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Upcoming Events THURSDAY, MARCH 24
» Early Dismissal
12:15pm L/M Carpool; 12:30pm PU/CA/U Carpool; 12:45pm Bus Departs
FRIDAY, MARCH 25
» SCHOOL CLOSED
Good Friday
SUNDAY, MARCH 27
» Easter MONDAY, MARCH 28 » Varsity Tennis
4:00pm, @ Oak Mountain
TUESDAY, MARCH 29 » JV/V Track
4:00pm, AAC Championship, Home
» Varsity Boys Golf
4:00pm, @ St. George Episcopal
» Varsity Boys Baseball
4:00pm, vs. Howard School
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30
» Senior Presentations
All Day, Upper Great Room » Varsity Boys Golf
4:00pm, vs. Howard School
THURSDAY, MARCH 31
» Senior Presentations
All Day, Upper Great Room » Lower School Performs
1:30pm, Parent Audience, Theater » JV Track
MAAC Schools, AAC Schools, Home
» Varsity Tennis
4:00pm, vs. Cottage School
Social Media   
 
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| Art of the Week 
This week's Art of the Week is an oil pastel reproduction of a Van Gogh painting created by PreUpper student Alexa Shuster, who is in the eighth grade.
Debbie Drew
I would like to thank Debbie Drew, mom of 8th grade student, Josh Drew, for all the many things she has done to help the Communication Arts School. From decorating Taniah's door, to helping with the talent show, and providing breakfast for our kids. Debbie is always ready and willing to be there for our staff and students! Bravo Debbie! We appreciate everything you do!
Kay Morrison, Communication Arts Principal
 Musician of the Week
Alex Diaz is an incredible musician. As we learned last week, he earnedthe honor of being the 1st place champion in Boys' Vocal Solo at the STATE competition level for the GISA Literary Festival. When Alex's name was announced, although after his beautiful performance the rest of us all knew it was coming - he was genuinely and humbly surprised and delighted. This is what makes Alex so special. He works hard and keeps his beautiful attitude. Alex also sang in the boys' quartet, has played leads in three musicals at MSA, has participated in chorus, and he is currently working on songs for graduation! Alex listens to opera in his free time. Keep singing after graduation Alex. You have a gift!!
Early Dismissal/School Closed
 Early Dismissal Thursday, March 24
12:15pm – L/M Carpool 12:30pm – PU/CA/U Carpool 12:45pm Bus Departs SCHOOL CLOSED: Good Friday, March 25
Easter Around the World  In Ed Little's 6th Grade World Geography class, students will be Easter Egg hunting this week, as part of a lesson on map locations and Easter traditions around the world. After learning the origins of the customs of Easter, students competed to find plastic eggs on the playground. Each egg was filled with one to four country names, which students were asked to locate afterwards on a blank world map. Students identifying the most countries won prizes.
Pi Day Contest
 Pi Day this year was a huge success! March 14 every year we celebrate the number pi (3.14). In classes we ate pie, learned the history of the number pi, and calculated using pi. We also held a competition in Upper School for who could memorize the most digits of pi! In first place was Emily Van Aken (pictured) She memorized 57 digits of pi!! Congrats to all who competed.
MSA Prom
 Saturday, April 16th
7:30pm - 11:30pm Upper School Great Room Fun, Photos, food, music & dancing! Everything needed to let your inner superhero shine! Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased from Carol Adams.
Annual Indigo Tie-Dye Party
This week Chelsea’s 7th grade GA History class began preparations for the coolest party of the year – the Annual Indigo Tie-Dye Party! They have been studying the founding of the Georgia colony and early industries in Georgia. One of the original cash crops was the indigo plant, which is processed to create a striking, dark-blue dye. These savvy 7th graders will prepare a traditional indigo dye bath, and students from across the community will be invited to bring a white shirt, pillowcase, or scarf to tie-dye. Keep your eyes peeled for the party announcement, and send your student in with something to dye!
Come out Swinging!  Register now for Mill Springs Academy's 18th Annual Tee-off for Technology Golf Tournament.
Chances to win on every par 3! - $25,000 Cash
- Luxurious 4-Day/3-Night Golf Vacation to French Lick Resort
- Travis Mathew Head-to-Toe Signature Outfit + $500 Online Shopping Spree
- 3 Nights/2 Rounds Stay & Play Vacation to TPC San Antonio
When: Tuesday, April 19, 2016 Where: Atlanta National Golf Club CLICK HERE TO REGISTER All funds raised will benefit the technology program at MSA.
Volunteering in the MSA Library
This month we have a record number of Middle School students volunteering their time to help around the library during the school day. Andrew Buchberger, Zach Schneiderman, Dante Doty, William Goodhew, Ryan Zant, Freddie Butler, Cooper Bailey and Michael Fisher have all organized times to volunteer. Many of these students are working toward earning Level R or L in their community. From shelving to special stickering projects, these students work very hard to help Ms. Brittany. They even help check out other classes when they visit. Thank you awesome Middle School students, your hard work is very much appreciated! Pictured L-R: Andrew Buchberger and Zach Schneiderman
New Traffic Pattern
 Keep your eyes open for a new traffic pattern on campus after Spring Break. The roundabout at the entrance will be fully open and fully operational. That means two lanes of traffic flowing counter-clockwise. Notice the red arrows, the roundabouts are TWO lanes of traffic flowing in the SAME direction. For those of you dropping off and picking up at the PU/CA/U buildings, this will be a bit of a change. We will send out more information just before the break with a good map/picture, but I wanted to make sure you were aware. Click on the picture to see it larger.
Golf Got Game
Congratulations to the Mustang golf team on their 4 shot victory Monday over Brandon Hall, 207-211. On a cold, windy day that made scoring challenging, 8th grader Yates Smith led scoring with a 43, followed by senior Jacob Cutchin with a 52 and 11th grader Michael Martin with a 53. Then on Wednesday the Mustang Golf Team had a 9-shot victory over Brandon Hall on their home course, 211-220. Again Yates Smith led scoring with a 42, while Michael Martin and senior Neil Jensen each shot 56, and 7th grader Patrick Reaves was one stroke behind with a 57. GO MUSTANGS!
Inequality in Algebra 8
 This week in Algebra 8 dealt with Solving Multi-Step Inequalities. In this interesting lesson, students had to utilize all the steps they had learned when solving multi-step equations and apply it to inequalities. I was very pleased with how well the class did which just further reassured me that we had done an excellent job earlier in the school year with the multi-step equations concepts. Then we moved on to Compound Inequalities. This time students were challenged to solve two inequalities which included important math words like “and” as well as “or”. Looking ahead to next week we will be taking our second test of the semester before we move on to Chapter 5. In our first lesson students will be introduced to the concept of slope through some fun activities which include drawing, labeling and presenting.
Early Dismissal/School Closed
 Early Dismissal Friday, April 1
12:15pm – L/M Carpool
12:30pm – PU/CA/U Carpool
12:45pm Bus Departs
SCHOOL CLOSED: Spring Break Week April 4-8
If Animals Could Talk  In reading class, we have been learning about point of view. Today we discussed the topic of what we would do if animals could talk and what questions we would ask them. This sparked a huge discussion! Elli Banks (pictured) is an animal lover and advocate. She wants to be a veterinarian, specializing in dogs and cats, when she grows up. She wrote her journal about what she would do if she could ask animals some questions.
I am blown away by some of the ideas my students had to help make a difference, even at a young age. --Carolyn Shapiro Guest Journalist - Eliana Banks, 4th Grade, Middle School If animals could talk the world would be a different place. I would ask the animals at the zoo and the aquarium, “Do you like being in a cage all day? How does being in a tank feel?” I do not think it is fair for the animals to be kidnapped out of their habitat and have to be in a cage. They do not have enough water to swim in or enough space to run around. This is called animal cruelty, and I would like to make a difference. I would talk to the owners of the aquarium and the zoo and say, “How would you like to be cramped up in captivity?” I would make posters to tell people how important it is for animals to be in the wild. Even though I’m only 11 I can still make a change and so can you!
MSA Student Signed by SCAD Communication Arts Senior  Johnny Ray has signed a letter of intent to run and attend SCAD Atlanta. Johnny has ran 62 seconds for the 400, 2:21 for the 800 and has competed in the 1600, 3200 and also ran cross country in the fall. "Johnny received a tremendous recommendation from one of his coaches and that went a long way in determining as to whether I should reach out to him. Johnny has ran some solid times in the shorter distances which indicates he has the talent to be a solid distance runner. I believe once he gets in with a group of talented distance runners he will thrive and accomplish some major personal bests," state Coach Caldwell of SCAD. Coach Victoria Fairley remarked, "He has more heart, dedication, and leadership skills than any teenager I have ever met." Congratulations Johnny Ray!
Track & Field Report
We wanted to share some exciting news from last Thursday's (March 17) home track meet to start off the week! Our Mustangs competed against nine tough competitors with our boys finishing in 1st place, sweeping both the 4x100M and the 4x400M relays. Then our girls finished strong in 3rd place!
There were lots of terrific Personal Records set, some of them were set by Elli Flagg, Jacobi Garrett, Siobhan Hightower, Sam Lynch, Jake Martin, Mitchell Ryer, Victoria Toscano, and Matthew Wenger. To see the entire list you can check out the highlights HERE.
Ides of March & Pi Day in CA
Every year the students of Communication Arts devise a new and creative way to take down Caesar on the Ides of March. This year, the students came up with a plan that combined the tastier elements if Pi Day (namely pies) with the assassination of one of the world's most famous leaders. Mike Martin volunteered to play the part of Caesar, and bravely took on the many pies thrown in his face by the "Senators". Caroline Berman played the part of Brutus, and after she threw the first pie, Michael shouted, "Et tu, Brute?" which was the cue for all the pies to rain down on Caesar. In and amongst the shenanigans Sam and Carol's math classes discussed the history and secrets of the transcendental number of pi, demonstrating it as the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle, outside in the sunshine. Overall lots of pie was consumed and a good time was had by all. The students decided that all political problems in the world should probably be handled using pies! Pictured: Sophie Davis, Ross Morella, and Sean Brinkley.
Chick-fil-A Team Needs YOU!
PVA’s Chick-fil-A team needs a co-chair for next year to make sure MSA’s hungry continue to be fed each Monday! Duties include: 1) Make sure a coordinator is assigned for each school (Lower/Middle, PreUpper, and Upper/CommArts) to take care of supplies and scheduling volunteers to distribute lunch each Monday. 2) Be present on Orientation Day to explain the program to new families and take orders. 3) Interface with the PVA regarding progress on the program and answer any questions from new families as they come into the MSA community. It’s a great way to get to know the students and staff at Mill Springs, and does NOT require you to be present each Monday. Chick-fil-A is a favorite program for students, and parents love not worrying about lunch on Mondays. Questions? Please call Cathy Abram at 770-712-1117 or email at abramfamily@comcast.net
Who's Aunt Sally?
 This week in Pre Algebra we took our second quiz of the semester. I have been very pleased with my Pre Algebra classes as they have been working very hard to get the algebra basics down before they move on to their 8th grade algebra class. Most recently, students have been learning very important concepts such as Divisibility, Factors, Exponents and Prime Factorization to name a few. In the divisibility and factors lesson, students learned different divisibility rules so they could tell simply by looking at a number if it was divisible by 2, 3, 5, 9 or 10. This came in handy later when they had to do factor trees, and needed to identify two factors of a larger number until they had simplified the number into its Prime number components. In the exponents lesson, students were finally able to use the full Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally acronym (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition and Subtraction) when they were tasked with simplifying expressions that also included exponents. Next week we will be moving into the exciting area of fractions, and I look forward to providing plenty of strategies and tricks to help even the most fractionally challenged students.
Young Women in Biology
Guest Journalist - Charlotte Sumner, 11th Grade, Upper School  On March 2nd I attended a STEM meeting for young women in biology organized by Vaidehi Rallapalli in CommArts great room and I thought a lot about how not only science affects a community but can affect you. One of the first things I thought when I entered a room filled with girls and two science instructors was “How does this benefit me?” Then the two instructors-Jennifer Stettler and Asia Bright (pictured) called the girls attention and started talking to us about vaccines and how vaccinations work. The two instructors then put us into groups and gave us a worksheet giving us a scenario on vaccinations and how people can still get sick even though you have gotten a vaccination, for example an infant. Once we discussed how vaccinations work and how beneficial they can be which I found very educational and interesting ... READ MORE
Swim Coach Fired Up!
This past weekend MSA Head Swim Coach Josh Hersko had the honor of being selected as a timer for the Division I NCAA Championship Swim Meet which was held at Georgia Tech. It was a great privilege to witness all the amazing performances which included several new American Records! In the end, the meet came down to the final relay where the University of Georgia won their seventh national championship for women’s swimming. It was truly a spectacular championship meet as UGA was a big underdog going into the meet, and proved all the doubters wrong in capturing the title. Being able to see the best of the best compete with everything on the line definitely got this coach fired up for next year when the MSA Mustangs will try and repeat their first ever AAC Championship season. Can’t wait for next season!
Ice Cream Party!
Homecoming Door Decorating Winners Tuesday, March 29 at 12:15 PM Middle - Kelli’s Advisory PreUpper - Bryan’s Advisory CommArts - Taniah’s Advisory Upper - Shilpee’s Advisory Lower - All - Scheduled for April 1st CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!
Summer Sports Camp
 Sign up now for Summer Sports Camp at Mill Springs Academy. We are offering coed basketball and soccer along with girls' volleyball. For more details CLICK HERE or talk to Coaches Phil Hanson for basketball or soccer, and Karen Kaiser for volleyball. This is an excellent opportunity for all new students to get to know some of our coaches and get in the groove before school starts in August. GO MUSTANGS!
Houze & Hembree Road Delays
Crews with GDOT will be relocating Utilities as part of plans to construct a roundabout at the intersection in Roswell.
See more info HERE
Community Cares & Concerns 
If there is ever a care or concern you would like to share with the community, please just email me at any time, I will be glad to include either names or situations. For privacy, I will only list names and claim ignorance if anyone asks me for details. Cheri
Quote of the Week Truthfulness is a cornerstone in character, and if it be not firmly laid in youth, there will ever after be a weak spot in the foundation.
--Jefferson Davis
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This has been a week of change. You've probably noticed that the trees have been putting on their spring attire. The pretty flowers and buds that eventually give way to the green cloak of summer. We also have that beautiful yellow/green dust that seems to cover EVERYTHING, that's not to mention the side effects of that; I hope they don't effect you.
