St. John Regional Catholic School

8414 Opossumtown Pike | Frederick, MD 21702 | 301-662-6722 | sjrcs.org

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Welcome to our school!

Please feel free to visit our website, tour our school, and set up a shadow date for your child. St. John Regional Catholic School in Frederick, Maryland, an Archdiocese of Baltimore school, has been serving the Catholic community for more than 185 years. It is a school that is rich in history and traditions. St. John is accredited by the Southern States Association of Colleges and Schools and currently serves eight Frederick County parishes and the Catholic community of Fort Detrick. We have approximately 580 students in grades Pre-K through 8 who come to us not only from our regional parishes; but from Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

One of the oldest schools in continuous operation on the eastern seaboard, St. John traces its roots to Father John McElroy, a Jesuit who laid the initial cornerstone. The school was originally located in the historic district of downtown Frederick on East Second Street. In the summer of 2005, the dream of a new, more modern building for our school came true. We moved to our new location on Opossumtown Pike. We share the twenty-seven acre site with St. Katharine Drexel parish. The parish is currently building a new church on the same grounds.

Our efficient new "Green School" has provided us with the ability to offer three classes at each grade level, as needed. The new building provides us a state-ofthe-art media center, one to one computing program, a science lab, a computer lab, art room with a kiln, a music room, and a modern gymnasium.

www.sjrcs.org

St. John Regional Catholic School provides a Christ-centered environment and an exemplary education to each and every student within the framework of the Gospel and the traditions of the Catholic Church. The goal of our faith community is to develop future leadership for the 21st century through academic excellence, faith in action, and a firm foundation of Christian virtues.

Our students live their faith each day through daily prayer, special liturgies, and school Masses. All students, Pre-K through grade 8, receive religious instruction on a daily basis. The students, teachers, and staff all follow the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) model every day.

We hope that you will take some time to explore our website which provides information about our strong academics, our social activities, volunteer opportunities, and sports programs. However, the only way to truly experience the spirit of our students, the dedication of our teachers, and the enthusiasm of our parents, is to visit our school in person. Hopefully, you will have a chance to do just that in the very near future and learn a little bit more about what St. John’s has to offer.

Sincerely,

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Karen Smith | Principal

• Welcome video

• Connect with us

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History & Tradition Catholic education in Frederick began and continues today because of the ideals and dedication of strong individuals with a vision. St. John’s has provided Catholic education for thousands of Frederick County residents for 185 years.

1829 Father McElroy established St. John’s

1915 Father

1925 The original school

William Kane,

building was torn down and a new

Literary Institution for boys located on East

the first diocesan

building was built to accommodate

Second Street in downtown Frederick. Father

pastor, persuaded

the school population which now

1958 The high school

McElroy was also responsible for building the

the School Sisters

enrolled girls. This building housed

moved to a historic mansion,

present St. John’s Church next door, which was

of Notre Dame to

both elementary and high school

called Prospect Hall, due to

completed and consecrated in 1837.

staff the school.

students.

overcrowding of the school.

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301-662-6722

Mission Our mission is to provide a Christ-centered environment and an exemplary education to each and every student within the framework of the gospel and the traditions of the Catholic Church. The goal of our faith community is to develop future leadership for the 21st century through academic excellence, faith in action, and a firm foundation of Christian virtues. This mission gives our students an advantage because our day is guided by our faith. Ethics and morals are more freely expressed in a faith based school.

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1991 The elementary school was officially designated as a

Today SJRCS continues to 2005 St. John Regional

2009 St. John Regional

invest in its campus to ensure

regional school to serve the educational needs of the Catholic

Catholic School moved from 2nd

Catholic School was designated a

resources necessary to succeed

parishes in Frederick’s vast

Street to our new state-of-the-art

National Blue Ribbon School of

and to be prepared for a

parishes.

facility on Opossumtown Pike.

Excellence.

competitive academic future.

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that the students have all the

Timeline compiled by Bill Mohan, Class of 1954

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SJRCS Education LEARN WITH THE BEST TEACHERS. We believe our teachers are the most effective educators in the area, as evidenced by our recognition as one of the 50 best private schools in the United States.

EXPERIENCE A CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. As the first truly modern Catholic school in Frederick County, our expert teachers, teaching assistants, and staff seamlessly integrate wholly new facilities, cutting-edge classroom technology, and innovative pedagogies with the values and traditions of the Catholic faith.

ASSEMBLE A SOLID FOUNDATION. Day by day, month by month, and year by year, our incredibly dedicated teachers work with your child to methodically assemble and then gradually strengthen a solid and lasting foundation of fundamental knowledge, individual spirituality, and personal self-confidence.

BE MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER STUDENT. Our teachers, teaching assistants, and staff will know your child’s name, their learning style, their strengths and limitations, and we will engage them daily with focused expertise, unwavering commitment, firm discipline but fair, and genuine love.

REINFORCE YOUR FAMILY’S VALUES. We continually reinforce both the Christian values and the basic human values your family is teaching your child at home so as to ensure they graduate St. John Regional Catholic School with morality, character, and compassion.

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Catholic Identity By graduation, St. John Regional Catholic School graduates will have a basic knowledge of the major doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. We educate our students with God at the center of our day. Our teachers and staff strive to live out our faith in order to build strong future leaders in our community and our church. We are not only concerned with producing highly educated students; but to educate the whole person in mind, body, and spirit. Generations of children from Frederick and the surrounding area have begun their academic and spiritual training at this school.

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Prayer begins and ends each day; as well as, before and after meals.

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Religion is taught daily in every grade.

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Priests and deacons from the 8 regional parishes serve as “chaplains” to every grade and visit frequently.

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Students attend monthly liturgies with their class.

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School liturgies and prayer services commemorate many feast days and holy days.

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Service Projects are planned and performed within and outside the school community.

REGIONAL PARISHES •

St. John the Evangelist – Frederick

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St. Katharine Drexel – Frederick

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St. Timothy – Walkersville

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St. Ignatius of Loyola – Ijamsville

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Holy Family – Middletown

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St. Peter the Apostle – Libertytown

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St. Joseph-on-Carrollton Manor – Buckeystown

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St. Francis & St. Mary – Brunswick

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Fort Detrick Catholic Community

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Academics PRE-K 3 CURRICULUM The Investigators Club Curriculum offers your child everything that educational researchers say a good program must provide: Oral language development through speaking and listening, a print rich environment, quality children’s fiction and nonfiction books, early reading and writing experiences, problems to solve, exposure to math and science processes, opportunities for social and emotional growth, ongoing assessment to keep children on task and support for second language learners. Your child will acquire basic readiness skills in Literacy, Math, Science, Social Studies, Oral Language, Fine Arts and Music while exploring many topics. Half day and full day options available.

• Tuition Rates • Application Forms • Financial Assistance

PRE-K 4 CURRICULUM Splash into Pre-K is a comprehensive and integrated bilingual early learning program designed to ensure success for today’s 4 year old learners through the latest research and interactive learning philosophies. Splash into Pre-K helps teachers build a community of learners using Conscious Discipline® Strategies and includes all the core domains of learning including Emotional, Physical, Cognitive and Linguistic. Splash into Pre-K also integrates all of the curricular areas including Reading and Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Health, and Art into the daily instruction.

What makes Splash into Pre-K stand out? Thorough and comprehensive lessons and high interest activities that thoroughly engage children along with a flexible instruction plan that allows children to learn and explore at many different levels. Teachers can pick and choose activities depending on individual child interest.

Children also have the opportunity to participate in extensive and fun real-world Center Activities that maximize their experiences with the real world around them as shown in recent Early Childhood research.

Furthermore, the classroom management provides the right tools for success with large and small group activities.

Splash into Pre-K weaves science and science exploration into each theme.

Science is integrated into every week of instruction and all experiments and exploratory learning can be done with regular classroom materials or easy to access materials. Half day and full day options available.

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301-662-6722

Academics KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM The Superkids program has something unique in all of educational publishing: a cast of delightful characters, called the Superkids, whose activities and adventures keep children engaged and motivated as they go about the serious work of learning to read and write. The systematic, explicit phonics instruction at the heart of the program is thoughtfully and thoroughly designed so that children learn to decode words with continuous practice until they reach automaticity and fluency. At the same time children are taught to decode, they are also taught to encode, or write letters for the sounds they have learned. The children can then see that they can write what they speak and read what they write.

With Go Math Curriculum, kindergartners work on number operations from September-December. From January-June the Math curriculum focuses on geometry, data, and patterns.

Our program is five full days a week from 8:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The Catholic faith is taught each day to all students at SJRCS. Students reach a deeper understanding of the faith through instruction that focuses on each and every student realizing their importance as a child of God. Kindergarten specials include Media/Library, Music, and Physical Education. In order to enter Kindergarten at SJRCS you must be 5 years old

by September 1. SJRCS follows the Archdiocese of Baltimore curriculum.

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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: GRADES 1-4 We “Inspire One Child at a Time” to discover their unique gifts as they grow and transform into young people of character, faith, and wisdom. Kindergarten to Fourth grade is an important time in your child’s educational development to acquire strong fundamentals.

Our curriculum utilizes creative instruction as well as state-of-the art technology to make learning interactive, interesting, and long-lasting.

MIDDLE SCHOOL: GRADES 5-8 St. John middle school guides children through a transitional time in their lives by nurturing their individuality, challenging their intellectual curiosity, and laying a strong foundation of respect for self and others. Welcoming families of all faiths, the Middle School at St. John Regional Catholic School strives to prepare students for the rigors of high school. Our Middle School Program utilizes creative instruction as well as state-of-the art technology to make learning interactive, interesting, and long-lasting for students in Grades 5-8.

We have a 1:1 computing program that allows our students to become familiar with the technology they will be expected to use in high school. Our middle school students maintain consistent and excellent academic performance on standardized testing. Our students are rewarded with multiple scholarships to area private schools and accepted into the area’s most advanced programs including the Frederick County Public Schools I.B. program.

SJRCS middle school students also frequently earn top honors at the Geography Bee, Junior Achievement Video contest, National History Bee, It’s Academic, American Legion Auxiliary Essay Contest, Catholic Daughters of America Education Essay Contest, and the Maryland Junior Duck Stamp Program.

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Special Programs STEM

St. John Regional Catholic School

St. John Regional Catholic School was one of the first schools designated a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school by Dr. Barbara McGraw Edmondson, Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, due to our advanced curriculum in these areas.

The STEM program prepares children for the challenges and opportunities awaiting them in the evolving areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE

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St. John is designated a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The school has demonstrated the achievement of its students, at the highest grade tested, as placing in the top ten percent of schools, on nationally normed tests in reading and mathematics.

PRIDE PROGRAM

The PRIDE program serves students who have been diagnosed with mild to moderate learning disabilities. It is taught by certified special education teachers, who provide specialized instruction in language arts and math coupled with inclusion in general education classes within the larger student body. PRIDE allows the community as a whole to learn more about the diversity of learners and learning styles and to appreciate the gifts and talents of all students. A Personalized Progress Plan is developed for each PRIDE student. Special educators use the PPP to plan Language Arts and Math instructional times and accommodations. PRIDE serves the mission of Catholic schools to educate the whole child, affirm their unique gifts, and nurture them to reach their full potential.

QUEST PROGRAM The mission of the QUEST Program is to provide various types and levels of enrichment opportunities for SJRCS students. Parents and teachers are the “power source” that can support and encourage gifted behaviors in students. The student’s classroom teacher, in collaboration with the QUEST specialist and parents/guardians, will determine which resources best meet students’ needs.

St. John Regional Catholic School’s QUEST program is an enrichment program began in 1991 and was based on the Renzulli School-wide Enrichment model. The model was developed in 1977 by Dr. Joesph Renzulli, professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut and director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.

The School-wide Enrichment Model recognizes that all children are gifted and talented in some way. As appropriate, classroom teachers provide some level of differentiated instruction for students. QUEST specialists, working in conjunction with classroom teachers, will provide enrichment resources.

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Clubs & Activities Here at SJRCS, we encourage everyone to “get involved”!

Whether you are writing for the Wildcat Morning News broadcast or you are serving others in the “Light of Hope” club, St. John Regional Catholic School offers over 30 different extracurricular clubs and activities to keep you engaged long after the school day has ended.

Some of SJRCS clubs and activities include:

CHORUS/BELL CHOIR BAND SAFETY PATROLS LIGHT OF HOPE YEARBOOK WILDCAT MORNING NEWS NATIONAL JR. HONOR SOCIETY STUDENT COUNCIL JUNIOR GREAT BOOKS STOCK MARKET CLUB HISTORY CLUB SILVER KNIGHTS CHESS ELO’S (EXTENDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES) www.sjrcs.org

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Athletics WILDCAT SPORTS St. John Regional Catholic School offers a variety of athletic opportunities for our students. It is the mission of the SJRCS athletics program to provide all of our student athletes an excellent opportunity to participate in an athletic experience which becomes a valued component of their total educational experience at St. John Regional Catholic School. SJRCS athletics program serves as a valuable dimension of the mission to educate the whole personmind, body, and spirit.

WE EMBRACE THESE GUIDING PRINCIPLES: 1

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To promote character development, Christian Values, leadership qualities, sportsmanship, and academic excellence in our student athletes.

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To contribute to the enhancement of school spirit within the community of students, faculty, and staff. The SJRCS sports program is a place where students learn the fundamentals of different sports they will continue to develop for years.

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To develop in our student athletes appropriate skills in their representative sports.

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SJRCS Athletics was created to develop basic skills, sportsmanship, and an atmosphere where our children can further develop their relationships with their classmates.

Teams are organized on multiple levels in a variety of sports.

BASKETBALL | First and second graders participate in an in-house instructional league designed to teach the basic skills of the game, sportsmanship, and teamwork. Teams are co-ed and the season runs January-February. Third through eighth graders participate in the Monocacy League, which competes against teams from all over the county. Basketball begins in early November and runs through late February.

SOCCER | St. John fields teams for Kindergarten through sixth grade, depending on student interest. Our teams participate in the City of Frederick recreation league for both the fall and spring seasons. All teams are co-ed.

LACROSSE | Lacrosse is offered to both boys and girls in grades first through eighth. We participate in the Western Maryland Youth Lacrosse Conference competing against teams from all over the county. The lacrosse season extends from early March through late May. We also participate in an eight week fall ball and an indoor winter league at the Frederick Indoor Soccer Complex.

CHEERLEADING | Our Cheerleading Program consists of sixth through eighth grade girls. They cheer for the eighth grade boys’ basketball team as well as an annual festival at FedEx Field during a Redskins game. They also participate in a middle school competition in Baltimore each year.

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Support Services HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

LUNCH SERVICES

The St. John Regional Catholic School Home School Association is an organization of parents, faculty, and staff. The H.S.A. mission is to work to promote open communication, good will, and cooperation between and among students, parents, administrative staff, faculty, and other affiliated parties. Our goal is to foster a nurturing and caring environment that strives for continued parent involvement in helping build a better educational experience for our children. Through membership dues and fundraising efforts, the H.S.A. is able to donate funds to purchase educational materials and equipment for the school, provide community-building and social events for our children and parents, and support service-oriented efforts to help the local community.

Families are encouraged to join the H.S.A.

Lunch may be brought from home or purchased from our cafeteria. The cafeteria offers a daily balanced lunch for students in Kindergarten through eighth grade.

EXTENDED CARE PROGRAM Before school care and after care are provided on the school premises by SchoolAge Child Care which is licensed by the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of Child Care for children ages 4-15 years old. Before school care is offered from 6:30 to 7:45 a.m. on days when school is in session. After care is offered from 2:30 to 6 p.m. when school is in session for a full day, for Pre-K through eighth grade students enrolled at St. John’s.

BUS SERVICE St. John Regional Catholic School has a variety of bus routes throughout Frederick County. Some bus routes are run by SJRCS and some are run and shared with St. John Catholic Prep. Please check the website for stops and more information.

www.sjrcs.org

HEALTH SERVICES The school health room is staffed daily by a full time Registered Nurse who provides treatment for illness and injury, administers medication, and promotes health education. Vision and hearing screening is provided yearly by Frederick County for the Pre-K, first, and, eighth grades, and all new students.

COUNSELING PROGRAM The school’s counselor is a highly-qualified full time staff member who will manage and advocate for the mental health and academic needs of the students at SJRCS. Students may refer themselves for counseling services or they may be referred by their teacher, school administrator, or parent.

FINANCIAL AID Financial assistance is available through the eight regional parishes, Friends of Catholic Education Scholarships, Walser Foundation, James & Marian McSherry Endowment Scholarship, the Eliot Kelly Scholarship (for Kindergarten) and SJRCS. In order to be considered for any financial assistance, you must apply for aid through FACTS Grant & Aid and be a registered student at SJRCS.

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Alumni

Learn More

SJRCS students start their academic success with a strong foundation.

Alumni of St. John Regional Catholic School have a strong foundation in common. SJRCS students are equipped with the necessary skills to continue their educations successfully as they move into high school and beyond. Due to their strong fundamental education at SJRCS, a high percentage of our students will be accepted into honors programs and receive scholarships to esteemed high schools.

You are invited to join us and learn more about St. John Regional Catholic School!

WALK-IN WEDNESDAYS Prospective Parents may visit us each Wednesday between 9 a.m.–11 a.m. for a tour. Additional times may be arranged by appointment. Contact the Admissions Office at 301-662-6722 to schedule a tour.

REQUEST A SHADOW DAY

DR. NIMA HENDI ‘84 “My education at St. John Regional Catholic School helped me become the person I am by encouraging me to pursue learning, truth in a nurturing and loving environment. My teachers stressed strict adherence to treating

Arrangements may be made for a prospective student in grades 3-8 to shadow with a St. John student, of the same grade, for a day. Contact the Admissions Office at 301-662-6722 to schedule a shadow day.

others as a good Christian would and no matter our differences everyone is

APPLY ONLINE

a child of God. I have carried these beliefs throughout my life, and am glad

Please visit www.sjrcs.org to apply online.

to be able to give back to my community. “ - Dr. Nima Hendi ‘84, The Pediatrician Center of Frederick

CADET CAPTAIN JIMMY HARRIS ‘03 “Learning is a life long experience. I continue my learning experiences as a result of the foundation that was provided to me at St. John Regional

• Email the Admissions Director to schedule a shadow day or personal tour.

Catholic School. I thank my parents for the sacrifices made to provide me

• View our most recent test scores and learn why

this learning environment where academics and faith were taught along

SJRCS is a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

with responsibility, leadership, and respect.”

- Cadet Captain Jimmy Harris ‘03

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• Apply now online!

• Complete the online Alumni form.

• Donate now! Make an online gift to SJRCS.

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• Check out our promotional video on YouTube...find out why “It’s always a good time” at SJRCS!