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- JV/V Baseball vs. Laurens-Marathon 5:30pmWe are still selling scrip cards at the OES office on Friday mornings from 7:45-8:45 (or 9:45-10:45 if we have a 2 hour late start). Please stop by and stock up on any cards you may need!
More information can be found on the Okoboji Scrip Overview. There are links to order forms and merchants under the Scrip Fundraiser category on the black left bar of the website.
We have several recently added Okoboji Scrip merchants:
Cali Nails – 10%
Campus Cleaners – 20%
Goodies Candies – 10%
Hill Avenue Book Co. – 10%
Mill Creek Restaurant – 10%
Royal Tan – 20%
Also…..APRIL PROMOTION: Purchase $100 Oak Hill Marina scrip card, and you will receive a free Oak Hill sweatshirt blanket and boat cleaning supplies ($50 value)! Offer valid through the end of April. Come and get yours now!
If you aren’t available on Friday mornings, drop your orders off any one of the three Okoboji school offices. They will be available for pick-up the following week. Or you can place your orders on-line at www.shopwithscrip.com. Our enrollment key is D926C19E3L48L.
Thank you for your support!!
Okoboji SCRIP
By Gary Janssen, Superintendent
The Okoboji School Board is currently updating board policies and a few of those policies deal with how to respond to parent and patron concerns. To support the board policies dealing with this issue, the Board recently adopted a process for how we would like parents and staff to work together in asking and responding to questions and concerns.
The document outlining the process is entitled “Do You Have a Concern?” can be accessed on the district website at http://www.okoboji.k12.ia.us/ on the parent or school board tabs. The communication process asks people to always try to resolve concerns at the lowest level closest to the issue. This means following the “chain of command”, which typically starts with the teacher, then progresses to the building principal, superintendent and school board levels.
The most important thing we can all do to avoid questions and concerns is to communicate openly on a regular basis. Parents should understand how their children are doing in school and get to know their teachers (and coaches) well. We in turn have a responsibility to share information openly on a regular basis.
No matter how hard everyone tries to communicate clearly, questions and concerns always arise and misunderstandings do develop. That is a natural part of life both inside and outside of school.
The intent of adopting the “Do You Have a Concern?” brochure is to make the preferred communication process clear to everyone. Our staff wants to continue working cooperatively with our parents and patrons in meeting the needs of our students. I encourage everyone to get on our website and look at the adopted brochure. We hope everyone finds it helpful.
In response the horrible tragedy that took place in Connecticut last Friday, the three building principals (Mr. Olsen, Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Downing) sent e-mails to all parents explaining what they will be doing in each building this week and also suggesting what parents can do to help their children deal with this issue. Some great advice for parents can be found in this article on the NY Times website.
Some of the things we currently do to provide a safe environment include:
Using this service requires you to have a JMC Parent Portal password. You most likely reviewed this at registration. If you don’t know your password, contact the office at your child’s attendance center and they can look it up for you. You will only have one password for this portal for the district. The same password will allow you to see student information in all 3 buildings if applicable.
We hope parents take advantage of the convenience this provides them and by using JMC and Payschools, it will actually save time for the person required to process the checks that are sent to school. Additionally, it eliminates the risk involved in sending a large check to school with your student, and worrying whether or not it makes it to the person who needs to make the deposit.
We have provided detailed instructions on how to make online deposits. They can be found on our website on the menu option Parents>>JMC Grades / Meal Deposits. Please take the time to read through the instructions first. After doing so, if you have questions about this process, contact Joan or Katy at the district office and they would be happy to help.
Your account will allow you to see upcoming events, announcements, and lesson plans for all the students in your family under one easy to navigate portal. In addition, these types of announcements will AUTOMATICALLY be emailed to you each day so you don't have to come to the site every day.
***The Website Account Setup Link is only available on the District Home Page***
Thank you for your ongoing patience while this issue was resolved. We appreciate the desire you have to stay connected to the school district.
We have received confirmation that there is a problem with the JMC Parent Portal and accessing it through Internet Explorer. JMC is working on a software update that will fix the problem, but doesn't have an exact timeline as to when it will be released.
In the meantime, there are alternative browsers that can be installed which will allow you to access the JMC Parent Portal without any problems. You can visit www.mozilla.org and download Mozilla Firefox. Alternatively, you can go to www.google.com/chrome and install Google Chrome. Either of those browsers will work with the JMC Parent Portal.
As soon as the new JMC software is released, we will upgrade it to fix this problem. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.
At the Pre-K level home visits will be scheduled for Monday August 27th and Tuesday the 28th. The first day of school for these students will occur on Wednesday the 29th. Parents will sign up for a home visit time during registration on August 15th.
TK through 6th grade will have parent conferences on Monday August 27th. These intake conferences will take place from 9am to 5pm with your child's homeroom teacher. Please bring your child with you to the conference and also bring in your school supplies. Class lists will be posted and parents will have the opportunity and to sign up for conference times at registration on the 15th. The first day of class for TK-6th grade will occur on Tuesday the 28th.
7th and 8th graders will begin their year with a trip to Camp Foster. After arriving at school, we will depart for the camp for a morning spent focused on leadership and empathy building activities. Students are asked to dress accordingly for the trip, including no open toed shoes. We will eat lunch at the camp so each student will need to bring a sack lunch. Students will return to the middle school in the afternoon to participate in breakout sessions where they will receive schedules, set goals for the year, receive their laptops, and learn about proper care and use of the device.
9th grade students will spend the morning of the 27th getting acclimated to the high school. This transition process will include large group discussions, small group breakout sessions on what it means to be an OHS student, high school 101, digital citizenship, performance character, and more. 9th grade students will then eat lunch as a group before we welcome the rest of the high school students back after lunch.
10th-12th grade students will not be expected to arrive at school until 11:45am and will not be eating lunch at school. Once they arrive we will have class meetings, move into our Dugout groups to hand out laptops, and run a shortened class schedule through the afternoon.
As we have said, we are very excited about the coming school year. We feel the transition activities we have described above will help ensure all students start the year prepared and ready for a positive learning experience. As always, thank you for entrusting us with your child's education and for all you do for our students, school, and community.
To streamline the registration process, we ask that you print the required forms in advance and bring the completed and signed forms with you when you register your student(s). There are forms on the Enroll at Okoboji web page and instructions to help you through the process.
Okoboji Community Schools' Free and Reduced Price Meal Application can be found in the Free and Reduced Meal Information folder on the Enroll at Okoboji web page. If possible, please drop off or mail your completed application to the Administration Office, so it can be processed prior to registration on August 15.
Click Here to Enroll at Okoboji
