The+Voices+of+ECS

 **After conducting more than thirty interviews with members of the ECS family, past and present, 7th grade students have gleaned some beautiful stories and learned some unique facts that continue to weave the fabric known as Evansville Christian School. Read excerpts of those interviews below:**

**Jane Schroeder--Former Administrator and One of the Founding Members of ECS** For the first three years of ECS' history, Mrs. Schroeder held the title of "Coordinator" with the job description basically of administrating the school site. Her husband, John, was a volunteer off-site administrator. Mrs. Schroeder states that after reading about openings in the newspaper in 1975, she and her husband decided to enroll their two children; subsequently she interviewed for a position at ECS and was hired alongside her husband as the first administrators. She goes on to state that she and her husband were new believers at the time and that becoming a part of the ECS family was a life-changing experience not only for her children but for her and her husband as well. Ms Schroeder has stayed connected to some ECS families even today some thirty years later; she tells the story of feeling lead by the Lord to go to the funeral home to support some of her former students who had lost their mother. She was able to share touching memories with them and support them in their time of grief. When she was about to leave, they embraced and said, "Mrs. Schroeder, just so you know, we continue to love and live for Jesus today." Mrs. Schroeder's prayer is that the heritage of all ECS students will experience in some form or another, is that as of result of the education they receive today, they will continue living for the Jesus they were taught about at ECS.

After spending time talking to Mrs. Davis, she proudly states that ECS has changed a lot over the years. Not only different construction of the building but also teaching material and technology. Mrs. Davis states that when she first started teaching at ECS, she used a Bob Jones curriculum and all of it was biblical. Now, there are much more science techniques and information. Mrs. Davis also states that technology has majorly changed. When she first started teaching here, teachers did not even have computers in their classrooms, now there are projectors and the new Renweb technology. However Mrs. Davis says that even though she has been here for nineteen years, the rock solid foundation in Christ still hasn't changed.
 * Pam Davis-- Middle School Science Teacher at ECS**

After working here 11 years, Mr. Bair has seen some drastic changes in Evansville Christian School. Mr. Bair makes decisions with the school board and works mostly with the exterior of the school. (EX: finances and the community) There has also been a steady change in the enrollment of ECS. In 1986 we had approximately 300 students. We now have 620 students, with an overall increase. Uniforms have never been a question to answer. Paul Bair explains that it doesn't solve problems and is a healthful decision for the students to make.
 * Paul Bair--Executive Director of ECS**

Pastor Dave Schwambach gave insight on how Evansville Christian School was envisioned to be a Christ-centered school. The original mission of the school was "to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to this generation." In the early years, Pastor Dave volunteered as a teen counselor and spoke at many chapels. He also came up with the idea of service projects to encourage the students of ECS to live out the gospel, not just hear it. His favorite memory of ECS was to see children’s lives changed by Jesus Christ. ECS has accomplished the goal to "know Christ and make Him known." Through his years at ECS, Pastor Dave Schwambach has seen many changes such as the dress code, which is much more relaxed than what it used to be. The staff's policy has always been to be committed to Christ through everything they do. This makes ECS everything it was intended to be, a Christ-centered school.
 * Dave Schwambach-- Former Administrator and ECS Parent**

Mrs. Broshears-- 4th Grade teacher Mrs. Broshears has taught at ECS for 28 years, teaching both 3rd and 4th grades. During the early stages of the school all women had to wear dresses. Boys needed to tuck in shirts and wear belts. The school didn't have Indiana standards, now they do. Some of her memories include the school having an earthquake during chapel; the school used to have high school (clubs). The school now has more technology and uses it more than ever. Mrs. Broshears is the only current staff member here for the start of ECS. The school did have some trouble getting students, but now it is easy. She has had one son go to ECS from K-8th. On the schools 25th anniversary, everyone went on the hill for a picture, and Mrs. Masterson had her office on the roof.

Mrs. Hanson-Art-Computer Teacher and Former Student Mrs. Hanson has the unique privilege of being a former student as well as a current teacher at ECS. She states that in public education she missed the unity that comes from teaching with a faculty that believes in Christ, a purpose that comes from disciplining with God's Word, and the valuable education gleaned from teaching biblical principles. She taught here for five years full time and one year part time. She went to ECS as a student for one year as a kindergartener. When she came back as a teacher, the grading scale was different, more information was funneled through renweb and the east campus had also expanded. Thankfully, she states that the things that have stayed the same are the beautiful people that have touched her heart and made her a better human being. Oh and probably the huge hot dogs in the school lunch, gee those things are big. As a student at ECS, she thought Mrs. Naab was cool because they had a sticker chart :), and as a teacher I think that ECS is a combination of a superb education with the importance of teaching with God's word.

Miss West--Former ECS Teacher She was the instructor of the five year-old daycare. Then, she was the head instructor of the four year-old daycare. Finally, she taught the four year-old Pre-k program. Miss West taught from 1993 to 2004. She indicated that changes happened yearly when the school changed the curriculum to improve the students' knowledge. She told us also that the Pre-k was where the students were taught the basic skills of kindergarten a year early using math groups and learning centers that were theme oriented to help them be prepared for kindergarten. The male teachers at ECS had to wear dress pants and a nice shirt. The women had to wear dresses Monday through Thursday and could only wear dress pants on Friday. Miss West told us that the library had a new variety of books each year. She also said that the Pre-k did not have to go to the computer lab because they had three computers in the room. One memorable experience that Miss West shared was when her class was lining up and heading into the school building through the glass doors, walking down the annex stairs by the generators. She saw Christopher Mitchell doing something. She told him, "Stop it." The response was," How did you see that?" She told him," I have eyes in the back of my head." He was smart enough to figure out that I had seen his reflection in the glass doors. She also said that the thing that made ECS stand out (head and shoulders above the rest) was the level of dedication the teachers had for sharing God's love through their teaching, by example, and the amount of teamwork the teachers displayed with one another.

 Thomas Maveety—Alumni and Current ECS parent
Thomas Maveety graduated from ECS in 1983. He is currently a parent of an ECS student. He originally came to ECS because his friends attended the school. All of the teachers he knew at the time no longer work here. Thomas says that the school was much smaller. The high school was upstairs and the elementary school was downstairs. The gym used to have carpet and a big open door. ECS used the gym for chapel and assemblies. The school is a lot bigger now and has expanded the campuses into North, East, and Henderson. The homework load has stayed about the same, but Thomas didn’t have to memorize Bible verses. He only had to attend school from 8:30am to 1:30pm. He didn’t have to attend lunch and recess, because of previous high school credits. Other classmates could eat at Jeremiah’s, which was kind of like a fast food restaurant. General Business was Thomas’ favorite class; because he learned a lot of things he didn’t know before.

Kevin Bayer- Alumni and Current ECS Parent of three students
When interviewed, Kevin talked mainly about how much the technology had changed. Kevin tells us that, “Technology seems to be used as an integral part of teaching and assignments now. We didn’t have that, except for overhead transparency projectors and TVs and VCRs on available for classroom reservation.” As of now, we have things like the Smartboard, computers in mostly every classroom, and Kindles in the school library. Kevin says that attending ECS helped focus his life on being a Christian, just as the mission statement says it will.

Derek Stewart-ECS Alumni and Chief Executive Office of the YMCA of Southwestern Indiana
Derek Stewart attended ECS through his elementary and middle school years, kindergarten through 8th grade lasting from 1982-1991. It was of course his parent’s decision to send him to the school for the Christian education (and small class sizes), he learned very important lessons here, in and out of the classroom. Mr. Stewart was already a member of the Christian faith before his attendance, but he believes “By incorporating Biblical lessons into my education, I was able to take a greater sense of ownership in my beliefs. … Attending ECS helped solidify my faith.” He highly favored the usage of Biblical principles in school, and this is what helped him to become a Christian independently. He felt that students and faculty were like a family to him. This family reached outward his education and Derek still uses the ECS experience in his life today. Being in a job where a Christ-like atmosphere is encouraged, this is easy for him, and it was ECS that inspired him to go into Christian ministry. Obviously, ECS has made an impression in Mr. Stewart’s life in the past and presently. The school has “played a significant role in the career that I am in right now” and it still has “impact in the things I say, the people I hang with, the places I go, etc”. Students today still learn what Derek did here, but most importantly, the influence of Christ is still at work in the classrooms at ECS, and its former pupils.

Bob Seymore--Director of Operations for ** Bethel ** ** Temple ** ** and parent of two ** ** former ECS students **
 Mr. Seymore helped get ECS financially stable in its early beginnings, and he is a current school board member. Mr. Seymore works with Mr. Bair, and he has two kids that went to ECS, Jeff and Andrea. He shared that during the first few years, the girls at ECS had to wear knee length dresses and the cheerleading skirts went down to their knees. The clothing rules at ECS have changed a lot, but he said that the curriculum has not changed. ECS encourages students to have a close relationship with God. About 10% of Evansville Christian students are not Christian. When ECS grows, it is Bob Seymore’s job to help find new classrooms. Mr. Seymore is a very important to ECS.

During the years she worked here at ECS she saw many changes- including she saw this school change from just a few classes to many in each grade, and from a couple of hundred students to about 650 students. She also saw the school change from having few, bad computers to many, LCD thin computers. Another change she saw was the dress code- at the beginning the teachers couldn’t were jeans. At the start of her time here there were just over 1,000 books in the library, and at the end there were over 15,000. The library had to be moved to a bigger room to fit all the new books. The number of books grew in all areas-fiction, nonfiction, reference, etc. The library check-out system was computerized when she was working here. While she worked here, they added the AR system to help improve the students’ reading levels.
 * Emily Green--former librarian from August 1989-August 2009:**

When interviewing Miss Betsy Davis, she says that many things have changed over the years, one of these things being the technology. Betsy says that when she was in early grades at ECS, there were no computers and no TVs. Computer class was crowded with huge computers, lots of chords, and huge wooden chairs to set in. Although much technology has changed, Miss Betsy Davis says that the impact that ECS had on her have prepared her for life in college. Betsy says that ECS gave her the foundation for academics; it prepared her for English, grammar, and writing skills. The values and life skills that Betsy has taken away have prepared her for college and for life.
 * Betsy Davis- ECS Alumni**

** Mrs. Hasenmyer – Former 2nd Grade Teacher; North Campus Coordinator ** Mrs. Hasenmyer has taught at the school for twenty years and still teaches here now. She is connected to the school through heart, she has taught here, and she is still here because she loves ECS’s purpose. Since she has been here she has seen a lot of changes to the school. Two new things that she has seen are team teaching and becoming more standard's based. The purpose of the team teaching is so that all teachers teach the same thing. Mrs. Hasenmyer has seen changes to the curriculum too. She says that there are more standards so that classes don’t fall behind as easily. Mrs. Hasenmyer started at EC S in 1990. In her first class she had sixteen kids. She always taught second grade until 2007. Mrs. Hasenmyer always had class pets. She taught at the east campus for twelve years. She switched to the north campus in 2002 when it opened for second grade. At the north campus she has held these positions: second grade teacher, library, AR, resource, and Spanish. She is currently teaching AR, resource, and Spanish. When she started at ECS, the size of the school was around four hundred students. ECS has changed in number, becoming more like a team, being purposeful, reaching standards and goals, more mission lead, and better at equipping students with hearts for the world with Biblical world view.

**Shelly Main-Media Specialist ** While interviewing Mrs. Main, I found out a lot about my school history. She has been working with Evansville Christian School for seventeen years, and her experience has been good. She has noticed that the population of our school has grown, about 30%. She told me that the curriculum has changed due to a greater emphasis on academic standards. Mrs. Main had taught before she came to ECS, she was a teacher at a public junior high in Arkansas for two years before she came here. She went to many colleges actually; she went to Williams Baptist College, Oakland City University, Walden, and IUPUI. When Mr. Main got a job in Evansville, Mrs. Main went looking for a Christian school. She got two teaching job offers, one here at ECS and one at Faith Heritage. But something inside her led her to take the job at Evansville Christian School. She wanted to come to a school where she could freely speak about God and freely teach about Him. Mrs. Main came in to ECS looking for a middle school literature teacher, and she got it. By teaching at ECS she made tons of new friends along the way.

Mrs. Carter is a Pre-Algebra and Algebra teacher here at ECS and has been working here for 22 years. She used to have to teach many subjects such as Science, Bible, and Language. She had a son who went here for a few years. Mrs. Carter believes that the population has greatly increased since the time she started working here. Formally, there was a ECS high school which closed in 1991. She believes that due to a lot of prayer and great need in the community, that ECS will open up a high school in God’s timing. According to Mrs. Carter, ECS has a lot to offer biblically including, Godly principles, biblical worldview, along with good academics.
 * Mrs. Carter-current Pre-Algebra and Math teacher, former Bible, Science, and Language**

** Mrs. Husk—ECS Business Manager ** Mrs. Husk is currently a business manager, but her job has changed throughout the years. She has worked at ECS for 21 years and is both a former ECS parent and a grandparent of a current student. She has witnessed the expansion to other sites, changes to the curriculum, and the addition of many new sports such as track. She has also witnessed the canceling of the sweetheart dinner, and the addition of the 8th grade trip which took place around 1988. She won employee of the year for 2007-2008. From a parent’s perspective, she said what her kids most enjoyed were their friends, that they learned scripture, and that they had a safe place to learn.