Two Catholic high schools garner Blue Ribbon

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

St. Paul’s School and St. Scholastica Academy in Covington are brother and sister schools in spirit and originally in charism. Both were founded by the Benedictines at the turn of the 20th century.

They now share another distinction – being named Sept. 20 among the 325 National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2021 by the U.S. Department of Education. Only eight Louisiana schools got that designation.

The two schools celebrated together Sept. 24 with the Marching Wolves Band leading St. Scholastica students down Jahncke Avenue to St. Paul’s School’s Hunter Stadium for a homecoming pep rally.

It’s the second time each school was named a Blue Ribbon School – St. Scholastica (SSA) got it first in 1997, and St. Paul’s was named in 2015.

“It’s not surprising in the sense that we’ve really tried to foster a culture of continuous improvement at the school, never really being satisfied where we are,” said St. Paul’s principal Trevor Watkins, who oversaw both application processes for St. Paul's.

“Having been named a National Blue Ribbon School for the second time validates the efforts and perseverance of our administration, faculty, staff and students,” said SSA’s head of school Sheri Gillio. “(We were) recognized nationally as a school whose test scores rank in the top 15% in the nation.”

All girls for 120 years
SSA perpetuates the Benedictine charism of balancing prayer, work, study and community to develop adolescent girls into Christian women grounded in the Catholic Gospel values, Gillio said. St. Scholastica focuses its learning approach on what works best for young women and links theology, art and STEM disciplines in a STREAM interdisciplinary curriculum.

“We’ve done a lot of research, and we know girls learn best working collaboratively,” Gillio said. “Girls are very social, so we design our curriculum to incorporate that.”

Students can take Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment courses through LSU, Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana Tech and the University of Texas at Austin and choose from electives that include studio art, digital media, theater, dance, ceramics, introduction to film and choir, journalism, law studies and creative writing. SSA students consistently outscore students in Louisiana and nationwide on standardized tests.

SSA’s 1:1 computer program has provided students access to up-to-date technology for the past 15 years. In 2021, SSA partnered with Project STEM to offer students coursework in computer science, exposing them to both the Python and Java programming languages. In 2019, SSA opened Angelus Hall to house its theology, science and math departments and a TV production studio where students can film, edit and broadcast weekly news (SSA Today). The state-of-the-art Creativity Center for digital productions exposes students to InDesign, Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut commercial grade software.

All boys’ school now 110
St. Paul’s School began when the Benedictines of St. Joseph Abbey purchased Dixon Academy in Covington in 1911. In 1918, the De La Salle Christian Brothers took over, and it has been a school with the Lasallian spirituality of faith, service and community ever since.

“What keeps us unique and Lasallian is the fact that we keep everything student-centered,” said Joe Dickens, assistant principal of academics. “When every decision you make is student-centered, with the kids’ best interest at heart, you’re going to end up with happy students, happy parents and happy faculty.”

With an enrollment of 900 boys in eighth through 12th grade, St. Paul offers a  rigorous college-preparatory core curriculum with AP and honors courses, 17 sports and an extensive elective track.

St. Paul’s has multiple engineering tracks from computer programming, digital electronics to Java programming;  a biomedical science track;  and a vast business track that culminates in an entrepreneurship class, Dickens said. Students explore the arts with theatre arts, music, students producing their own music and participating in the 100-strong marching band.

“Kids are really able to explore where their interests lie before they even get to college,” Dickens said.

Dickens said the curriculum has evolved with student needs.

“Over the last 10 to 15 years,  we have tracked where the students go to college, what they major in and where their interests lie, and we designed our elective curriculum around that,” he said. “When you look at it, it reads more like a college when you see students can take a civil architecture or engineering class or a rigorous bio-medical science class. It’s driven by the needs of the kids.”

Like St. Scholastica, Dickens said St. Paul’s students do extraordinarily well on standardized testing, “as evidenced by this award … ACT scores and National Merit Finalists.”

The application for Blue Ribbon status asks schools to include academics, extracurricular and sports offerings. St. Paul’s boasts 17 sports – winning the state championship in wrestling in 2020-21 and having a soccer team in the state championship for 11 consecutive years.

“We’re really solid athletically,” Dickens said.

St. Paul’s Christian Brothers’ charism is reinforced with Christian Brothers on the faculty, in administration (Brother Ray Bulliard is president) and a large retirement community on campus.

“The Brothers’ presence is palpable,” Dickens said. “Our charism is alive and well. Brother Raymond invests heavily in Lasallian formation and sends groups of teachers every summer to do the lay version of Lasallian Brothers’ graduate school (a three-year program).” He estimates that the majority of the faculty has formalized Lasallian training.

The religion department not only teaches the Lasallian mission but brings students closer to their faith, Dickens said, by beginning every class with a traditional Lasallian prayer, celebrating schoolwide liturgies and praying together as a school four times a day.

Dickens was pleasantly surprised to learn that SSA was simultaneously named a Blue Ribbon school.

“We talk almost every day and didn’t know each other was applying,” he said.

On Nov. 4-5, Gillio and SSA’s Dean of Academics Jennifer Grimley and St. Paul’s representatives will attend the formal awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

To read more about each school’s application, visit: bit.ly/3ayHSb3 for St. Paul’s and bit.ly/3BAJi0W for St. Scholastica.

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