| | Quicklinks MSA Home Page School Calendar Athletics Schedule Parent Volunteer Assn Current News Summer Programs Upcoming Events FRIDAY, MAY 8 » Baccalaureate - 7:00pm, Birmingham UMC
SATURDAY, MAY 9 » Graduation - 10:00am, Gym
SUNDAY, MAY 10 » Mother's Day
MONDAY, MAY 11 » AAC Awards & Reception - 6:30pm, Gym
TUESDAY, MAY 12 » PVA Meeting - 8:30am, Admin Bldg WEDNESDAY, MAY 13 » Public Open House - 9:00am, Theater THURSDAY, MAY 14 » 1st Period Exam - PU/CA/U FRIDAY, MAY 15 » 2nd Period Exam - PU/CA/U » Spring Fling - M » End of the Year Party - L MONDAY, MAY 18 » 3rd Period Exam - PU/CA/U » Board Meeting - 7:00p TUESDAY, MAY 19 » 4th Period Exam - PU/CA/U WEDNESDAY, MAY 20 » 5th Period Exam - PU/CA/U
THURSDAY, MAY 21
» 6th Period Exam - PU/CA/U FRIDAY, MAY 22 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL » Honors Day - 10:00a, gym » Early Dismissal - 11:00a Carpool, 11:15a Buses Depart MONDAY, MAY 25 » School Closed - Memorial Day Social Media   
| | Artwork of the Week  Senior Levi Smith's large format sculpture Nature's Cross
A Note of Thanks Thank you to ... Chrissie Reed & Jinjie Cicco!  I'd like to thank my PVA mom's Chrissie Reed and Jinjie Cicco for all the help they give the kids and staff of CommArts all year long. They helped our Sister School kids from Little Wound School with lunch and snacks, and they've already met with me about wonderful plans for our kids for next year. They're always willing to step in and do anything I need. Thanks for always being there to help make life better for our kids!
Kay Morrison, CommArts Principal
It's Open House Time Wednesday, May 13 9:00am Student Activity Center  Did you know that Word of Mouth is by far the largest way families find their way to a Public Open House at Mill Springs Academy? So if you know someone with a child that might benefit from attending MSA, please invite them to our Open House or better yet bring them. If you haven’t attended one, an Open House provides potential parents with an overview of the school, a Fine Arts presentation, a parent perspective and a student perspective, a tour of the school and a chance to speak with the principal. It’s a great opportunity for them to get a feel for what we are all about.
THANK YOU for sharing MSA!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Nick Pasquariello, MSA Class of 2009. He has graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Pictured in celebration are (front) Nick, Leah Shepperd, MSA Class of 2008, Jaime Gutierrez, Janet Ford and Vaidehi Rallapalli, (back) G.Paul and Gail Kreher.
Winner in Vegas!
MSA's Wrestling coach John Hanrahan competed this week at the U.S. Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas. Coach Hanrahan came away as the Veteran's National Champion in both the Freestyle and Greco Roman divisions. He has now qualified to represent the U.S. at the World Championships in Athens, Greece later this year! Congratulations to Coach Hanrahan who was already a winner in our books! Good luck in Greece.
Completed Eagle Scout Project  This past weekend, Cartwright Ayres (Upper School) successfully completed his Eagle Scout project that focused on upgrading several areas of our school's community garden. Cartwright, along with members of his troop, Troop 379, and a handful of student volunteers, completed the following tasks, building and installing two picnic tables, a new rain barrel platform, and spreading 18-tons of gravel and landscaping timbers to for walkways around our raised beds, row crop bed, and composting bays. It is a wonderful improvement of the space and allows for a much more inviting and useable space for gardening and outdoor learning. Thank you Cartwright for such strong support for the MSA Farms' cause and a congratulations on a job well done!!
PU/U/CA Exam Bus 
On the early dismissal exam days there will be a 14 passenger white MSA bus leaving campus at 11am and traveling the regular Late Bus route down the Johnson Ferry corridor and into Sandy Springs dropping students at the following stops: - 11:00am Depart Mill Springs from the PreUpper parking lot
- 11:20am Corner of Shallowford & Childers Rd behind the Chase Bank in the open parking lot on the Childers Rd. side of the Shallowford Corners Shopping Center (4401 Shallowford Rd in Marietta)
- 11:30am NE corner of Roswell Rd. NE (120) and Johnson Ferry between the Del Taco & Arby's (Wells Fargo, Dick's Sporting Goods) (4305 Roswell Rd. in Marietta)
- 11:45am Tabula Rasa – The Language Academy (old St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church) just south of exit 24 Riverside Dr. off of I-285 (ITP) (5855 Riverside Dr. in Sandy Springs)
- 11:50am SE corner of Sandy Springs Cir. and Johnson Ferry at the cement island, bottom of the parking lot directly across the street from Bruster’s Ice Cream (237 Johnson Ferry Rd. NE in Sandy Springs)
To make a reservation, email William Turner wturner@millsprings.org. The cost for the ride is $15.
The Great Outdoors
 What has forty legs and crawls on the bottom of a cave? The students and staff of Communication Arts, who ventured into the cave at Howard’s Waterfall in Trenton, Georgia, to explore every nook and cranny of the place. Students were amazed by the many limestone formations, and had fun squeezing into “Snoopy’s Doghouse”, a tiny cave with a window. Several students indulged their creative streak by sculpting figures that they made from the wet clay at the bottom of the cave. After investigating the “Great Indoors”, the next day students and staff went outdoors on a four hour rafting trip down the Hiawassee River. Bald Eagles and Hawks circled above the happy paddlers as they learned to navigate the rocky, rushing water. “My favorite part was getting stuck on the rocks,” said student Ross Morella. “We had to rock the raft really hard to get it going and that was ... READ MORE
Effective July 2, 2014, all children born on or after January 1, 2002, who are entering 7th grade, and new entrants* to Georgia schools in grades 8-12 will be required to have Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis) and Meningococcal Conjugate vaccines before entering school for the 2015-2016 school year. Visit your family physician to get these vaccines now. *New entrants include anyone that is entering Georgia schools for the first time or is returning to a Georgia school after being gone for more than 12 months or one school year.
Visiting Author 
Middle School welcomed Vince Vawter today. Vawter’s first novel, Paperboy, earned the highly acclaimed Newbery Honor Award in 2014, along with numerous other awards. It has been published in 7 different languages, and there is news of a movie in the works. The book, set in Memphis in 1959, tells the story of an 11 year old boy who stutters. When he takes over his friend’s paper route for the summer, the boy must face his challenges door-to-door. After meeting so many new people, new and more dangerous challenges are set into motion. READ MORE
Notre Dame Academy Visits 
This past Wednesday, MG, director of our Coral Lab program, had the pleasure of inviting a group of elementary students from Notre Dame Academy (pictured) to take part in a learning opportunity centered on coral reef ecology and the marine sciences. These 1st and 3rd-grade students are currently working on a scientific portfolio project with topics centered on global environmental issues and therefore used the Oceans of MSA as a learning tool to enrich their scientific investigations. All of these young learners received a comprehensive and hands-on tour of our laboratory's various marine habitats and also listened to a presentation from MG on the environmental need to restore our world's reefs. It was a special day for both MSA and Notre Dame Academy and what can be assumed to be the beginning of a relationship between two schools successfully utilizing their scientific curriculum to encourage environmental stewardship and appreciation. The ocean's awesome!
It's Not Too Late!  The voluntary end of year collection for our incredible Mill Springs Staff and Faculty has been extended until Thursday, May 14th. If you intended to participate, yet have not had the opportunity, please send a check payable to MSA/PVA in the envelope provided in the mailing (PVA, 13660 New Providence Road, Alpharetta, GA 30004), checks can be dropped off to the PVA box in the admin building, or you can go online to take care of it HERE by May 14th. Questions? Contact Leigh Ann Ayres at ayresfamily@comcast.net.
8th Grade Girls  Our 8th grade girls are looking very spiffy and are very excited about going to the Upper School in the fall. Here is their formal picture.
Letter to the Head of the USDA  Our world is facing a huge issue with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) of honeybees and unfortunately at the rate of decline we are seeing, honey bees could cease to exist by 2035. Scary thought. To follow is a letter Beckett Gue wrote to the head of the USDA expressing his concern. --Shannon Warchalowsky, Middle School Teacher Dear Thomas J. Vilsack, I learned that CCD wiped out 600,000 of the 2.6 million colonies in the USA. And in 6 months 80% of honeybees had disappeared. I think bees are important because they are the most important pollinators and produce 1/3 of all human foods. We can help by putting flowers near hives. Making sure that the hives are where animals can't get to it will keep the bees safe. Research shows that pesticides have caused memory loss, and poison to bees. And that it is better for bees to have hives in the city than in the country where they will be exposed to chemicals. I have learned a lot about bees that I didn't know before, like bees have 3 eyes on the top of their heads for light sensory. They also have 2 wings that are held together on each side of the bee's body. It is sad that the bees in Sichuan, China have vanished since the 1980's due to a pesticide. It must have cost a lot of money to hand pollinate ehtir fruits. I think it's good that a sick bee will leave the hive so not to infect the rest of the colony. It is cool the queen bee can lay 2,500 eggs a day and 2 million in a life time. I don't get why female bees are worker bees. It must be fun for the female bees when they do a dance called the "Waggle Dance" to give location to a good supply of pollen. Sincerely, Beckett Gue
We'd Love to Shoot You an Email  Class of 2015 now that you are going to be Alumni soon, I have included you in this email. However, I have sent it to your MSA email address. If you would like to continue to receive the MSA Weekly News after you graduate, please send me a more permanent email address and I will continue to include you. You can email that information to me HERE. The newsletter will allow you to keep up with your friends and favorite teachers here at MSA. We would love to send you the Weekly News. Send me your email TODAY!
Party Animals  For the 2nd year in a row, Lower School has had a visit from Jim Nark with Party Animals. Jim brings many interesting and unique animals that all of the students can touch (except for the tarantula!). Jim teaches the students about the different animals and their habitats. So the visit is both fun and educational. A few of the animals were: a corn snake, a white tree frog, "Jerry" the Chinchilla, turtles, a huge cockroach, a Monitor Lizard that was 3 feet long, and the largest species of toads - a Fat Back. Pictured is Jim holding a huge Lop Eared Bunny with students Will Giles, Seth Horwitz, Jackson Kennedy, and Zach Burns, all anxious to pet the bunny.
Student Receives Award  Sydney Pipes, Upper School student, was honored with several awards from the National Charity League, this past week. Sydney served a total of 126 hours in the community with over 27 hours to their chapter. Together with her mother they even earned the Mother-Daughter award for their hours working as a team. Congratulations to both of you.
Honors Day Honors Day Schedule - May 22, 2015 Parents YOU are invited to join us at ALL Honors Day activities. 
- 8:30-9:30am Final Levels Meeting and Awards Ceremony for each School (in your School).
- 10:00-11:00am Honors Day Program - In the Tweetie Lewis Moore Student Activity Center
- 11:00am Dismissal
- 11:15am Bus Transportation will leave
Oceans of MSA 
We are pleased to report that a vendor booth at the 2015 Coral Farmers Market and Expo has been purchased and reserved for the MSA Coral Lab thanks to the generosity of the Atlanta Reef Club's Board of Directors. The event provides MSA with the opportunity to showcase the scope of our coral work to Atlanta Reef Club members as well as the Coral Restoration Foundation. Additionally, we ought to be able to secure some good contacts within the coral-growing communities of Georgia and Florida. Finally, several of our Coral Lab members will be selected to participate alongside Michael Adams and Michael Griffeth in manning the booth and answering questions for those interested. All in all, it should prove to be a meaningful experience and we got to remember y'all, the ocean's awesome!
We Can All Make a Difference 
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to never see your parents because they have to work more jobs or hours to provide for you? Have you thought about what it would be like to live without the things that we take for granted? Do you ever think about what it would be like to go to a different school and not have the necessary school supplies because your family and school can't afford them? Well Columbia Middle School has to go through all of these things because the school district and families do not have a lot of money. My name is Avery Terpstra and I am currently in the 6th grade. I have decided to get a jump on my Level L Project for the coming school year by collecting school supplies for the students of Columbia Middle School. READ MORE
Community Cares & Concerns
Please keep the following from our Community in your thoughts and prayers. Class of 2015 Unemployed Families Please email me at any time with individuals you would like to include on our list as their needs arise. For privacy, I will only list names and claim ignorance if you ask me for details.
Quote of the Week 
Character is not in the mind. It is in the will. --Bishop Fulton J. Sheen | |
Welcome to Graduation Week! It includes a flurry of activity preparing for the BIG EVENT: preparing the gym, preparing the students, preparing the faculty, etc. In and amongst all of that the regular daily goings-on have to happen. So we have had a Spring Band Concert, a visiting author, a sports award reception, the Fine Arts Showcase, 8th Grade Week, Pet Day, and tonight is the Baccalaureate. On top of that we only have 10 days of school left (not that I am counting). As I sat through graduation practice, Andrew Walker was singing a lovely song that made me pause ... another school year has quickly slipped through my fingers ... quietly ... unnoticed ... unstoppable. It was filled with moments, some very memorable, some already forgotten. So many for which to be thankful, some which are yet to be fulfilled. It makes me think that I really need to be more engaged in life - I was there, I lived it, but did I REALLY live it? Something to think about.
