Dedication Ceremony and Homecoming 2018

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Hi Raccoon Community!

This upcoming Sunday marks the kickoff of the 2018 Homecoming festivities! Our Student Council, under the advising of Mrs. Angela Fisher and Mrs. Danielle Bukal, has been working hard at planning a memorable and fun week for our entire community! I am incredibly thankful for all of their efforts, and I look forward to celebrating with everyone.

This year, Homecoming week also includes the dedication ceremony and community open house for our new East Campus and renovated Main Campus classrooms in Raccoon Runway and Ocon Ave. This celebration will start with a dedication ceremony at 1:00 p.m. in the boardroom at OHS East Campus. After the ceremony, our facilities will be open for you to roam or receive a guided tour from student volunteers until 4:00 p.m.  I know the Packers play the Bills at noon that day. As a loyal Patriots fan who is very familiar with Buffalo’s style of play, I am convinced you will have the game in the bag by 2:00 p.m., but we will be around after the game if you can’t break away.

This year’s Homecoming theme is Ohana Ocona: Where Ocon Means Family, which is an excellent reminder that while we operate as a school community of more than 1,900 students and staff, we represent a larger community that should be very proud of our high school.  Many of you have already seen these new spaces, but I would encourage you to swing by and consider bringing a neighbor, friend, grandparent or family member to our school on Sunday, September 30th. It will be a great way to show our community how thankful we are for their continued support, give them a reason to be proud, and showcase the fantastic work of our OHS community!

Finally, we hope to see you at one of our many other Homecoming events throughout the week. These include:

Sunday, September 30

Window Painting                                           10:00 a.m.                             Meet at the Village Green Downtown

East Dedication Ceremony                             1:00 p.m.                            East Campus Board Room

OHS Community Open House                       2:00-4:00 p.m.                   East Campus and Main Campus

Tuesday, October 2

Soccer vs. Waukesha South                           6:30 p.m.                           OHS Soccer Stadium

Volleyball vs. Waukesha South                     7:00 p.m.                            OHS Field House

Wednesday, October 3

Powderpuff Football Game                           7:00 p.m.                           OHS Rux Stadium

Thursday, October 4

Swim Meet                                                     6:00pm                                 YMCA Pabst Farms

Friday, October 5

Homecoming Parade                                      5:15 p.m.                           Line up on Oakwood at 4:00 p.m.

Football vs. Catholic Memorial                     7:00 p.m.                           OHS Rux Stadium

Saturday, October 6

Homecoming Dance                                      8:00-11:00 p.m.                  OHS Upper Gym

As always, you can reach me at 262-560-3101 or CurtisJ@oasd.org if you have any questions!

You can’t hide that Ocon Pride!
Jason

Prioritizing Safety at OHS

Friday, September 14, 2018

Hello Raccoon Family!

Thank you for all of your support in helping to kick off the new school year! As we continue to push through the first month of the year, I would encourage you to reach out to anyone on our staff to ask any questions, address any concerns, or share a compliment or positive story!

In reflecting on my first few months at OHS, I quickly realized that many of my communications were reactive to events happening at our school. This year, I am hoping to be more transparent with our entire community and from time to time provide proactive communications about what is happening behind the scenes at our school. This month, I would like to share a little bit about safety routines and procedures at OHS.

The safety of our students, staff, and visitors to OHS is of the utmost importance when it comes to creating a school environment that allows students to focus on learning. As a staff, we have the important responsibility of being educated and trained to react and respond to an emergency. However, with that being said, I believe it is just as important to empower our students to be able to respond appropriately to an emergency situation. Outlined below are several ways in which we are working to enhance the safety of our campus and educate our staff and students on proactive safety practices.

Enhanced Security Procedures/Routines

Over the summer, we have added a few safety measures and adjusted some procedures from last year. These include:

• Adding additional lighting and cameras on the pathway connecting Main Campus and East Campus
• Hiring a staff member to supervise the transition periods between campuses, identify students when entering each campus, and patrol parking lots during the school day
• Assigning administrators and Officer Parkhurst to supervise  students at our main entrances at the start of the school day
• All staff members are required to wear badges to identify themselves in the hall and while working evening activities. In addition, guests are required to pass background checks and wear a badge identifying themselves while in our school. This year, we are also asking students to display a badge to identify that they have permission to be in the halls during class time.

Student Safety Seminar

After our cookout and rally on the first day of school, our students were required to participate in a one-hour Student Safety Seminar. During that time, our students returned to class and reviewed all of the safety routines and procedures at OHS. This safety tutorial gave us the opportunity to teach our community about the safety expectations at OHS and allowed for productive scenario-based conversations. You can see the video by clicking here.

Schoolwide Drills

As many of you know, the Oconomowoc Area School District has adopted the ALICE protocol as our response to an active shooter. You can click here for more information on ALICE. This protocol was introduced in the Student Safety Seminar and will be discussed and rehearsed at a few points throughout the year. Last year, our community practiced a barricade drill. This fall, we plan to have another drill in which students have the opportunity to think and respond to an emergency situation based on the information provided. More information will be shared in the coming weeks.

In addition, we will continue to practice our fire drills monthly and conduct random drills to test our responses to severe weather alerts and medical emergencies.

Student Safety Commission

Last March, we launched a Student Safety Commission. Together with Officer Parkhurst, these students helped to plan last spring’s ALICE safety drill and helped to develop our new evacuation procedures. This group is getting up and running again and we already have 35 interested students. This year, the team will continue to plan safety drills, be a leader and voice in ensuring the safety measures and routines are implemented at our school, and I am exploring the possibility of them becoming first aid/CPR-certified.

Mandatory Staff Trainings

Our teachers participated in quite a few mandatory trainings prior to the start of the school year. These include trainings focused on responding to medical emergencies, medication distribution, cleaning biohazard wastes, and responding to an armed intruder. As students get older, we need to empower them to be able to respond to an emergency situation. However, we recognize as a staff that we ultimately hold the responsibility of ensuring the safety of our students while at school, on a field trip, or at a school event.

Thank you for your support and please feel free to contact me at CurtisJ@oasd.org if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a great week!
Jason