www.sjn1964.com - Official website of . . .
Class of 1964
St. John Nepomuk's
SJN Update
Remember those great year-end school carnivals held on the school playground. Well, after being absent for quite a few years, this tradition was started up again in the late 1980's by a group of parents (in our age group) who remembered how much fun they were and how much we looked forward to them. The carnival was again a part of our school's year-end festivities through the end of the 2006-2007 school year.
In 2009, SJN parish began leasing our school facilities to the Racine Head Start Program.
As of 2010, St. John Nepomuk parish had about 380 families registered. That compares to over 900 families when we were attending school in the 1960's. Currently, parish membership is less than 200 families. Our class museum webpage has some pictures of the inside of our church and school.
St. John Nepomuk Parish was assigned a parish director Jan Ruidl in 2008 and was provided an assisting priest Fr. Donald Zerkel for our Masses each week and to administer the sacraments to our parishioners. Currently, Fr. Steve from St. Joseph nearby serves as the pastor for both St. John Nepomuk and St. Joseph parishes.
In the spring of 2004, a group of school parents took a day off work and installed the new playground equipment for the students. It is located between the school and the parish center (formerly where the convent was). The equipment (below) was donated by one of our graduating class alumni with the help of a matching gifts program. Yes, the turtle was painted to match this new playground equipment.
In 2006, St. John Nepomuk school celebrated 100 years of providing a quality Catholic education. The student enrollment for the 2006-2007 school year was at 121. During our era at SJN in the 1960's, enrollment peaked at about 770 students.
In the fall of 2007, and for the first time in 100 years, St. John Nepomuk Parish did not have thier on-site school facilities utilized for their parish school. St. John's and Sacred Heart parishes agreed to merge their schools as a result of our parishes facing increased deficits and declining enrollments. It was agreed to combine the schools into one school serving both parishes. The new school was named John Paul II Academy. The new school colors are black and red. The new nickname for their sports teams is the "cardinals". This is a seperate legal entity supported by both parish memberships. Both parishes will use this new entity as their parish school going forward.
The faculty from each existing school was combined to staff the new school. The principals were already serving both schools as was the music teacher. The former Sacred Heart school campus is now being utilized for the classrooms as the building is newer and has a gymnasium.
Although it's hard to see our classrooms no longer being used for our parish school, this certainly is better than the alternative of having to close our school and go forward with no parish school. This plan offered a great future for both parishes as we can continue to provide one of the best quality Catholic educations for our children that the city of Racine has to offer.
The school building is scheduled to be sold to the Head Start Program in the fall of 2022. Although we will no longer have access to the facility, we will always have the many fond memories of our grade school years inside that building.
