ESK Voices: Mark Taylor
ESK’s culture of trust, honest and integrity doesn’t just stop with the faculty, it is built in a partnership between the students, parents and faculty. Each part links together to ensure a solid education for each child. Thus, parents are considered integral to the success of their child. Parents are encouraged to be active participants in the life of the school! ESK values the involvement of its parents and knows the difference that parents truly make in the life of a school and the community that ESK has built over the last 17 years.
In our ESK Voices series, you will get a unique look at the parents that make ESK what it is. Today, we speak with ESK parent Mark Taylor, who currently has 2 sons at ESK, Hudson, in third grade, and Brody, in first grade. His daughter, Vivi, will be in Kindergarten in the fall.
See below for more from Mark.
Why did your family choose ESK?
We chose ESK because our 1st grader, Hudson, was in public school and his teacher came to us about a month into the school year and said he was really bright and could use some additional challenge in his school. We started touring around and getting our options in front of us and we eventually came and toured at ESK and brought Hudson with us. He spent the day in the 1st grade class while we took the tour with Jay. We really loved the school and connected to the vision and the mission of the school, but what really sealed it for us was that when we came home at the end of the day, our son said “Daddy, I really really like that school. Can I go there?” We just felt like it said a lot about what the school was and is now, and we’ve loved it ever since.
What has kept you and your family at ESK?
There are a bunch of things that have kept us at the school. First, the culture and the people. We’ve loved getting to know all the families here and we’ve loved getting to know the teachers and the staff. The culture at the school is just phenomenal. There are a million little things that happen over the course of a week with our children here that are just so special and remind us what a great place ESK is. From our children’s standpoint, our children are really flourishing here and doing well. They are doing great in school and they love going to school here. We rarely have any times when our kids say “I don’t want to go to school today.” They love waking up every day and coming to school here to see their friends and to learn and to grow. I just think that says a lot about the school’s environment.
What has been the biggest surprise about ESK during your time here?
I think the biggest surprise for us has been the community piece and just how tied in to the community we feel here at the school. One of the big worries for us as we left a neighborhood public school was that we weren’t going to have the same aspects and benefits that you get when you go to a neighborhood public school. We found that at ESK the opposite of our fears were true, in that we feel very tied to the school and invested in the vision and mission of the school, we feel like we’re stakeholders in this place. We really feel like we’re a big part of the community out here and have loved getting to know the families and the children who go to school here.
Is there a teacher who has been especially amazing during your time here and why?
I think the amazing part about what we’ve experienced at ESK so far is that we’ve had amazing teachers all the way around. All of the staff has been phenomenal to our children; our children have each had unique relationships with each of the teachers they’ve had. Even though all of the teachers and staff approach teaching in a different way, everybody is united behind the common culture and mission of really doing what’s best for that child. They really care for the whole child, emotionally, spiritually, and educationally. It’s been a real blessing for our children to find teachers that they connect with and that they have fun with.
What do you think ESK does best?
For our family, the most important thing in choosing a school is that the culture at the school is modeling the same things we’re trying to model at home. From teaching our kids a Christian worldview to instilling the same values we’re trying to instill in them at home. I think that is through and through at ESK, it starts with the teachers and the staff and flows all the way down to the way the children interact with each other thorough the Tribes Agreements. To be able to have a school where students are able to get a world class education in an environment that values a Christian worldview makes ESK a very unique place.
If you could describe ESK in one word what would it be?
I would say family. I think we feel like this place and the people in this place are family to us.