School’s out!

Yesterday (May 23) was the last day of school for students in St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools. As always, the last month of school has been a busy one for our staff and students.

Today, East St. John High School’s Class of 2017 will receive its diplomas, while West St. John High School’s graduating class celebrated its big day last weekend.

More than 300 young men and women have successfully passed through our halls and are headed out into the world.

The Class of 2017 from the St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District earned more than $6.5 million in scholarship offers this year. Congratulations and best of luck to all of our graduates wherever your next step may take you!

Students in grades 1 through 12 who maintained honor roll status for the first three nine weeks got a treat last week when they were able to attend the Honor Roll Roundup.

The roundup is an afternoon of fun to reward students for their hard work in maintaining their grades.

This event would not have been possible without a whole lot of help from the community. Thank you for working “As One” to reward these students. This year, we had 528 students who maintained As and Bs and qualified to attend.

Our arts programs continued to blossom, with two firsts to wrap up the school year.

Our Talented Theatre students presented their first spring recital, performing scenes from “Cinderella” and “Annie.”

Our Talented Music students, meanwhile, presented their first musical with “The Lion King Jr.”

Band and choir concerts could be heard throughout the halls and we are proud to say that, through our partnership with the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, all of our schools will have band programs next school year.

Last week, we also held our first Parent Appreciation Day. Each school planned special events to thank parents for the important role they play in the lives of their children and the success of their schools.

Tomorrow, we get to thank our employees during our first districtwide Employee Recognition Event. Our staff members work so hard throughout the year to make sure each child has what he needs to succeed, and we look forward to wrapping up the year with a day just for them.

The rest period is short, however, and work has already begun to get ready for next school year. We hope all of our students have a great summer! Have fun and we’ll see all of you again in August!

Jennifer Boquet is the communications specialist for St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools. Email her at jboquet@stjohn.k12.la.us.