedule change request form. We always hope to get it right the first time, but rely on you to let us know when there is an error. We appreciate your patience.

Open Office Hours
Each Monday, from 9-11, I will hold open office hours. This time is meant for any parent to come in and discuss an issue of concern, provide input on our school goals, or to just come in and talk about something in our community that may be pertinent to DHS. You do not need an appointment. I will begin this on the second week of school.

AYP
If you have been reading the newspaper or district website, you know that all Decatur City Schools met AYP (adequate yearly progress). This is a compliment to the hard work of everyone. DHS is “graded” on the Georgia High School Graduation Tests in Math and Language Arts, attendance rates, and graduation rates. Each area has targets we must reach. We also saw improvements in some areas that are not set at AYP targets. One of our goals is to outperform the Metro area on all high stakes tests and we met that mark. We know our school os one that makes our community proud; please congratulate your student for being committed to excel in all areas.

School Council
Our school council has three parent slots, with each serving a two-year term. Nancy Lee and Lynn Hart have just completed their terms. Nominations may be made by emailing me, or writing a letter and sending it to the address below. We will accept nomination through August 31 at 6pm. Nominations should include a statement indicating the reason your nominee should be selected and the names of his/her child(ren). Elections will be held at our curriculum night on Thursday, September 6th.

Transportation
The regular routes are posted on the CSD website. At this point in time, they are the same as last year. Parents are asked to update the transportation form (enclosed) if you plan for your child to ride the bus at any time.

Breakfast and lunch prices have changed
If you are interested in applying for free or reduced lunch, forms will be sent home during the first week of school.
Student breakfast:                $1.00
Staff and visitor breakfast:    $2.00
Reduced breakfast:            $0.30
Reduced lunch:                $0.40
Student lunch:                $1.65
Staff lunch:                    $3.00

Ninth grade and new student orientation
Please join us on August 9th at 6pm in the DHS cafeteria. All 9th grade teachers will be present. We will have light refreshments and look forward to meeting our new families.

Attendance
Attendance is an AYP indicator. Students with 15 or more absences count “against us” in that we must keep this rate at lower than 15%. That may seem like an easy feat but last year we were at 11%. Partial day absences may count as a full absence because a student must be present for at least half a day to be counted as present in this formula. For the purposes of AYP, there is no difference between an excused absence and an unexcused absence. However, many of these absences are avoidable. Please take note of the enclosed school calendar. There are 180 school days for students. With 365 days in the year, I hope that we can schedule appointments, family trips, and planned activities on non-school days, or after school hours. I know this is not always possible. Our state only allows us to “excuse” absences for certain reasons, most of which are unavoidable (illness, death in family, court appearance, etc.) Attendance at state exams must be 95%. I cannot stress enough how important it is that we all hold our school calendar as sacred. Please plan around it. Occasionally I am asked to sign excuse notes for reasons that are not state approved reasons (like a trip to see family). I prefer not to receive those notes so that I do not have to compromise the regulations I am asked to enforce. If your child must be gone from school and it is not an “approved” absence reason, please consult the student handbook (will be distributed on the 1st day of school) for unexcused absences consequences.

Procedures for arrival and dismissal
School starts (student should be in his/her seat) at 8:35. Students are dismissed at 3:32. We provide supervision in most common areas between the hours of 8 and 4. We ask that you ensure that your child has a plan for after school. Frequently students are hanging around campus much later than 4pm. We love that our school stays alive far beyond the school day. However, it is important that I stress that because s/he is on our campus does not mean that supervision is provided. We do ask students to leave the building at a certain point if they are not involved in tutoring or an after school activity. As an urban campus, there is no “locking up the grounds.”  Eventually we all go home to our families and I worry when kids are still clustering around saying they are waiting for rides. Please help by working on a plan to get your child home and, if needed, getting him/her to a more structured after school environment.

Sincerely,

Lauri McKain-Fernandez

Principal