University School Update 8-17-20

Good evening University School Families, we hope you have had a great start to your week!  The start of this year is full of a lot of firsts for University School, so we want to continually thank you for your patience as we are all learning the new Canvas platform and accountability measures in place during our remote start.   As always, we want to continue to remind you to reach out to your teachers and support staff if we can be of any assistance.  With that being said, we ask that you review the following announcements, updates, and reminders:

• University School students are eligible for meal distribution from Washington County, which can be picked up daily at University School.  Please contact Ms. Connie Taylor at 423-439-4001 for additional information.  You may also find more details on the Washington County School Nutrition web page. 
  
  
• Fall Sports are finally beginning for University School, which include:  HS Women’s Soccer, HS Golf, and MS/HS Cross Country. 
  
  
  • MS Cross country will have tryouts beginning on Tuesday, August 18.  If you have questions, you may contact Coach Preswood (preswood@etsu.edu)
    
    
  • HS Golf tryouts are also scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, please reach out to Coach Penley (penleyj@etsu.edu) with any questions.
    
    
  • HS Cross Country will be getting a new coach this year and we hope to have an announcement out by mid-week.  Since we are delayed in getting started, we are encouraging runners to begin conditioning independently at home until practices begin.  
     
  • HS Girls Soccer has been delayed due to field access which we also hope will be finalized by mid-week.  Players will be contacted by Coach Ryann when field access is available.  Any new prospective players may contact Mr. Honeycutt (honeycuttdg@etsu.edu) for more information. 
    
    
  • All athletes must have their Physical, Cardiac, and Concussion forms submitted to the athletic office prior to beginning any practices with our school teams.  Forms may be submitted via our secured ESTU Dropbox Link or in person to the school office.
    
    
• Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) is back and starts the first week of September!  JAM provides small group instruction for 4th-12th grade students in traditional Appalachian music. At University School it is offered on Thursdays, from 3:15-4:30, and will be held virtually for at least this semester. Because our calendar looks different the first half of this year, we are expanding into a 12-week opportunity for this semester. Please see attached flier for registration details.  Note: Registration will close August 26th!  For more information, please contact jaminthemountains@gmail.com
  
  
• School Calendar – monthly calendar of events and our yearly calendar can be accessed by going to our website or by clicking on this link. 
  
  

Finally, we know the expectations for this remote learning period is much higher than last spring, so it is important that students attend scheduled synchronous meetings for their classes if at all possible.  While the instructional lessons are being posted and can be accessed outside of scheduled class times, it is important for the teachers to be able to interact with the students to answer their questions and to provide supports that are needed.  Therefore, we appreciate every effort you are making to stay on as much of a regular schedule as possible.  

We hope you have a great week and ask that you please reach out to us if we can be of any assistance!