Max: St. John the Baptist HS to Close
STLtoday
Leaders at the last Catholic parish high school in St. Louis have decided to close its doors at the end of this school year, citing declining enrollment and increasing costs, and leaving students and parents in tears Friday.
The parish and finance councils at the 84-year-old St. John the Baptist College Prep High School met Thursday night to make their final decision.
Leaders at the last Catholic parish high school in St. Louis have decided to close its doors at the end of this school year, citing declining enrollment and increasing costs, and leaving students and parents in tears Friday.
The parish and finance councils at the 84-year-old St. John the Baptist College Prep High School met Thursday night to make their final decision.
posted by Max Dobberstein at 5/19/2008 01:17:00 PM
17 Comments:
Wow.
I guess it's finally hitting me now.
I had a thought just yesterday. Steph thought I probably didn't do much swimming in St. Louis. I said I, in fact, did do a lot of swimming. When I was in the Scouts, I earned all of the merit badges that I could get in the water at camps and community pools, etc.
In fact, if St. Johns had had a swim team, I probably would have been on it.
I've found myself saying things like this all along: if SJB had had (enter missing program) I probably would have been part of it.
You can only cut so many programs before you no longer have a school. Most schools cut art & music programs in favor of sports. SJB cut everything they could! We didn't have a drama club, we didn't have a news paper for two years that I was there, we didn't have a foot ball team, there was no shop class, etc.
All of this was nearly 20 years ago. How bad were they now?
Worst for me was that I paid for this. I worked part time jobs to help pay my tuition. If I had gone to the least well funded public school, I wouldn't have had to have a job and would have had all the programs I missed and who knows how many more?
Imagine me: high school athlete.
I missed a lot at SJB. I certainly didn't get anything from the religious education. One of my teachers had us coloring pictures in religion class - I was a junior!
Did you watch the video? The kid that made the video did a great job. What I loved was the one kid that mentioned he went to church all the time. Kid, I hate to tell you, but if the high light of your education is that you went to church a lot - you ain't getting anything from your education. This is the best thing that could happen to you. Hopefully you won't be able to afford any other catholic school and you'll end up in a public school where you will have access to the world.
This has been the "Anger" portion of my grief process. Come back for Bargaining and Acceptance in future installments.
24 hours ago, I thought that I might be dying. I post about it and you spazz about Wingworld closing. Sigh.
So, why did Steph assume you didn't swim much? Did she think we here in the flyover hadn't figured out the formula for water? Or did she think all the inbreeding led to a reduction buoyancy.
I'm not sure. Maybe she figured that with the vast weather changes, having a large ice sculpture in February, a boiling cauldron in July and a sandbox by August wasn't exactly what we Saintlouisans thought of as fun.
How little does she know? We love that shit!
Or, maybe this had ABSOFUCKINGLUTLY nothing to do with STL. Maybe it had more to do with my over-blown tales of my own poverty. Maybe she assumed I didn't have an in ground pool on the back 40 of the family Chateau. I shouldn't tell such tales to the woman I love!
Obviously every Saintloonie has to be a great swimmer - they couldn't survive the yearly floods if they were not!
You try to be snotty to some people...
I am pretty much fully recovered from my weekend breakdown and I still can't find much in the way of a reaction to St. John's overdue death knell.
So, are you back on your meds? Are you guys trying to decide between eating and keeping you on your meds? What's the scoop?
I'm back on my meds. We are gambling on the hope that not all of the payments made recently will go through before I get paid on Friday.
Back on topic, if it weren't for you, I would see St. John's as a waste of time. The only thing I learned there is that I am really bad at chess, really good at Catholic theology and that theology is meaningless.
I figured Jason didn't swim much because he didn't have a pool in his back yard like I did. :) I lived too far away from the closest public pool and I am sure I am happy about that. I am sure that Jason swam in much more little kid pee than I did. :)
I had a pool in my back yard. That very same back yard is a block away from where we live now. And my parent's just got a new pool liner installed. I'm SO having a pool party in August.
Wow. I guess this should have been considered a given considering the state of the church and the shortcomings of the school. Yet I find myself a little surprised. And sadly nostalgic.
Maybe they weren't our glory years, but there were definitely some good times and great people there. And some characters that will always be worthy of a laugh.
They closed my grade school while i was in college. I guess this shouldn't be a shock. By the time I turn 50, they'll close the University of Missouri, Columbia! :)
I wonder what happened to all my teachers? Karcher and Anich and Weber and ... wow, those are the only names I can remember. Yeek! I know there were some nuns I liked ...
Last I knew, Karcher was teaching at Chaminade.
I am really surprised that Jericho is so down about our old school closing. But EVEN if we had all of those programs neither Max or Jericho would have joined them. They were NOT joiners, they were the malcontent rebels. (remember the tail?) So you cannot remember Sr. Mary Ann, Sister Maureen(Sr. Spit and spray), Sr. Gadencia, Sr. Marjorie,what about Mr. Beuchter, Mr. Mullins,Mr. Whithesd(master of coloring in junior religion) "Frau Wamser"
Now. Wait. I worked pretty hard on the paper - I worked hard to get the paper back when we didn't have one, only to have Wings crush my ambitions under his boot.
They got rid of the photography club the year before I was eligible. I would have joined that. I did photography for year book - other than the fact that my stuff was out of focus and too gray - I wasn't too bad. They still put my crappy pics in the book!
Tis true, I was not and am to this day not much of a joiner. Then, I was a rebel and a loner. Now, I'm just too damn lazy to care! All of my whacky friends join any crazy thing that comes along - I only go if there is a pool or hot tub involved! I'll probably go if there is food ...
Of course! Wamser! I was trying to remember Mullins - that man lost his back bone and broke my heart. Damn Darth Wingburmuhle! Sister Mary Ann was the best. Was Sister Marjorie the Bio teacher? She was pretty cool. How many people would let you take a test with a snake wrapped around your wrist?
Of course, there was the English teacher who spoke English with such an accent you could barely understand her. On top of that, (poor thing!) she had a couple of close family members die in the same year. So, she was hard to understand and depressed! We had the best staff!
I'm not saying it was all bad. All I'm saying is I could have gone to a public school for free and probably gotten a better education. Instead, I bought into the hype and the fear of "drugs, gangs and violence" and got a less than stellar education.
Had it not been for SJH, I wouldn't have met Max, or Joni or Becky. Of couse, had I gotten a better education, I might have gotten a good job in STL and might still get to see at least two of your guys ...
THREE, if I hadn't let Miss Joan slip through my fumbling, stupid fingers! ;)
Mrs. Dunn, you spent all of your time in her class passing notes.
You only wrote for the paper so you could complain about censorship.
Mrs. Dunn! Yes, that was the poor lady's name. Of course I passed notes in her class (Who am I kidding? I passed note books with certain people!) I had to pass notes in her class to keep from falling asleep!
I was an angry young man who thought his words might have some influence. I was so wrong. I was young, dumb and full of ... enthusiasm! :)
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