Brick by Brick

Ever Been to a CD Release Party?

Friends of JPII Tripping Lily will release their first full-length CD at the school this Saturday, August 15 at 7:30 PM.

Should be a lot of fun...

Come Sing about Love!

Last night's opening of Godspell was awesome...Friends of JPII or just good theatre -- You must see this show!

Two shows left: Tonight at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 3:00 PM. Come and see the great things happening at JPII!

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

Took a little vacation from regular postings about the progress of our school -- but as you might imagine -- there's been no vacation from the literal and figurative construction of our growing school. Thanks for checking back!

Much has happened this summer to move our school forward. For example:

• A very successful Relay for Life effort (over $1500 raised!)
• A wonderful mini-production of The Music Man for over 250 guests at New Seabury Country Club
• Our 'welcome back/ meet the new teachers' barbeque for over 150 people
• The singing our our national anthem for a Cape League/ Hyannis Mets game at McKeon Park (Liz Rossi and Greta Bieg, pictured above)

And of course, there's the large-scale, literal construction taking place creating our chemistry lab, resurfacing exterior walls, and establishing the strength and fitness center/ locker room complex.

See you soon...

Growth and Growing Pains: 'It's A Wonderful Life' [12-10-07]

This past weekend, another first: It's a Wonderful Life, a joint production featuring nine JPII students, met with real success. In established schools, freshmen are not often given significant responsibility in drama productions -- mostly, frosh receive general chorus parts and are told to watch and learn. Not so in this case: JPII students, most of whom had little or no prior theatre experience, had some heavy lifting. And they did great.

It's a hard and necessary lesson for young people to learn what it really takes to be successful and what real effort is all about. Our young students and even families chafed under the demands of a full production schedule. Coming into final dress rehearsal, the show's overall success was by no means assured. These are the growing pains. A terrific final result, on consecutive evenings following the Hyannis Stroll, is the growth. I'm proud of our thespians for rising to the challenge.

My name is Chris Keavy and I am the Principal/ Head of School of Pope John Paul II High School. Welcome to Brick by Brick, a new blog sharing news and perspective from Cape Cod's new and only Catholic high school. So many across Cape Cod have been following our story with interest that I welcome the chance to give a glimpse of our growth, challenges, and accomplishments. Your responses, suggested topics, and questions are most welcome.

Today is day #65 in the life of our school, having opened for our first classes on September 4, 2007. Much has been accomplished getting us to this point. So much more is still to come. Go Lions!