Hawk Highlights
September 29, 2023
Decatur Middle School Families,
JA JobSparks went fantastically well with 8th graders on Tuesday. Make sure to ask your student what their favorite job station was! We came back with the SAME NUMBER of 8th graders as we departed with! Thank you to Mr. Storms for putting it together! And thanks, too, for the other school counselors and ALL THE TEACHERS that made this possible!
I can't even begin to tell you how much fun Pack the House was Thursday night. Although many students (and some staff!) are extremely tired today, we all had fun eating, dancing, and playing games in the courtyard followed by excellent volleyball and football games. A huge shoutout to Mr. Griffin for organizing the fun-filled afternoon and to the many teachers, staff, and students who made this happen!
As I type this, our e-Fundraiser has already reached almost $20,000 with more than 30% of students' families and friends participating! Thank you for the donations! Students receive individual prizes at benchmarks of 1, 4, and 5 donations that include a candy bar, a cookout, and a surprise fieldtrip. Schoolwide prizes are also associated with benchmarks of dollars received for Decatur Middle School that include:
- Adults in the cafeteria play "Who's Smarter than a Middle School Student?" at $10,000 (he/she with least points gets silly stringed!) Achieved!;
- Community-based use of the Pavilion at the end of the day at $15,000. Achieved!;
- Pie-in-the-Face Wall during lunch (five participants) at $20,000. Pretty sure those pies are coming!; and,
- Admin (and maybe some teachers?) sleep on the roof of the building at $25,000! Getting nervous about this one!!!
What could POSSIBLY HAPPEN at $30,000?! I'm losing my mind!
The site will remain open until Friday, October 6. To contribute, please visit DMS Fundraiser!
Teachers have set up schedules for parent conferences. If you have not yet set up a face-to-face or phone conference, please do so by contacting your students STAR teacher. We are striving for 100% participation! With only minor exceptions, teachers will be available from 7:00A-7:00P on Wednesday, October 4.
Boys Basketball tryouts begin next week. Students can sign up by scanning the code in the flyer below. Also, wrestling information session is October 5th at 3:05 in LGI. Parents will need to pick up from the wrestling meeting at 4:00 at the gym doors. See flyers for both sports in the information below.
Today marks the end of the first nine weeks of school! We are 25% towards the end of the year! And next week is the last week before Fall Break. After Friday, October 6, we will see students again on Monday, October 23.
Scroll down for notes from teachers, athletic information, district wide information, Food Pantry, and more!
Go HAWKS!
Fun on Campus!
Ms.
Newton's
Class
Quick Dates to Note
October 4 - Parent Conferences (No Students)
October 9-20 - Fall Break - No School
October 23 - Health Heroes - FREE FLU SHOTS for students and staff. Consent form is below!
November 1 - Parent University - see flyer below
Shoutouts
If you would like to contribute to our PBIS Rewards Incentives, please reach out to Mr. Ullrich at aullrich@decaturproud.org.
Flyers and Announcements
Cell Phones and School Technology
Please help us to remind students that cell phones and earbuds are not appropriate to be used in class UNLESS specific permission has been given by a teacher. If students are found to be inappropriately using cell phones, they will be confiscated until the end of the period. Continued inappropriate use may result in the cell phone be confiscated until the end of the day. Parents will be contacted if this occurs.
Also, a quick reminder to please monitor usage of social media and texting apps. The internet is a powerful place and can be very mean and dark for our students. In fact, many of our issues at school arise because of inappropriate messages being sent outside of school hours that then impact our students during the day. Yes, issues that are clearly created outside of school hours are often brought into the building requiring administration and counselor involvement. If your student is subject to inappropriate messages, or mean messages, please have them take a screen shot of that message and show their SLC Director or School Counselor. We will attempt to work through the problem with the students.
Students should not have social media apps on school issued iPads. If you see apps on their device, they have found a way to bypass our security.
Finally, the safest place for cell phones is the students locker. Cell phones that are lost or stolen will be reported, but it is very difficult to investigate as we can not reasonably search all students. Students are ultimately responsible for their own cell phone.
Decatur Athletic Contest Prices
- DCHS - $7.00 General Admission - DMS students must be chaperoned by parent/guardian during home DCHS games.
- DMS - $6.00 General Admission
- Non-School aged children and 65+ free of charge
- All tickets must be purchased on-line by clicking dchawks.com.
- DMS student MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS pass is on sale for $40.00 at dchawks.com! Good for middle school events only and good for the ENTIRE school year!
- Family passes (4 members) can be purchased for $150.00 for the ENTIRE school year! Again, middle school sports only.
Decatur Events and Notices
Food Pantry
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:
September 21st
October 6th (Note: this is a Friday)
November 2nd
November 9th
November 30th
December 14th