April 25, 2023

All School Mass

We will have All School Mass on Friday, April 28. Students should wear their full-dress uniforms. After Mass, there will be the 7th and 8th grade Leadership Ceremony. There will be an optional daily Mass before school on Wednesday, April 26 in the Chapel at 7:10 a.m. This will be the LAST Wednesday Daily Mass of the year.

8th Grade Service Project - LAST CALL

Please help the 8th grade class collect supplies for various animal shelters. This is the last week they will be collecting. Please help if you can.



May Crowning - Next Friday

All students are asked to bring in ONE flower next Friday, May 5 for our May Crowning ceremony at Mass. Bring your flower to your homeroom teacher on the morning of May 5. We will make a beautiful basket of flowers for Our Lady, Mother Mary! Thank you for helping your child honor our Blessed Mother. 

Wisdom and Wine

Sylvia's

Thursday, May 4, 2023

7:30-9:00 p.m.

*Click on the button below for more Faith Focus information. You can find the monthly virtue, Saints of the month, and service projects.

2023-2024 Tuition

Tuition invoices are due on Friday, April 28. Late fees will be assessed to all invoices not paid, including any tuition loans that began the process this week. Late fees are $100 per week. Please pay your tuition invoice.

NJHS Service Project

The National Junior Honor Society wants to make sure that all children have healthy meals available so that they can grow and learn. They will be organizing donations and putting together shelf-stable lunches for Kids Meals Inc, an organization that works to provide free meals to children in Harris County.

Please help us provide lunches by donating items from the list below.

Pre-K and Kinder: an item from the fruit list; 

1st, 2nd, & 7th: an item from the snacks list; 

3rd & 4th: an item from the drinks list; 

5th, 6th, & 8th: an item from the protein list

Year End Balances

The end of the year is just around the corner. Get on top of your fees. Please pay any of your outstanding balances. Please make sure you do not owe anything to ECI for school lunches, the Library for library fines, athletics, etc. Please put your family number on any checks or payment envelopes.

Coin Clash - This Week

After our first day of Coin Clash, here are the leaders by grouping: 

- Current leader of Lower Elementary (grades Pre-K to 2nd) is Mrs. Weido with $6.46

- Current leader of Upper Elementary (grades 3-5) is Mrs. Schoppe with $7.19

- Current leader of Middle School is Mrs. Drewes with $21.18

- Our overall leader is Mrs. Drewes! 

Today we raised $481.51. Thank you to all who contributed! Let's keep up the momentum for the rest of the week! Remember to bring your pennies and dollars as positive money to support your homeroom then bring silver coins in to clash other homerooms in the school. 

Outstanding Art Work

Congratulations to the following StJPII Art Students who have placed in our school

sponsored “GO TEXAN ART SHOW” with a “Texas and Southwestern Theme.” Note: The middle school students in 7th & 8th grades were runners-up for our Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Student Art Contest held this past January.

8th Grade - First Place Blue - Erica Beyer and Ashleigh Alexander, Second Place Red - Laura Lozano,

Third Place White - Stephanie Rennie, Honorable Mention - Letizia Farias

7th Grade - First Place Blue - Roselynne DaSilva and Huntley Cook, Second Place Red - Eleanor

Freeborg, Third Place White - Josette Brochu, Honorable Mention - Amelie Mendez

5th Grade - First Place Blue - Ariane Arellano, Henry Forkner and Farah Yaqubi, Second Place Red -

Tomas Bello amd Bridget Bramanti, Third Place White - Kaden Gomez & Henry Fievet

4th Grade - First Place Blue - Giana Dailey and Scarlet Hajati-Garcia, Second Place Red - Juliana

Gonzales and Harry Rodgers, Third Place White - Evelyn Freeborg and Celeste Fugman, Honorable

Mention - Ashley Tran

3rd Grade - First Place Blue - Jessica Nguyen and Julieta Samara, Second Place Red - Alessandra

Khayat and Timothy Hoang, Third Place White – Anna Pepe, Honorable Mention - Mary Wakefield

2nd Grade - First Place Blue - Samuel Moore and Paxton Nguyen, Second Place Red - Christopher

Bartolo-Martinez, Third Place White - Angelica Waligura, Honorable Mention - Andrew Miller

1st Grade - First Place Blue - Jefferson Nguyen and David Perez, Second Place Red - Mary Kate

Beltrami, Third Place White - Christiana Michael, Honorable Mention - Camilla Leibold

*All student artwork will be on display with student ribbons on the first floor between the

computer labs near the Library for 2 weeks – then will be sent home with students.

Congratulations to our wonderful creative St. John Paul II Artists!

Band Sweepstakes Award

The StJPII Band participated in the 12th annual Houston Symphonic Band Concert and Sight Reading Concert and received straight first-division ratings. The band prepared three selections, then a piece of band music that they had never seen was given to them. The band director, Mr. Griffin, was given only 8 minutes to discuss the music with the band before they had to perform that piece.

The band was awarded a Sweepstakes Award for their first-division ranking in both Concert and Sight Reading. This is the 12th year in a row that the StJPII band has received the Sweepstakes Award.

Chorale Superior Ratings

Last week the Chorale attended the Houston Symphonic Band and Choir Contest. The girls sang three pieces, including one in Latin and another written by the famous author of Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson.

The girls earned straight Superior Ratings from all three judges. Because they consistently won Superior ratings, they brought home another trophy to St. John Paul II! This is the 10th consecutive win for StJPII Chorale at this contest and the 8th consecutive win for the Chorale under the direction of Mrs. Hughes.

Middle School Dance

The Student Council would like to invite the Middle School students to a "Late Nite Luau," Saturday, May 6th. Click on the button below to download the registration form.



*The last day to register is this Friday, 4/28!!

High School T-shirt Day - Class of 2023

8th Graders should wear a t-shirt or sweatshirt representing their chosen high school with uniform bottoms TOMORROW, Wednesday, April 26. 

8th Grade: High School Selection, Scholarships and Ceremony RSVP

We are eagerly anticipating the Class of 2023 Graduation Ceremony. If you haven't already done so, please help us prepare by providing some details by clicking the button below. You will be asked to enter where your graduate will attend high school, if s/he received any scholarships, and RSVP for the Mass and Ceremony. Thus far only about 60% of the class has responded - your attention is appreciated so we can continue planning for the big day!

Fun in the Sun-Friday, May 19th

Fun in the Sun is our school PTO’s BIGGEST volunteer event. We need MANY volunteers in the weeks leading up to and on the day of the event. Make sure your volunteer status is secure and click on the button below to volunteer.

*If your child has allergies and cannot have snowcones, cupcakes, popcorn or participate in cookie decorating, please contact their homeroom teacher.

Registration

Fun in the Sun registration is open until April 30th. Don’t delay! Click the ‘Fun In the Sun’ button

below to register and be sure to purchase a lunch during registration. The cafeteria will be

closed during Fun in the Sun, so your child will need to purchase a Chick-fil-A lunch (online) or

bring one from home.

What is a Lucky Ticket Basket?

Lucky Ticket Baskets are special baskets FILLED with the most popular items your kids want

right now! Examples include: Fidget basket, iPad mini basket, Typhoon Texas basket, Nerf gun

basket, candy basket and more! During FITS day, the kids have the opportunity to drop tickets

into a drawing for each basket (multiple entries are welcome). At the end of the day, during the

closing ceremonies, winners will be drawn for each basket (students must be present to win).

Your donation towards the Lucky Ticket Baskets helps us to offset our costs, give even more

back to the school, AND get some incredibly cool baskets for the kids. We request a $10

donation per family - every $10 donation makes a difference! There is an option to donate

available on the Fun in the Sun registration page (include button) or click the yellow button

below to donate to the Lucky Ticket Baskets.

Please donate to Fun in the Sun!

It is not too late to contribute to the largest PTO fundraiser of the year! Your generosity helps

make StJPII a great learning space for your children. Please consider making a donation to FITS

online.

The Birthday Club

We have a few birthday packages left, we also have water bottles for only $10 each and the marquee, don’t forget to celebrate your kid’s special day! June and July birthdays will be delivered on the last week of school. Thanks for supporting the

PTO.

Brick Paver Sale Price – Middle School Students

CALLING ALL CURRENT 5 TH -7 th GRADE PARENTS

Welcome your incoming middle schooler with an engraved brick paver in the St. JPII Garden!

Traditionally we have reserved this honor for graduating 8 th graders; however, they aren’t able to

see or enjoy their brick after graduation. Your middle schooler will enjoy their brick for years to

come! Engravings include the student’s name and graduating year. Personalized brick pavers

will be placed in pathways around the St. JPII campus. Funds from the sale support our garden.

You will receive a photograph when the paver is installed, and your student will be able to see

and enjoy this lasting legacy on campus!



Reduced Pricing for Current and Incoming Middle School Students

4”x8”- 2 lines* $50 per brick (reg. $75)

*16 character maximum per line of engraving

Registration closes May 5th!!

Family STREAM Challenge: Fun with PEEPS

Easter and Peeps go together like peanut butter and jelly, but if you don’t eat Peeps what can you do with them? Try one of this month’s StJPII Family STREAM Challenges! 

STREAM Challenge: Try one or try them all. 

Parachuting Peeps

Catapult a Peep

Easter Symbols using Peeps Playdough

How do you participate in the STREAM Challenge? Click on the button below to go to this month’s challenge. Complete the Peeps challenge(s) and share what you’ve done on social media using the hashtag #StJP2STREAM Or send your picture or video to communications@jp2.org for us to share on StJPII social media. 

Questions? Email Dr. Hiltbrand at sehiltbrand@jp2.org  

Congratulations to the Varsity Baseball team!

Middle School Athletics

Our Varsity Baseball team are the GHCAA Diocesan Champions! The boys defeated St. Rose of Lima and St. Anthony of Padua in the playoffs to earn their spot in the Championship game against St. Vincent de Paul. We started off strong and never looked back, continuing their determination to bring home a Championship! The crowd was AMAZING and the support from our families and faculty was just wonderful. We are so very proud of our SAINTS!!!!

Our Lady Saints Softball team played their best game ever last week in their semi-final game vs St. Rose of Lima. We took an early lead but then St. Rose came back and tied the game 5-5 sending us into extra innings. St. Rose had last up at bat and one hit closed out the game giving our girls a heartbreaking loss by a score of 6-5. We are beyond proud of our girls and Coach Hirsch. 

Track and Field had a great outcome at their Championship Meet as well! The Girls took 3rd place overall, and the boys took 5th!

All in all, we had an incredibly successful year in Athletics and we wish our graduating 8th graders all the very best in their future at their chosen High Schools! We also would like to thank our wonderful coaches and our faculty for their never-ending support & dedication!

Elementary Athletics

Team pictures will be held Thursday, May 4th. Your coaches will send out all the information needed soon.

SUMMER CAMPS!!

Here are just a few camps for you to participate in here on campus ~ Soccer, Volleyball, and Softball, as well as Basketball @ Strake Jesuit and Football @ STH! 

Banquet Dinner Reminder

Mark your calendars, our Middle School Athletic Banquet will be held Tuesday, May 2nd at 6:00 pm in the GSC! The banquet is an evening dedicated to acknowledging our athletes that participated in a Middle School sport, their coaches, and their success throughout their past year of playing their favorite sport(s). Dinner will be catered by George's Pastaria. If you wish to purchase dinner tickets, please use the link below. You MUST purchase your individual dinner tickets no later than Thursday 4/27 as you cannot pay at the door! You do not have to purchase a meal to attend the banquet. Also, please remember this is for parents and athletes only, no siblings are allowed. Athletes must be accomanied by a parent to attend. Dress attire is school-appropriate, jeans are allowed, (no ripped jeans) and no athletic shorts please! 

Click the button below if you would like to purchase dinner.

Share Your Spring Sports Photos

We love to see your photos of our saints in action! If you get a great shot at any spring sports function, practice or game, please share with StJPII! Your photo(s) may be featured on social media or in The Spirit yearbook. Please upload them directly using the button below. All grade-level sports pictures are needed and appreciated.