| Pope John Paul II High School | |
|---|---|
| The campus of Pope John Paul II High School
Fides et Sapientia
Faith and Wisdom
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| Address | |
| 117 Caldwell Drive Hendersonville, Tennessee, (Sumner County), 37075 United States |
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| Information | |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Established | 2002 |
| Oversight | Diocese of Nashville |
| Headmaster | Faustin N. Weber |
| Faculty | 78 |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Student to teacher ratio | 13:1 |
| Team name | Knights |
| Accreditation(s) | Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [1] |
| Dean of Studies | Karen Phillips |
| Dean of Students | Mike McLaren |
| Admissions and Advancement Director | Pat Weaver |
| Athletic Director | Rocky Zazzaro |
| Director of Finance and Operations | Laura Thigpen |
| Website | http://www.jp2hs.org |
Pope John Paul II High School is a coeducational Catholic high school in Hendersonville, Tennessee just north of Nashville. It is administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville.
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Pope John Paul II High School was founded in 2002 by Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, now the bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo. The majority of the school's population resides in the Sumner County area, but there is a strong regional draw, with the current student body hailing from ten separate counties, some from as far away as Clarksville and Bowling Green. Hans Broekman was the school's first headmaster, serving the school from its inception to 2008. Faustin N. Weber was named to succeed him in the summer of 2008.
The school enrolls approximately 600 students per year in grades 9-12.
Pope John Paul II High School is a highly regarded program in the Nashville area. It is particularly known for:
a) its fine arts program, with four distinct tracts in choral music, instrumental music, dramatic arts, and visual arts. Students are required to take 3 years of Fine Arts. In the last two years, 33 members of its choral program have been named on the all state choirs;
b) its Advanced Placement program, with classes in Art History, Calculus AB and BC, Chemistry, Studio Art Drawing and Painting, Art 2D, and Art 3D, English Literature and Composition, United States Government and Politics Comparative Government and Politics, Environmental Science, Macroeconomics, Biology, Statistics, and Photography. From 2008-2011, JPII students have earned over 300 A.P. Scholar Awards for their strong performance on three or more A.P tests, including 92 Awards in 2011.
c) its comprehensive academic program. The school requires 32 credits for graduation, with 4 years of Math, Science, English, History and Theology, and 3 years of Fine Arts and Foreign Language (in Spanish, French or Latin) as its core program. The school has both advanced/AP tracks and college preparatory tracks and offers its students tutoring either before or after school.
Pope John Paul II's Administrative Council is composed of a Headmaster, Dean of Studies, Director of Finance and Operations, Dean of Students, Athletic Director, and Director of Admissions and Development. It employs 78 faculty and staff, with a full time school nurse and two full-time college counselors. The student/teacher ratio is 13 to 1.
The fine arts program is considered among the state's best, headlined by its choral program, run by JJ Ebelhar. The 140+ students involved in the choral program are divided into five "tiers" of choirs: Beginning Men, Beginning Women, Advanced Men, Advanced Women and Chamber. In state competitions, the choral program routinely places 15-18 kids on the all state team and the Chamber choir receives "superior" ratings. The instrumental music program features a "Jazz Ensemble" program in addition to string, guitar and percussion classes. The theater program produces two comprehensive productions in the fall and spring, with a third student-run production in the late spring. The art program features tracks in either three dimensional or two dimensional work, including photography. All students at JPII take a minimum of three years of classes in one of these four areas.
JPII competes at the Division II level (large school, private) in the Tennessee High School Athletic Association. It offers teams in football, volleyball, cross-country, competitive cheer-leading, golf, ice hockey, basketball, wrestling, basketball cheer-leading, lacrosse, baseball, softball, bowling, swimming, tennis, soccer and track.
In its short history, JPII has won six state championships: twice in Hockey (2007, 2008), Men's Bowling (2008), twice in Lacrosse (2009, 2011) and Girls' soccer (2005).
When the school was built, Bishop Kmiec requested an artifact of Pope John Paul II to connect the students tangibly to the life of the school's namesake. The Vatican gave the school JPII's ski jacket, which he often wore on clandestine trips to the Alps while on vacation. In the spring of 2010, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Pope's death, the school unveiled a permanent display of the jacket in its hallways , including a photograph of the pope wearing the jacket. Faustin Weber, headmaster, said the jacket "represents [the Pope's] active lifestyle and his love of nature." The jacket would "become a second-class relic should the pope be canonized a saint," per the report.[2]
The school hosted a museum exhibit in the spring of 2010 entitled "Ink and Blood, " which traced the history of the written word through the many translations of the Bible, including ancient cuneiform tablets, Torah scrolls, fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a text from the gospel of John dating to the 3rd century, Latin manuscripts and leaflets from the Gutenberg press.
JPII was the site of the filming for Taylor Swift's music video "You Belong With Me". It was filmed in the football stadium and gym, using JPII football players, band members, cheerleaders and members of the senior class for the final prom scene. The "fans" in the stadium were students from the school. The high school's prom was the following night. They used the prom set exactly as it was set up for the music video.The video was voted Female Video of the Year by MTV in 2009. Swift chose JPII for the video because it's in her hometown of Hendersonville, TN and because her brother attended JPII at the time.
Golden Tate, class of 2007 is the young school's most notable alum. He is currently a wide receiver for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, having earned All American honors at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also named winner of the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation's top receiver in 2009.
In 2009 the school began the "John Paul II Distinguished Lecturer" series. In 2009, the lecturer was George Weigel, who wrote the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II, entitled "Witness to Hope" and in 2010, the lecturer was recently elected governor, Bill Haslam.
The 2005 girl's soccer team, coached by Dean of Students Mike McLaren, finished undefeated and was named by USA Today as the #1 team in the country at season's end.