The Demon
A Weekly Update for Parents, Students, and our Community
A Note from Mrs. Elroy
We are quickly approaching Thanksgiving Break and then the end of the first semester. Please continue to check parent portal for your student's grades and attendance. As always, reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns!
Parents, please help us out by reminding your student to wear their student ID everyday and bring their charged chrome book. **If your student does not yet have a chrome book, please make sure you have signed the user agreement and paid the user fee. Please email cody.copeland@duncanps.org with questions.
Thank you all for what you do for our staff, students, and school. I sincerely appreciate your partnership.
Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving with your loved ones.
GO DEMONS!
Communication with School Staff
We are dedicated to serving our students and their families each and every day. We are here and eager to help in anyway that we can. With that being said, we also have to protect our time with our own families and have time to disconnect and recharge.
Please respect the following boundaries regarding communication with school personnel. Thank you.
- Teachers and staff will respond to parent emails or phone calls within 24 hours during the work week. The best time to call is 7:30-3:15 each day.
- Emails and phone calls on Friday and the weekend will be returned on Monday of the following week.
- All parent/staff communication should be through an official school email or a phone call to the school office. In addition to these, other school communication tools such as SeeSaw, Class Dojo or other tools set up by the school or teacher may also be used.
- Teachers also have a planning period during the day that can be used for phone communication or parent meetings as needed.
- Appointments can be scheduled with other staff, as needed, through a phone call to the school office.
Please be aware of your students' absences and grades. Also, remember that excessive absences can make a student ineligible to compete in their activity as well.
Please reach out to us if you have any questions. Below is our attendance policy as it applies to test exemptions/class credit and eligibility.
Attendance Policy
1. Absences
Parents are responsible for ensuring that their student attends school on a regular and punctual basis. The purpose is to help students learn daily and be educationally prepared for the next school year. The District believes that teaching students the importance of regular and punctual attendance also helps them mature into responsible adults who will one day be prepared for the world of work. Students are expected to be in school a minimum of ninety percent (90%) of the time. This year students should be in school and receiving instruction for 167 days. 90 percent of this is 150 days. This allows the student to miss up to 16 days during the year/8 days per semester. (See policy below on absences and receiving credit.) The following steps assist in accomplishing this goal.
A. It is the responsibility of the student’s parent/guardian/legal custodian to notify the attendance office regarding the reason for the absence. In the event the school is not contacted, a school official will attempt to contact the parent.
B. Contact must be made to the office within 5 days of the absence or the absence will remain unexcused.
C. If a student has three unexcused absences, a school official will contact the child’s home.
D. In accordance with Oklahoma School Law (Section 232), when a child is truant four (4) or more days or parts of days within a four-week period or is absent without valid excuse for ten (10) or more days or parts of days within a semester, the school shall report such absences to the City of Duncan (Ordinance 1701-which could result in a fine) and then could be handed over to the Stephens County district attorney. The district attorney has responsibility for initiating legal proceedings pursuant to Title 10 of the Oklahoma Statues. (70-10-106).
The following absence reasons will require documentation, turned into the attendance clerk.
Doctor visits
Counseling appointments
College Visits (juniors and seniors only)
Military visits
Documentation will be reviewed by the attendance committee and a determination will be made as to whether or not the absence will be waived. The decision of the committee shall be final.
Documentation for the above absence reasons MUST be turned into the attendance clerk of the absence. Documentation not turned in by Friday of the week of the absence may not be accepted.
2. Absences and the Ability to Receive Credit
No student shall receive semester credit in a course in which the student is absent more than eight (8) days per semester, excluding school activity absences, 2 college days for juniors, 4 college days for seniors, and waived absences. Please note that if a student misses more than 10 minutes of a class, it counts as an absence for that class. The building principal shall have discretionary authority to approve any make-up or extra waiver for days missed beyond the 8-day limit. (Vacation/Trips – The school administration neither encourages nor condones students missing school for trips and family vacations. Parents/guardians/legal custodians should take their student’s current absence totals into consideration before requesting permission to remove the student from learning for the purpose of a trip or family vacation. Please check the published school calendar prior to making vacation plans. Requests for excused absences due to a trip or family vacation should be submitted to campus administration at least two (2) weeks in advance. Students with excessive absences, or poor grades due to excessive absences, will not be excused for these trips/family vacations.
Students at risk of losing credit because of violation of this policy may plead their case to the DHS Attendance Committee. Students will be asked to provide a reasonable excuse for all absences. Students are encouraged to provide doctors notes, court documents, and other documentation for consideration by the committee. The decision to award or deny credit made by the committee is final.
**Students who meet the following criteria will be exempt from taking semester tests:
3 absences or less and an A
2 absences or less and a B
1 absence or less and a C
Examples of Waived Absences
1. Medical/Dental appointments with verification from a medical professional indicating the day of the absence.
2. Legal matters with documentation.
3. Death of immediate family- Immediate family shall be defined as, spouse, children, step-children, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, spouse’s parents and grandparents, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and spouses of members of said immediate family.
4. Observance of holidays required by student’s religious affiliation.
5. Any day a student serves as a page for the State or National Legislature (not to exceed five days, with appropriate documentation)
3. Absence and Removal from Attendance Roll
In compliance with Oklahoma School Law (Section 387/Part 2), a student who has been absent without a valid excuse for ten (10) consecutive days shall be removed from the district’s attendance roll beginning with the eleventh day.
4. Truancy
Truancy is not being in class when assigned. Disciplinary action will be taken.
Examples of Truancy:
1. Being absent for any reason not listed as an excused absence.
2. Leaving school without first securing campus permission and checking out at the attendance office. 3. Being ill and staying in the restroom instead of checking in with the nurse.
4. Coming to school, but failing to attend class.
5. Obtaining a hall pass to a particular destination, then not reporting there and back.
6. Late arrival or non-attendance due to car trouble, missing the bus, oversleeping, etc. 7. Being in an unauthorized area.
5. Procedure for Leaving Campus During the School Day
A student must receive a permit from the attendance office to leave the school grounds at any time during the school day. Failure to follow proper checkout procedure will result in truancy and its related discipline.
Parents/legal guardians checking 9th grade students out for lunchtime before regular lunch begins are required to enter the building and check out his/her student with the attendance office. This is a required safety precaution, designed to protect DHS’s youngest and most vulnerable learners. Leaving campus without authorization will result in detention and /or in-school detention.
6. Make-up Work
Make-up work for absences, which meet the attendance criteria, will be considered for full credit. The number of days allowed to make up missed assignments shall equal the number of days absent. Upon returning to school it is the student’s responsibility to ask for and to make up work missed during an absence.
STUDENT ID's
Students must wear their school issued ID and lanyard to school everyday. Any questions regarding the replacement of student IDs should be directed to Mr. Copeland.
Once all badges are issued, ANY STUDENT WHO SHOWS UP TO SCHOOL WITHOUT THEIR ID, WHETHER THEY LOST IT OR BROKE IT WILL BE GIVEN AN HOUR OF AFTER SCHOOL DETENTION FOR THE 1ST OFFENSE. Each time this happens, the consequence increases. Student IDs are REQUIRED.
**If a student badge is not working or broken, wear it anyway and speak with Mr. Copeland about a replacement.
November 13-17, 2023
Monday
- Boys Basketball scrimmage @ 4:00
Tuesday
- 9th All State Auditions-music
- National Guard in US History classes
- Basketball-Freshmen Boys vs. Lawton Mac
Wednesday
- Basketball clinic 5:30
Thursday
- Swim @ Lawton
- Basketball-Freshmen boys and Girls vs. Elgin
Friday
- Jazz band concert @ SWOSU
- Swim vs.Lawton
- Basketball Preview Night
Saturday
- Wrestling @ Southmoore
- Boys basketball scrimmage @ Ike
Sunday
- November 20-24 Thanksgiving Break
- November 27-December 1 Semester attendance appeals meetings
- December 13-14 Semester Tests
- December 20-January 2 Christmas Break
- January 3- Professional Day- NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
- January 15- Martin Luther King Jr. Day- NO SCHOOL
- February 16- NO SCHOOL
- February 19- President's Day-NO SCHOOL
Below is the Enrichment Opportunity for November!
THE DEMONs DEN- AVAILABLE FOR DUNCAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!
Dress and Appearance Regulations
The Duncan Board of Education endorses and adopts as policy these regulations on student dress and appearance developed and presented by representatives of the Association of Duncan Educators and the Duncan Public School Administrative Staff.
It is the desire of the administration and staff that every student be provided the opportunity for a quality education on a daily basis. When the dress code becomes the focus of the administration and staff due to the inappropriateness of the clothing, this does not create an environment conducive to a quality education. Standards of dress are provided so clothing does not distract from the educational process.
All students are expected to be groomed and dressed appropriately with respect to the following criteria:
1. No cleavage, midriff, hips/buttocks, or upper one-third of thighs will be allowed to be visible while standing or sitting.
2. Shirts that are or resemble lingerie and shirts with large armholes are not permitted.
3. No undergarments should be exposed.
4. The wearing of hoods, bandanas, or non-religious head coverings will not be permitted inside any campus building. If head coverings impede the view of another student or are a distraction to the learning environment, teachers may require students to remove them.
5. Profanity, lewdness, illustrations/language offensive to the general population, or promotion of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or gangs will not be permitted on skin or clothing.
6. Competing students will comply with the dress code rules of their respective coaches and program directors, both during competition and the school day, at the discretion of the coach or program director.
7. Any clothing, make up, hairstyle, jewelry, accessory, or style of dress which causes a disruption in the educational environment will be considered a violation of the dress code and will be subject to discipline.
Students found in violation of DHS dress code will move through the following steps accordingly:
- An office referral will be completed by the reporting staff member, and the student will be called to the office by administration.
- If a dress code violation has been identified, the student will be removed from the general student population and placed in ISI due to the fact their clothing is not school-appropriate for the general classroom.
- Parent/guardian/legal custodian will be contacted and requested to bring alternate clothing to the school.
- Student will be called from ISI to change into appropriate clothing and released back to class. The inappropriate clothing must go home with the parent/guardian/legal custodian.
- If the parent/guardian/legal custodian is unable to be reached or unable to bring clothing to the school, the student will remain in ISI for the remainder of the school day. The student will not be allowed to leave school, drive home, change clothing, and then return to school.
- Repetitive violations of this offense will result in increasing levels of discipline and possible suspension from school.
About Duncan High School
Email: lisha.elroy@duncanps.org
Website: www.duncanps.org
Location: 515 North 19th Street, Duncan, OK, USA
Phone: (580)2550700