Have a great summer! Thanks to all our wonderful faculty, staff and students for a spectacular year! See you in August!

Graduation
The 2013 Graduation ceremony is Friday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m. in the Kline Gymnasium. Graduating eighth graders should report to school by 9 a.m. Following the ceremony, students in grades K-7 will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m. and graduates, with their invited guests, are asked to stay for a special lunch prepared by the seventh grade parents. All parents are welcome to attend our graduation exercises.

Awards Communion

Members of the Class of 2013 were honored Thursday in ESK's annual Eucharist service for 5th-8th graders. Each graduating boy received an ESK alumnus tie, and each girl a charm bracelet. Asad Jooma, last year's SGA President and freshman at Knoxville Catholic HS, spoke along with departing Middle School faculty member Christopher Renberg. As part of an ESK tradition, members of the Sixth Grade class presented each graduating Eighth Grader with a handmade clay mug.  

Eighth Grader Mary Margaret Banick receives her graduation gift from Headmaster Jay Secor.

Portfolio Project Awards were also presented during the service. A number of well-deserving students were honored. For Best Research: Alex Daley - History, Morgan Morton-Killeffer - Sports, Ellie Lai - Science, Mary Emily Lauver - Social Science. For Artifact: Brenna Cox - Painting, Bevin Coburn - Book, Devin Badgett - Movie, Caroline Carr - Instrument, Mary Margaret Banick - Display. For Best Service: Madison Howell - Educating Others, Eli Fox - Supporting location organization and discovering talent, Riley Denton - Helping our community. Faculty awards went to Michael Jones, Florentin Kunz and Jonathan Adams. Lindsey Stallworth was the Student Choice and Eleanor Tant was awarded Distinguished Portfolio.  

Middle School faculty member Christopher Renberg shares the homily during the Eucharist service.

Sparks Fills Director of Development Position

ESK will welcome Ryan Sparks to the administration as the Director of Development. Beginning in August, Sparks will lead the fundraising efforts for the school, including Annual Fund and Scholarship Fund. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration-Accounting from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and his Master of Accountancy from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. Sparks is a 1998 graduate of McCallie School in Chattanooga, where he spent the last nine years leading the Annual Sustaining Fund. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two daughters, Libby and Sophie.

Oklahoma Tornado Relief

In response to the massive devastation in Oklahoma caused by this week's tornadoes, students at ESK collected cash donations that will be sent to St. Paul's Cathedral in Oklahoma City. There is a Tornado Fund that will directly help families in need. The Parents' Association will match the funds that are collected, and a letter will be sent that the children of our school are praying for families.  

Father Josh Hill was on WBIR earlier this week to share about the efforts of ESK to raise funds for tornado relief.

Families can also donate through Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) where a Tornado Response Fund has been established.

The ERD Tornado Response Fund can be found here.  

The Red Cross is always ready to help, and their Response Fund can be found here.  

Visit www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.00

ESKamp

It's not too late! Still need a summer activity for your kids? ESK has just what you're looking for: ESKamp! During the month of June, ESK will be offering a number of enrichment summer camps ranging from technology and art to musical theater and dance. Online registration will close May 31! The camps will run from June 3-28 with a morning and an afternoon session. All camps, except for the all-day Music Theater camp, will be $150 per student. Please register at eskamp.org.

Faculty News

Meet Our New English Teacher!

ESK welcomes Carol O'Donnell to the faculty as an English instructor in the Middle School. Next fall, O'Donnell will teach Language Arts to sixth and seventh grade students as well as serve as an advisor. Carol received her Bachelor's Degree in Literature, Fiction Writing and Anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College and her Master of Arts in Education from Columbia University. She spent almost 20 years teaching at a middle school in New York, N.Y., before spending the last year at South Doyle Middle School. We look forward to Ms. O'Donnell's contribution to the ESK family!

All-School News

Yearbook Orders

There are still a VERY limited number of 2012-13 yearbooks available for purchase! Please fill out an order form (available online and in the LS and MS offices) and return the form to Communications Director Melissa Anderson. The cost for a yearbook is $40. At this time, only cash or a check will be accepted as payment. Orders will not be taken after Friday.

Summer Math Workshop

Once again, Cathy Stivers will be offering a 4-day math workshop at ESK this summer. Any rising 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader is welcome to attend. We will cover basic operations, play math-based games, and work on the summer math packet. The workshop will be held July 15-18 and the sessions will run 9:30-11 a.m. To ensure the students will have lots of individual instruction, each session will be limited to 10 students. The cost of each workshop is $125. Contact Cathy Stivers via email at stivers@esknoxville.org or by phone at 777-9032 ext. 245.

BoxTops Update

The ESK community has now collected over 7,000 BoxTops and earned $728.66 - well above our $500 goal this school year for the Parent's Association! The money went toward the purchase of instruments for Dr. Sousa's music room. Don't forget to keep collecting them over the summer!

Summer Basketball Camp 

Don't miss the chance to sign up for ESK Summer Basketball Camps! ESK will offer two camps this summer run by basketball coaches Red Waller and Mattie Hodge. Both camps are for rising 6th through 8th Graders and run from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Kline Gymnasium at ESK. The cost is $65. The boys camp will be July 8-10 with the girls camp July 23-25. Please contact either Red (waller@esknoxville.org) or Mattie (hodge@esknoxville.org) for more information or to register. All campers will receive a t-shirt at the end of camp!

Lower School News

First Graders Explore Solar System

Last week, ESK First Graders made posters of the planets after completing a research report to become experts. To show the scale of how far the planets are from the sun, students walked down the driveway and placed the sun at the bottom of the hill near Gilbert Drive. They then placed the planets going up the hill accordingly, with the Earth being 12 yards from the sun as our scale. It's always amazing to see how close the inner rocky planets are to the sun as compared to the gas giants!

First Graders (l-r) Mallie Pappano, Loren Gilbert, Darian Burkhalter and Samuel Mears pose with their poster of Venus.

Third Grade Chickens Hatch

The two Third Grade classes have each had chicken eggs in their incubators in the classroom. Students have been learning about different classifications of organisms with a specific look at the animal kingdom. The chicks hatched last week to the joy of students and teachers! The students will also be dissecting eggs in the class to look at all of the parts.  

Third Grade students admire the chicken eggs while they are still in the incubator.

Students have also studied the rainforest and their animal reports soon and learned the layers, animals, importance, and location of rainforests around the world. The following families will be taking the chickens home to care for them: Asbury, Stouffer, Mirts and Elmore.    

The chickens from Mrs Jenkins class after they hatched.

Kindergarten Zoo Field Trip

ESK Kindergarten students took a field trip to the Knoxville Zoo last Friday in culmination of their study on animals and habitats. The students had a great time!  

Kindergarten students at the Knoxville Zoo.

Middle School News

Locks for Love

Current ESK Sixth Grader Kate Stapp came to school Thursday with a new look. Stapp donated 10 inches of her hair to Locks for Love on Wednesday. This marks the fifth time that she has donated to the organization. She says that it usually takes her about two years to grow her hair out long enough to donate. What a great way to give to the community. Nice job Kate!  

ESK Sixth Grader Kate Stapp shows off her significantly shorter hair cut.

Talent Show Shines

What an explosion of talent took place at The ESK Middle School Talent Show Friday night in the Kline Gymnasium. Middle School students dazzled the crowd with hula hooping, basketball trick shots, piano playing, singing, dancing, drumming and much more. Many thanks to SGA, Laurie Coburn and Chris Renberg for their hard work!  

ESK Sixth Grader Buchanan Underwood plays the piano during the Middle School talent show.

Field Day

Last Friday, Sixth through Eighth Grade students enjoyed the final of the annual Field Days held at ESK. The students had a great time enjoying a variety of games with the "ESK Goes to the Movies" theme.  

ESK Sixth Grader Hannah Nye bounces down the sidewalk during Middle School Field Day.

Students competed in teams and worked their way from the Kline Gymnasium to the lawn in front of Googe Hall and the tennis courts to participate in activities based on movies such as "Hoosiers", "Water Boy", "Secretariat" and many others.   

Seventh Grader Calder Woodward tries his hand at horseshoes on Middle School Field Day.

There was a tie for first place between the Ducks and the Cobras led by Mrs. Lancaster and Ms. McIntosh, respectively, with team Titans and Dennit Racing finishing second and third. A special thanks to Marsha Brophy and Red Waller for planning the afternoon and to the faculty and parent volunteers who helped run each station.  

Eighth Grader Ellie Lai takes her turn at the jump roping station at Middle School Field Day.

Faculty/8th Grade Kickball Game

In another annual tradition, ESK Eighth Graders took on the faculty in a spirited game of kickball following the Awards and Eucharist service! The entire school came out to cheer on their fellow students. What a great afternoon!

Eighth Grade students take on Faculty during the annual kickball game.

Textbook Buyback

At the end of exam week, students will be able to return textbooks to MBS Direct, our textbook provider. Follow this link to the MBS Direct Virtual Bookstore. On the main page, click on The EZDrop Buyback link and follow instructions on how to package books and generate the necessary form to receive credit on your child's account. We will accept properly bundled books on Friday morning, as well as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week. Contact Mr. Foley with any questions.