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In the fifteen-year process of\ncreating an independent high school, Dorothy Shank ably chaired the EMHS Board,\n1974-1981. In an era when few women served as leaders in the Mennonite church,\nDorothy prayed about the decision, and then said she would help the school as\nthe first woman chair of the Board. It was Dorothy, in an interview, who stated\nthat we all stand on someone else\u2019s shoulders and that it is important to\nrecognize God\u2019s faithfulness in launching a strong and independent EMHS in the\n1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eastern Mennonite School began as a\nhigh school in 1917, but it soon added junior college classes. When the junior\ncollege grew into a four-year program and earned accreditation in 1947, it\ncreated an identity problem for the high school. By the early 1960s, with\nenrollment growth in the college, visionaries in Virginia Mennonite Conference\ngot busy and built a separate building for the high school in Park View, first\nused in 1964. Over Christmas break in 1963-1964, students and teachers picked\nup books from the college library and moved them to the new high school campus\nnearby on Parkwood Drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years after the high school\nmoved into its new building, the EMC Board wanted the high school division to\nsupport itself, and according to the college\u2019s business office, EMHS was\noperating at a deficit. In 1967, according to EMC accounting methods, the high\nschool deficit was over $69,000. The Executive Committee of the EMC Trustees,\nwhich presided over the high school, asked the high school to balance its\nbudget within five years. With Sam Weaver at the helm of the high school, the\nschool reached a balanced budget by 1973. While Sam was the Principal, he gives\ncredit to people like Daniel Bender, Dwight Wyse, Shirley J. Yoder, and Glendon\nBlosser for helping to set the financial ship of the school in good standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The years of Sam Weaver\u2019s\nleadership at EMHS, 1969-1981, were tumultuous years in the United States, with\nthe Vietnam War, an era of rebellion and protest for youth, and rising\ninflation driven by rising oil prices. Still, students kept coming to EMHS,\nfrom as far away as Pigeon, Michigan, Sarasota, Florida, the Tidewater region\nof Virginia, and northeast Ohio. By 1977 the high school had 277 students, with\na waiting list. Sam\u2019s Christian education philosophy relies on ownership of a\nstudent\u2019s education from the home, the church, and the Christian school.\nStudents tested Sam\u2019s leadership, to be sure, but the school grew in many ways\nand earned its charter in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dorothy Shank remembers that during\nher tenure as Board Chair in the late 1970s she worried when good teachers left\nEMHS for other positions. She prayed God would send the school good replacement\nteachers. She especially worried when Marvin Miller, an outstanding music\nteacher, 1966-1981, left EMHS. \u201cBut,\u201d Dorothy rejoiced in the interview, \u201cGod\nbrought in Jay Hartzler,\u201d another exceptional music teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 2019 interview with Sam Weaver\nand Dorothy Shank, they noted the excellent support for the high school from\nVirginia Mennonite Conference churches in the 1970s. Sam visited Districts and\nchurches and encouraged support. Consequently, churches in Virginia Conference\nstepped up and supported their high school, through a Congregational Aid Plan\nformulated by Glendon Blosser. Sam notes the way Conference Districts sent\ndelegates to the Board meetings, like Robert Mast from Chesapeake, Va., and Ike\nOberholtzer from Newport News. In return, the EMHS Touring Choir began a spring\ncircuit of singing in many of the supporting churches, leading them in worship\nand song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Programs and buildings seemed to\nspring up in the 1970s, attracting many students to attend. The school built a\nnew fine arts addition in 1972, and while Dorothy Shank served as Board Chair,\nthe school added a gymnasium, finished in 1976. In Park School, a former public\nschool located next door to the high school that EMHS used as early as the\n1960s, the high school set up an Industrial Arts program and Art program. The\ncollege set aside rooms for high school students in Maplewood dorm, and to the\npresent has not charged for the use of Lehman Auditorium for the annual high\nschool graduation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dorothy Shank remembers that the\ntone of moving toward separation was tense at times, but by 1982 the two\nschools went different directions on amicable terms. And Sam Weaver, the\nbalding principal who established the financial and church-based foundations\nfor the school, decided it was time for him to move on. In 2019, an EMHS faculty\nmember publicly recognized Sam at the annual National Honor Society Induction,\nwhen his granddaughter, Julie Weaver, joined the society. As Principal during\nthe 1970s, Sam had signed all of the Honor Society documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not by our power, as Dorothy\nasserted, but by God\u2019s grace and faithfulness, that EMHS moved toward\nindependence from the college in the 1970s. There had been those at the college\nwho entertained ideas on what to do with the building should the program be\ndiscontinued. With good leadership, EMHS became a viable church school, a\nprocess that began in the 1960s and culminated with a charter in 1982.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1952, Samuel O. Weaver\u2019s high school English teacher insisted that he learn how to diagram a sentence. Sam saw no need to learn how to diagram a sentence, and he told A. Grace Wenger, his EMS teacher, that he intended to return to Newport News and milk cows for his brother. She replied to … Continue reading Eastern Mennonite High School Moved Toward Independence, 1964-1982<\/span>