Per the Governor's update, Ephrata Mennonite School is closed the rest of the school year. Next Wednesday the May calendar and the last day of school will be clarified.

Just a reminder that it is re-enrollment time of the year. If you haven't already please complete this re-enrollment form. Here also is the direct link to the Scholarship Form through Simple Tuition Solutions. Please apply by May 1st. Please contact Mrs. Copenahver or Mr. Good if you have any questions.

Ephrata Mennonite School is now closed indefinitely due to the update from PA. Look for more info from Mr. Good in the Wednesday letter tomorrow.

Per Pennsylvania's Guidelines due to the presence of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, Ephrata Mennonite School is closed for two weeks (March 16-27). At home learning is tentatively scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 18. Further details will be announced for online and at home learning opportunities.

Parent Teacher Conferences are canceled. If you wish to contact your child's teacher you may do so by emailing the teacher directly.

You can follow the 2020 Ephrata Mennonite School Ministry Arts Team Tour beginning on February 21, 2020 at ems-mat.blogspot.com.

The EMS Board is continuing to move the campus expansion plans forward. We have made significant progress, and at approximately $800,000 raised, we are nearly halfway to what we need to close on the land later this year. Currently, the board has settled on a two story building design (rather than the three story). And Hoover Building Specialists is pricing out the work, while we continue to push through the site-planning work led by Pioneer. Because we made some site changes to make the project more economical (reducing building square-footage, changing some elevations, etc), it has pushed back our closing date on the land until the fall of this year. Please continue to pray that the site work and building planning go well. Also please pray that God would provide a Director of Development to lead the fundraising efforts over the next several years.

As the temperatures drop here in Ephrata, PA, the EMS Seniors are making final preparations to leave for Nicaragua and enjoy 90 degree weather! You can follow their trip at http://ems2020seniortrip.blogspot.com/. Keep them in your prayers not only in travel, but even more that they would see God's heart for the people they will meet.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21

We believe the best way to evaluate whether a school is right for your family is to actually see the school in action and speak personally with school leadership. During this week, parents have several options for visiting the school:

• Individual Meeting and Tour - Parents can set up individual meetings with the administrator, Mr. Josh Good, and he will provide an overview of the vision and mission of EMS, a personalized tour of the school (including classroom visits to the specific grades of interest), and a curriculum and pedagogy review. These meetings can be scheduled anytime during the school day, Monday, February 17 through Friday, February 21.  For prospective kindergarten students, please note that Wednesday, March 11 is the Kindergarten Testing Day. Several times are available that day and can be scheduled through the school office.

• Student Shadow Day (Grades 7-12) - Parents can have their prospective middle or high school students shadow an EMS student for a day. Prospective students will be given a daylong program that includes all the components of a regularly programmed EMS high school student. This will give prospective students a "real life" look at EMS's academic program. If parents choose, on the same day they can also arrange an individual meeting with the Administrator, Mr. Josh Good. The office will work schedules for the “Student Shadow” visits on a case-by-case basis.

Contact Mrs. Copenhaver at (717) 738-4266 or office@ephratamennonite.org to plan your visit!

Ephrata Mennonite School is on a 2 Hour Delay for Wednesday, January 8. Hot Lunch will still be served on the delay schedule.

Hot Lunch 2-Hour Delay Serving Schedule: 12:20 5-6, 12:30 7-8, 12:35 9-12, 12:45 1-2, 12:55 3-4, 1:05 K

For School Year 2019-20 we are focusing on one of the core values from Ephrata Mennonite School's Mission Statement.

Ephrata Mennonite School partners with parents and churches to challenge students to become Citizens of the Kingdom of God, who are Lifelong Learners and Team Players, through Diligent Work and Academic Excellence.

This year's core value is "Team Player." For the first assembly of the year, the students enjoyed a skit to show how teamwork compares to a physical body that is functioning well. Be sure to look for where "Team Player" shows up throughout the year!

The Ephrata Mennonite School Team Store is officially open! Check out the website for clothing with the Ephrata "Legends" logo or the Ephrata Mennonite School logo. 

To the EMS Community,

As you saw on our text message, we are very happy to be announce that we have been unconditionally re-accredited. We are rightly proud I think, that we didn’t just “meet” the 12 accreditation standards, but in 8 out of 12 standards we were judged to be worthy of the highest rating, “exceeds the standards.” I wanted to take a minute to personally write and thank each of you for your work in this process.

Our work around re-accreditation began nearly 2 years ago, as we assembled an Accreditation Team of students, parents, teachers, school leaders, board members, and pastoral advisers. After a full scale review and rework of our vision, mission, and other core documents, we dug in to the heavy lifting around school improvement planning. In that work all of you have  invested your time through responding to lengthy surveys, participating in school focus groups, and giving feedback on our improvement plan.

In particular, I want to thank the parent volunteers that participated in the many meetings of the Accreditation Team (Jay Martin, Steve Cassel, Keith Zimmerman, Lynn Zimmerman, and Michelle Stauffer). They did this, not for money or a career, but simply for the love of excellence and Christian education. Their commitment to building an Anabaptist school that is of the highest quality will reverberate down through the generations. And it personally inspires me, as the  school leader, to live up to your vision and commitment.

I also want to thank our student Accreditation Team members (Dylan and Durrell Martin, Aleina Martin, and Dallas Good). Their contributions, from a student perspective, were insightful and appreciated. And they did an impressive job in the opening presentation (for the accreditation team who came to evaluate us). They also graciously volunteered their time in service of creating a school that brings glory and honor to God through excellence.

Additionally, I want to thank our teacher Accreditation Team members at EMS (Arlene Birt, Brieanna Heisey, Chris Brode, Alycia Weaver, Leanna Martin, Michelle Weaver, and David Schrock) who were instrumental in doing much of the “on the job” writing and “rubber meets the road” work. And a big thanks to our entire EMS staff. They have invested their very lives in Christian education. As a community we are very blessed to have them. And we value their dedication to professional excellence.

Last, and certainly not least, I want to thank all of you, the EMS staff and students that worked hard to make EMS the great school it is. We appreciate your support and patronage of EMS, which really, has made all of this possible.

I am so thankful that God brought me here to be a part of this community and work. We give him all the praise honor and glory. And we look forward to implementing our school improvement plan for the next seven years.

To God be the Glory,

Joshua Good

Administrator