St. James 26-27 Academic Calendar - Printable Version

Dear St. James School Community,

I hope this message finds you well. Although I am currently eighteen time zones ahead of you on vacation in New Zealand, I want to share some exciting news with you.

Christine Laventis has accepted my offer to serve as Principal of St. James School for the 2026-27 school year. Her appointment will officially begin on July 1, 2026. Christine graduated from Xavier University with a degree in early childhood education and a minor in Spanish. She earned her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Boston College and is currently working toward her Doctorate in K-12 Education Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University, with expected completion in May 2026.

Since 2021, Christine has served as Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Specialist in the Archdiocese of Louisville Office of Catholic Schools. Through this role, she has worked closely with many of our schools, including spending considerable time at St. James, especially over the past year. Her experience supporting principals, teachers, and school communities across the archdiocese will be a great gift to our parish and school.

Prior to joining the Office of Catholic Schools, Christine taught first grade in an urban elementary school in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Christine will be supported in her transition through mentorship from an experienced archdiocesan principal and continued collaboration with our current interim leadership, whose care and dedication have guided the school during this time of transition.

I am confident that Christine’s strengths in curriculum and instruction will help St. James continue to strengthen academic excellence while nurturing students in a faith-filled and supportive Catholic community. Her experience working alongside school leaders and faculties will serve our teachers and students well.

There will be several opportunities for you to meet or hear from Christine before she officially begins her role as principal, including a video introduction at the Blue Jay Bash in March, our major annual fundraiser for the school. I am excited for our Legacy donors to meet and get to know her.

I always like to remind everyone that our school is a parish ministry. The children who come to our school are our responsibility and our honor, as we help them become good citizens and disciples. God calls each of us to help future generations build on the work we have done for the kingdom of God.

I am happy and honored to welcome Christine Laventis to our parish, our staff, and our school.

Father Gary Padgett

BIG NEWS!

St. James School Louisville is making headlines! Introducing our brand-new media production lab, where future broadcasters are born!  What kind of amazing content will our students create this year?  Check out the video link from WDRB news below!

 Student television studio forges future broadcasters at Louisville school | Education | wdrb.com

https://www.wdrb.com/news/education/student-television-studio-forges-future-broadcasters-at-louisville-school/article_3d096562-857a-4e91-8dc0-d5a1fe87f987.html

Congratulations to 2022 St. James Grad and Presentation Academy student, Zoe Eme on being accepted into the Kentucky Governor's Scholars Program! We are proud of her accomplishment and wish her a great summer!

And the winner is???  You decide!!!!

https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2024/05/28/class-field-trip-american-saddlebred-saint-james-catholic

Link to WAVE 3 Video 

WLKY visited St. James and teacher, Michael Meredith on April 14th, 2024, and featured his personal finance course taught to our middle schoolers at St. James, on their evening broadcast.  We are proud of the work Mr. Meredith, providing St. James's students with life skills for their future! 

Check out the video and article from WLKY!

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

Personal finance isn't a strong suit for some people, but Michael Meredith is hoping to ensure that none of his students struggle with money in the future.

The first-year teacher at St. James Catholic School has started a personal finance course for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. 

"In my opinion, the earlier I can teach these concepts to the kids, and they can start to think about it, the better off they will be set up for success down the road," said Meredith.

The course is taught through the Dave Ramsey curriculum. It covers topics like taxes, building a budget, how to create an emergency fund, how to save for college, and even how to minimize your chances of going into debt.

"They really find it interesting when we talk about investing in stocks and especially when they're learning it for the first time; that's super fun. But I had to pull them along when we were learning about taxes, but I was like, 'Hey, you're going to have to pay them every year,'" said Meredith.

Although the concepts may seem foreign to 12- and 13-year old's, the 8th grade students in Meredith's class said he's made the concepts easy to understand.

"I think at our age we can understand it pretty thoroughly. It's not very difficult if you have a really good teacher, which we have," said 8th grader Ryder Wall. "I really like the budgeting, because it's made me think about my job when I grow up and my whole life path."

"This class has been pretty interesting. I really like watching all the videos and sometimes doing real-world scenarios," said 8th grader Lilly Rassi. "I've learned how to budget, and I've learned how to do taxes. We had to write a opinion paper on taxes, and I'm just really happy to know that."

Meredith said he's just happy to be providing a useful course for students.

"The reality is when we join the workforce here in America, we have to understand how the financial system operates. So, I think that it's been severely undertaught up to this point, and I think we owe it to the kids to put this in the forefront of their brains," said Meredith.

Check out our featured Live Auction Item... The Thunder Over Louisville Package.  Experience this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Read more ...

Join us at Bardstown Road Aglow this year on December 2nd, 2023 at St. James Church!  The St. James School Choir will perform, along with the St. James Church choir.  See the schedule below.  Come out and support!

It's a fun evening with wonderful performances.  All to get you in the Christmas spirit. 

Also, check out the Bardstown Road Aglow webpage HERE for other happenings that night!  

Hope to see you there!!!!

Mr. B had the opportunity to sit down with Catholic Education Foundation to share his personal career journey and how he ended up at St. James School and about the mission of the school!  The interview with Mr. B begins at 19:16. 

As always, thank you to CEF for the ongoing support of St. James School!

Our Maintenance Manager, John Allison, will retire this Tuesday, September 5 after nearly 25 years of service to St. James and St. Brigid parishes.

From Father Gary's Column:

He began in February 1999 as the maintenance person for St. James, caring for the school and the grounds. About a year later, Fr. Goetz asked him to take additional responsibilities at St. Brigid. Many of you know that John lives three doors up from St. James and has been a longtime member of the parish as well as the neighborhood.

John has long understood and managed the boilers in both of our parishes. He knows the intricacies of the air conditioning and the heating at both places. He has maintained the church bells at both parishes. Over the decades, his presence on the staff has saved the parishes enormous amounts in maintenance and repair costs, and he has a reputation for unbelievably prompt attention to most situations.

In my nine years here, I have witnessed his coming over to St. Brigid at 3 am when the garage caught fire and at 5 am when a brick was thrown through the office window, setting off the burglar alarm. When St. James was vandalized a few years ago, he was the one who first noticed, called the police, and arranged with Catholic Mutual to get a restoration company on site about six hours later. Because of his prompt attention, we did not have to cancel a pending wedding and weekend Masses.

John knows about all the “hidden crawl spaces” on both campuses, particularly above the beautiful dome in St. James. He is the one who has climbed to the ceiling and changed the lights in both churches, again saving us substantial amounts of money and waiting. Once while on vacation, he took an urgent call from Pip, and while driving somewhere in Arkansas, gave him live instructions for fixing a faulty air conditioning switch, which kept our church bearable for another wedding.

John is retiring but he will still be around and available, at his discretion, for occasional tasks or consultation. St. Brigid and St. James are known for their unparalleled beauty, and we have greatly benefited from his loving concern for these parishes. I hope you will join me in wishing him a joyful retirement and in thanking him for decades of service to our parishes.