ETSU Homepage

University School Graduation

July 10^th at 7 P.M.

University School plans to hold a traditional in-person ceremony for our Class of 2020 graduates on Friday, July 10^th at 7 p.m. in William B. Greene Jr. Stadium. The goal during our traditional graduation ceremony is to implement protocols to ensure the safety of our graduates, staff, and families. While we are excited to provide the Class of 2020 the opportunity, we do realize conditions could change quickly so we will respond should guidance from local and state authorities warrant any necessary adjustments. 

Information for Graduates

• Graduation practice will take place at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 10^th at Greene Stadium.
• Tickets are required for entry and should be picked up prior to June 10^th. There will not be a Will Call for tickets, so please make sure you have your ticket prior to arriving to the stadium.
• Each graduate will need to wear a cloth mask or one that is provided upon arrival at the CPA. All graduates will be required to wear the provided mask during the ceremony.
• Graduates should arrive to the CPA for an individual picture and staging by 6 PM.

General Information

• Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. The ceremony will begin promptly at 7 p.m.
• Once inside Greene Stadium, please limit movement as much as possible.
• We are asking all attendees and participants to wear personal masks.
• All seating will be arranged in family groups and will be appropriately distanced from other groups. It is recommended that families arrive together and only sit in assigned seats.
• We ask that everyone refrain from contact with anyone outside your family group.
• Once inside Greene Stadium, please limit movement as much as possible.
• Upon completion of the ceremony, everyone will be asked to leave Greene Stadium and return to their vehicles. No one will be allowed on the field after the ceremony.

Safety Precautions

• Please do not attend graduation ceremonies if you have a fever or other symptoms of Covid-19, including cough, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing and/or loss of taste or smell. People with compromised immune systems should not attend the ceremony.
• Masks are required for all visitors on ETSU campus and should be worn by all participants and attendees.
• Every effort will be made to maintain proper social distancing before, during and after the ceremony.
• Graduates will remain six feet apart at all times. This includes seating, standing in line and walking across the graduation stage.
• Graduates will enter and exit the stadium using a separate entrance.
• All assigned group seating in William B. Greene Jr. Stadium is separated by six feet.
• Gathering on the field will not be permitted.

View Stadium Map. Admission is with tickets only and no one will be admitted without a ticket. Tickets were requested by graduates for their families/friends. Additional tickets are not available. Everyone attending graduation will need to wear a mask.

Jostens will be in the Counseling Office, from 7:30-8:30 a.m., on Wednesday morning, March 4th, to hand out orders! You should NOT miss class so be here early!!

Dr. Shaw

Hello senior families. It is hard to believe in less than 4 months our seniors will be graduating! We have organized our senior week activities and wanted to let you know what we have planned. As Dr. Shaw said in an earlier email, senior week activities are optional but we encourage everyone to attend as this will be their last chance to do activities as a class and make a few more senior memories.

Senior week activities:

•       Monday- Memorial Day holiday

•       Tuesday- Trip to Dollywood in a Deluxe Motor coach bus which will hold 56 and a mini-bus which will hold 30 more. We plan on ordering tickets the first part of March. We plan to leave from the school at 8:30 and return by 7:30.

•       Wednesday- Seniors will attend Appalachian Christian Camp where we have reserved zip lining, a rock climbing wall, their pool, a full size gymnasium, and open grounds for soccer and kickball. We will also provide lunch and snacks for the seniors that day. Our plan is to leave around 8:30 and arrive back by 3:30. Transportation will most likely be a school bus.

•       Thursday- Seniors will have graduation practice that morning. After graduation practice, we will invite all seniors to Angie Tolley’s house where we plan to provide a catered lunch by Portobello’s Italian Bistro. Seniors will have the opportunity to sign yearbooks, play board games, play basketball or soccer, and just hang out as a group before leaving to get ready for the Baccalaureate that night. Baccalaureate will be Thursday night at Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church (downtown).

•       Friday-  Graduation hall processional 7:45-8:15am/ Graduation class cap and gown photo 8:30-9:00am/ Graduation Practice 9:00-11:00am/ Graduation 6:00-8:00pm/ Project graduation that night

• We still have a few seniors who have not paid their senior week fees. A letter will be going home with those seniors, who have not paid, the week of February 10^th.  It will contain your balance, due date, and options regarding attendance.

• We also plan to have an after prom activity this year at the Johnson City Skate Center for those who wish to attend. We thought this would be nostalgic for our seniors seeing as they were paired with a kindergartener to do a skating activity when they were in wellness class. We wanted to present a safe activity for those who don’t want to go straight home after prom.  This event will take place from 11pm-1am and admission cost will be covered for seniors and their dates.

• Project Graduation and Baccalaureate committees are being formed and those who volunteered should be contacted in the next few months.

If you have not ordered a yearbook you need to do it asap. Here is the link: www.yblive.net   you can click “shop online”, put our city and state, and choose which yearbook you want (high school or elementary). Also if you wish to do a senior ad, pictures and money are due by February 24^th.  For more info on yearbooks or senior ads contact Mrs. Hammonds at:  hammondse@etsu.edu

As always if you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Kindest regards,

Jackie Broome-Peevyhouse

423-483-8713

jackieslemp@yahoo.com

• Senior Class Corn Maze, Smores and Bonfire - Friday October 11th, 6:30 p.m.. Please see details to come on Senior Facebook page and Instagram. Parent-sponsored activity.
  
  
• Senior student/parent meeting October 7th at 6:00pm in the cafeteria.

Important Senior Information

1. Check out important dates at this link! Updates are made frequently! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQK9GWez9SsxM3b2XZ3vWLEWBS2M2Kk3dxiEpIhmUjk/edit?usp=sharing
2. If you need a college or scholarship recommendation that has a due date before October 15, please request it by next Thursday 9/12. Students who need a recommendation MUST complete the recommendation self-assessment found on my senior website at https://uhseniorinformation.weebly.com/. Link can be found on my University School webpage. The form and other areas of the website such as the calendar have been updated. I will only complete the recommendation when I have received official requests, and I will complete them based on due date not date requested. Friendly reminders are ALWAYS welcome!
3. Always use the email shawa@etsu.edu and the phone number 423-439-6939 when completing college applications.
4. Berea College Visit has been re-scheduled for September 6! Students at Berea are required to work in exchange for portions of their tuition making it an affordable option.
5. To order a transcript visit the University School Website at www.usbucs.com, select “transcripts” on the main page, then select “current student” and complete the online form. Using this secure document server allows your private information to be encrypted. Most colleges and scholarship programs require an “official” copy of your transcript which means that you must use the online request format. You can also request a transcript just for you to view. I strongly recommend that you do this now—errors do happen.  Some colleges or college application websites like the Common App may require me to upload documents through their server. This is fine as long as I know these documents have been requested. Most programs generate an email request to me, but ALWAYS double check that I got the request.
6. Apply for Tennessee Promise (2 year community college tuition) now at https://www.tn.gov/tnpromise.html. Must be completed and submitted by the end of October. Even if you are not currently interested in completing an associate’s degree, I strongly encourage you to apply as a back-up plan. Sometimes things happen in life that we don’t expect. Keep all the doors open for now!
7. Schedule your community service hours for break now!!! Trust me! Do it this break!! Don’t wait!! You need 40 hours for graduation and 80 hours to be recognized as a TN Scholar. See TN Scholar requirements at https://www.tennesseescholars.org/. I do not need any paperwork now, but it will be due 3^rd quarter. I will send more info at that time.
8. The 20-21 FAFSA opens on October 1. Use the last week of break to work on completing it at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
9. Be sure that you have subscribed to the Senior Remind list in case you need to contact me during the break. I will not be in my office during that time, but I will be working on lots of college applications and recommendations. J
10. Remember that our Niswonger CARE Advisor, Lucas Hitechew is at school all day every Thursday in the Counseling Office to help with college and scholarship applications, FAFSA, TN Promise, career exploration and all your college/career questions. Drop by or make an appointment at lhitechew@niswongerfoundation.org!
11. See attached invitation to Tri Cities Financial Aid Night coming up on September 12.
12. Don’t worry! Not every email will be this long! Enjoy your break!

Dr. Shaw

The Senior Class will have an Ice Cream Social and Fun Night on Sunday, September 8th, at 6:00 p.m., at the home of Hayden Tolley.

More details available on Senior class Facebook and Instagram page, and flyers that can be picked up in the school office.  (This event is not sponsored or chaperoned by school personnel) 

Parents of the class of 2020, my name is Jackie Broome-Peevyhouse and I am the senior class parent representative. The senior class had a meeting last Tuesday, and I wanted to go over some key points for any parents/ students that couldn’t attend.* I am attaching the agenda which has some vital information for communication and upcoming events.*

To keep up to date with deadlines and activities, friend and follow us on Facebook at: UH Class of 2020 and Instagram @uhseniors2020  

Feel free to use the hashtag #uhseniors2020 on Instagram photos of your senior. They may be used at graduation or for the yearbook!

Senior week is a tradition at University School. It consists of 3-4 days where the seniors do special outings and do not attend school. We want to continue that tradition. Senior week will be May 26^th-28^th,2020. Last year the senior class went to Dollywood, Pathfinders Camp, had a picnic, did the ropes course at ETSU, and attended the Senior Baccalaureate. Our seniors filled out surveys at the senior meeting last Tuesday. We will look at their surveys and determine our senior week activities as soon as we can. Going off of last year’s activities we are estimating that senior expenses will be 150.00 per student.  To help with some of the expense, we have created a discount card that will be sold for 10.00 each. Any cards that you sell will be deducted from your 150.00 balance, thus 15 cards sold equals a 0 balance. Cards will be delivered to the office in envelopes with your student’s name on it. Your child will sign their cards out and return money in the envelope back to the office by September 1^st. Any cards not sold must be turned back in or you will be expected to pay for them. Cards will be made and distributed by August 1^st, but we are hoping to have them ready sooner. That will give you 3-4 weeks to sell them before the Johnson City Schools sell their discount cards. If you would like to participate in the discount card fundraiser, send me an email with your name, child’s name, and your cell phone number to jackieslemp@yahoo.com and I will send some cards home with your senior.

Selling discount cards is completely optional. If you would rather forgo selling the discount cards and just write a check or Paypal your child’s dues, that is always an option. Make your 150.00 check out to University School Seniors or send it thru PayPal to univhighseniors@gmail.com . Make sure to put your child’s name in the remarks or memo line so we will know to credit your child’s account. Your child can drop their check off to the office.

We were thinking of participating in the Tree Street’s Yard Sale in September, but because we haven’t had anyone volunteer to coordinate it we are looking at possibly not doing that fundraiser and concentrate on something that wouldn’t need so many volunteers. We will make a decision and inform you in the next few weeks.

Money that is raised thru the discount cards and other fundraisers will help fund senior week, t-shirts, the baccalaureate reception, project graduation, possibly an after prom activity, and much more. We were also fortunate to get a head start on ordering t-shirts because the class of 2019 so graciously left us 900.00 to start our year with. We hope to pay it forward and leave the class of 2021 some funds to start their year off with as well.  We may try and organize monthly or bimonthly activities for the seniors that may have an additional cost, but those activities will be optional and with minimal expense. Some ideas we have considered are hayrides, ice skating, movies, and other fun activities that will just get the class together to hang out.

Again, if you would like to sell discount cards or have any questions, please email and let me know.

I look forward to working with you and hope to make this year as memorable as possible for our seniors.

Jackie Broome-Peevyhouse

423-483-8713 feel free to text

jackieslemp@yahoo.com

Seniors! Our Fall Senior Retreat is Friday, July 19th, to Roan Mountain State Park. We will have some college sessions and loads of fun! Return your permission form and $5 to Ms. Shaw by Wednesday, July 17.

Seniors! Be sure to join our Remind list at http://rmd.me/b?rid=71559542!