Life at JPII: The Halls are Quiet

The halls of Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy, affectionately nicknamed JPII, have sat without the thrum of student activity for nearly two months, now. While the staff is used to silent summers, there's just something about a still school in May that is just...sad.

Teachers and faculty here were whirled up into the cyclone of virtual learning in March and this was new, exciting and, for many of the teachers here, heartbreaking. While the women here who work the front lines spreading the gift of education to our student body have risen to the challenge: learning new platforms, dashing to make home classrooms and frantically running copies -- the one piece that was missing from their lesson plans was the final goodbye. The final hug. The final clearing of desks and shutting the door on a classroom that held so many laughs and challenges throughout the school year. It was over before they knew it. 

Luckily, we have employees who dig deep for Christ's love and while they may have to discretely wipe a tear or two during a Zoom meetings, they have shown up for their students in a new way, but with just as much passion and caring. 

There have been yard signs hand-delivered by Miss Stacey Schraub to the lawns of students that declares, "My teacher misses me!" Our principal, Mister Michael Muhs, has personally called each student on their birthday to ensure they get the same "star treatment" they would at the academy. Several of our other teachers have taken to recording themselves reading books to the students, trying to ensure as much "normalcy" as they can in the children's routines. 

But, it's not easy. 

Just yesterday, preschool teacher, Mrs. Kricket Uecke, said, "It's hard. I cry so much, but when I feel that lump in my throat when talking to the kids, I just take a deep breath and be there for them."

So, while teachers pack up lockers and wipe down desks for the last time, they can know in their hearts that while they aren't teaching inside the usual four-walled classroom -- they are teaching these kids more than they may have ever done before. A lesson on change and love that some students have ever experienced before. 

For this, we say, "thank you. "