St. John the Evangelist Catholic Academy
Adjacent to the church, the Academy offers classical Catholic education, forming students in wisdom, virtue, and faith from pre-K through eighth grade.
Walk out the side door of the church, and you're at the school.
That proximity isn't accidental. St. John the Evangelist Catholic Academy exists because the parish has always believed that education and faith belong together, that forming young minds is part of the Church's mission, not a separate enterprise.
The school opened in 1958, a decade after the parish was founded. It was built by Fr. Leonard Prusinski, C.R., and staffed by the Sisters of the Resurrection. From the beginning, it was understood as an extension of the parish itself: a place where children would learn to read and write, yes, but also to pray, to reason, to live.
That vision continues today.
Classical Education
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Academy follows a classical model of education, a tradition that stretches back through centuries of Christian and Western learning.
What does that mean in practice?
Classical education is structured around the way children actually learn. In the early years (the "grammar" stage), students absorb information, facts, vocabulary, stories, the building blocks of knowledge. They memorize. They chant. They fill their minds with content.
In the middle years (the "logic" stage), students begin to ask why. They learn to analyze, to argue, to see connections between ideas. The content they absorbed earlier becomes material for reasoning.
In the later years (the "rhetoric" stage), students learn to express themselves with clarity and persuasion. They synthesize what they've learned. They make it their own.
This progression, grammar, logic, rhetoric, is called the trivium. It's not a curriculum so much as a framework, a way of cooperating with the natural stages of intellectual development.
Classical education also emphasizes primary sources, great books, and the integration of subjects. History, literature, science, and theology are not sealed off from one another. They speak to each other. The goal is not just to produce students who can pass tests, but to form people who can think, who can articulate what they believe and why, who have encountered the best of what has been thought and written.
Faith and Reason Together
At a Catholic school, classical education finds its fullest expression.
The Church has always held that faith and reason are not enemies. They are two wings, as St. John Paul II wrote, on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth. A Catholic classical education teaches students to see the coherence between what we believe and what we can know, to understand that the God who reveals himself in Scripture is the same God who orders the universe according to intelligible laws.
This means theology is not an add-on. It's woven into the fabric of learning. Students attend Mass. They pray together daily. They prepare for the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. They learn that the faith is not a compartment of life but its foundation.
The school's identity as Catholic is not incidental. It shapes everything.
Part of the Parish
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Academy is not a separate institution that happens to share a parking lot with the church. It is part of the parish.
Students see the same altar where their families worship. They walk the same halls where generations of Catholic children have learned. They are formed by the same vision that has animated this community since the Resurrectionists arrived in 1942: the belief that prayer, education, and sacramental life together produce resurrection, in individuals, in families, in society.
When we speak of the parish as a "School of Prayer," the Academy is where that vision takes its youngest and most literal form. The classroom is a place of formation. The chapel is a place of encounter. The whole campus is ordered toward helping children grow in wisdom, virtue, and love of God.
Practical Details
The Academy serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The curriculum is rigorous. The community is close-knit. Teachers know students by name, and families know each other.
Extracurricular activities, sports, arts, clubs, are part of the picture, because education is not only about the mind. Students are whole persons, and formation happens on the playground and the stage as well as in the classroom.
The school admits students of any race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, or disability. Catholic families and non-Catholic families alike are welcome, though the school is unapologetically Catholic in its identity and mission.
An Invitation
If you're looking for a school that takes both faith and academics seriously, where your child will be challenged intellectually and formed spiritually, St. John the Evangelist Catholic Academy is worth a visit.
Come see the classrooms. Meet the teachers. Sit in on a Mass with the students. Ask questions.
Education is one of the most important decisions a family makes. We believe what happens here matters, not just for test scores or college applications, but for the kind of person your child is becoming.
The church is right next door. The altar is a few steps away. That's not an accident. It's the whole point.