February/March Parent Newsletter
Spring is an exciting time of year! As we begin to enjoy warmer weather and flowers blooming, we look forward to activities to celebrate our students. We are planning an event on March 30 to celebrate all our students who are meeting expectations in the areas of academics, attendance, and behavior. We also love to send our seniors off with fun activities to celebrate their accomplishments and make some final memories of high school, so we are working on many senior activities to close out the year.
As we approach the middle of the semester, this is an important time to check your student’s grades. Using the ParentVUE or StudentVUE app is the best way to check grades and attendance 24/7. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to your child’s teacher or counselor.
Let’s keep working together for our students’ success!
Jeannie Hidalgo
Black History Spirit Week
February 6 - 10, we celebrated Black History Month by having a school-wide spirit week! Students enjoyed dressing up in celebration of their cultures!
Chemistry
Chemistry has been working hard on using dimensional analysis to convert recipes. Last week, they celebrated with a cupcake war!
Sci-Fi Club Valentine's Day Party
Sci-Fi club celebrated Valentine's Day in their February club meeting!
Big Board Celebration
We celebrated students with exemplary grades, behavior, and attendance with donuts! These students also have extended lunch!
Chemistry
Check out chemistry students making s'mores to work on the idea of limiting and excess reactants.
HBCU College Fair
We had a great group of DHS students attend the HBCU College Fair hosted at Meadowcreek High School!
10th LA
10th grade Language Arts just finished reading Persepolis, which is a memoir written as a graphic novel about a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. To wrap up their unit, students did their own research on another historic revolution and created a comic strip to present what they learned. Students then participated in a gallery walk and viewed each other's work!
Stoichiometry
10th grade Chemistry students are learning stoichiometry! Small groups have been using the media center space to come in and get extra practice.
Chemistry
Students in Chemistry have just started their Solutions Unit. They began with an inquiry lab where they explored using common household products like soap, corn syrup, and glycerin to see who could make the strongest, biggest bubbles!
Singing Valentines
Dacula High School Chrous serenaded many students the week of Valentine's Day as part of their Singing Valentine's fundraiser!
Engineering
Intro to Engineering students are making Dacula “D” refrigerator magnet picture frames (which has them use 7 major machines in the Makerspace) and several hand tools.
Engineering
Engineering upper classes designed mousetrap powered cars in CAD (Computer Aided Design) and then cut them out on the laser cutter then glue them together. They were given a few design constraints such as ranges for length and width and all parts had to fit on one 12” square of wood.
March 18 - Color Run for a Cure 3K
March 18 at 8:30am, DHS Student Council is hosting a Color Run for a Cure at Mulberry Elementary School! All proceeds from the event will benefit CURE Childhood Cancer. The entry fees are as follows:
- Single Runner - $30 (1 person, 1 shirt)
- Family Due - $55 (2 people, 2 shirts)
- Family Pack - $100 (4 people, 4 shirts)
- Individual Sponsor - $65 (see link below for more info)
March 20 - Prom Ticket Prices Increase to $90
Prom is Saturday April 15th at Zoo Atlanta! Tickets will go on sale starting Tuesday, February 14th on My Payments Plus. Tickets start selling for $80 and increase to $90 on March 20th . The final day to purchase tickets is Friday, March 31st. ALL school fines must be paid in order to attend prom. All students will need to fill out the rules form, and for students bringing dates who do not attend Dacula High School, there will be an additional form they must submit along with a photocopy of their dates ID. All guests must be under the age of 21 on the day of prom to attend. For all important prom updates and information, follow the Prom Instagram page @dhsprom or for information visit the school website. Forms and rules can be found here on the Prom FAQ Document.
Congratulations to our Mock Trial Team!
The Dacula High School Mock Trial team (Team "I") competed in the Lawrenceville Region 9 Georgia High School Mock Trial Competition on Friday, February 3rd and on Saturday, February 4th at the Gwinnett Administration & Justice Center (Gwinnett County Courthouse). This was our first in-person competition since the 2019 season!
Along with placing Region Runner-up, Dacula's Mock Trial team students won four awards:
- For competing in the Georgia High School Mock Trial Competition all 4-years
- Angelani Mukendi
- Jocelyn May
- Outstanding Witness Awards
- Kimberly Reyes-Benitez, Round 3
- William "Blake" Howard, Round 1
The students competed exceptionally well and learned so much about our legal system. They should be so proud of themselves! In our final competition round, the team had an opportunity to compete in one of our attorney coaches' courtroom, the Honorable Judge Tracie Cason. 🙂
Come see our soccer teams play!
Ladies Flag Football Spring Practices
This year GHSA has allowed Ladies Flag Football a spring practice period. For the first time, Dacula High School Flag Football will begin practice this May. At the conclusion of the Spring Practice Period Dacula High School Ladies Flag Football will participate in a jamboree to include Winder Barrow High School and Monroe Area. The jamboree will take place on May 18th.
There will be a player informational meeting on 4/12 after school in Coach Crabb's room. A parent informational meeting will take place in the transformational room on 4/19.
Practice dates for the Spring practice period will be 5/2, 5/4, 5/9, 5/11 and 5/16. Please see Coach Crabb for any questions.
Graduation Signs and Banners
SENIOR PARENTS -
We will only be able to sell 75 graduation yard signs and 50 banners. Please get your order in early as these will sell out fast. Orders can be made on My Payments Plus. Please complete the order form and return to Chris Autrey when you place your order.
Dacula High School is offering GRADUATION SIGNS and BANNERS for ANY (Does not have to be DHS graduate) graduating senior. We have Vinyl 18” x 24” Coroplast Yard Signs with Metal Stands and 36”x50” Heavy Duty Banners with metal grommets for hanging. The sign includes the student’s name, school logo or student picture, school name, and class year in your school colors, A sample sign can be seen in the School Store or on the school website. If you would like to have the students picture in place of the school logo please send a high quality JPEG image of the student via e-mail. You must own an electronic copy of the picture, I cannot scan a yearbook/graduation picture from a photographer unless you own the rights to that picture. Optional also is the student’s college choice.
- Complete the attached order form below.
- Pay for your sign/banner on My Payments Plus and ATTACH A COPY OF RECEIPT to the order form.
- Bring the order form to Room 1.307A (make checks payable to Dacula High School), or you can mail the form
Questions? Contact Chris Autrey @ chris.autrey@gcpsk12.org
Graduation Announcements
A message from Herff Jones-
CONGRATULATIONS Dacula CLASS OF 2023! We cannot believe how quickly the year has gone by and before you know it, you will be walking across the stage at graduation! Make sure everyone knows how hard you have worked to achieve one of the best moments of your life and announce your graduation with class. Check out the attached digital flyer to see your Dacula packages! You can use the QR code to get to the ordering site or below is the direct link to order your Official Dacula Graduation Announcements, so don’t wait.
Graduation Products by Herff Jones
Not only will your announcements have your official school crest, but they will also be personalized with your name in the text just like collegiate announcements. We also created packages to make ordering even easier, but you can always add more to them, so no one is left out. Orders will begin to ship directly to your house, and you will receive tracking information once the order ships out.
We are so proud of you and honored to celebrate this milestone with you!
School Plus & Credit Recovery
If you have a student currently enrolled in School Plus or Credit Recovery, please make sure to check in with them frequently to make sure they're making progress in their course! The deadline for submitting work is March 23. If your work is not completed by that date, you will be dropped from School Plus.
Prom Information
Prom is Saturday April 15th at Zoo Atlanta! Tickets will go on sale starting Tuesday, February 14th on My Payments Plus. Tickets start selling for $80 and increase to $90 on March 20th . The final day to purchase tickets is Friday, March 31st. ALL school fines must be paid in order to attend prom. All students will need to fill out the rules form, and for students bringing dates who do not attend Dacula High School, there will be an additional form they must submit along with a photocopy of their dates ID. All guests must be under the age of 21 on the day of prom to attend. For all important prom updates and information, follow the Prom Instagram page @dhsprom or for information visit the school website. Forms and rules can be found here on the Prom FAQ Document.
Falcon Food Nest
The Falcon Food Nest is open for requests! Our school food pantry is currently filling weekly requests from students. Requests are filled to send a weekend's worth of food home to help our Dacula families. The link to the anonymous request form is located on the eClass landing page.
Our pantry offers a variety of non-perishable foods: breakfast items, pasta meals, soups, vegetables, fruits and snacks. We also have personal care items. Please read all of the information carefully in the first sections as they help us best serve you. If you do not want items from a particular section, don't answer that section. Orders will be filled by availability and family size. You will get at least one item per section you request. This form must be submitted by Wednesday afternoon for pick-up from the counseling office on Friday. Specific information about the pick up process is included on the request form.
We always gratefully accept donations. The Student Council student leaders who lead the school pantry are Jocelyn May and Avery Weaver. If you have any questions about the pantry, you can ask these students or reach out to our Student Council Sponsors Kelly Cooper and Katie Elder.
Senior Dues
Parents can begin paying for senior dues at https://www.scholasticimages.com/. Senior dues will be $160 and go up on March 1. Dues are required to participate in all senior activities, including the graduation ceremony.
Yearbook
The yearbook price is currently $85. Order your yearbook today at https://www.yearbookordercenter.com/jobSearch/displayHome with the code 25024.
School Pictures Are Ready to Order!
Your School Pictures are now available to view and order through CADY!
If you bought a picture package before or on picture day, your package will be mailed directly to your home. If you did not purchase a package on or prior to underclass picture day, you can log in at http://cady.com/orderphotos to view and order your 2022-2023 school pictures today!
Free and Reduced Lunch
Throughout the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allowed school systems across the country to provide breakfast and lunch to all students at no charge to families. However, the USDA waivers expired during the summer, and students are required to pay for meals based on their individual eligibility.
In order to receive free or reduced-price meal benefits, families must complete the Free and Reduced-price Meal Application and meet eligibility requirements. Click here to learn more: https://www.gcpsk12.org/Page/29759
Apply today! Applications must be submitted every year (even if you filled one out in the spring, you need to fill out a new one for this school year). Applications can be submitted throughout the year if your family status changes. Note that those eligible for free and reduced priced meals may be able to access other types of assistance including College Board fees waived for AP Exams and PSAT.
- Online application (Private, Fast, & Available 24/7) http://gwinnett.schoollunchapp.com
- Application Check Status http://gwinnett.schoollunchstatus.com
- For questions, the help line is 678-301-6307
Teacher of the Month for January- Alex Kesler
