St. John's students get head start

BY BILL DOYLE | CFP CORRESPONDENT

SHREWSBURY – Eighth-grader Colin McCarthy had planned to attend St. John’s High School, but he’s glad the school opened a middle school two years ago because it gave him a head start.
“It’s good because it gives me a little insight into what the high school will be like,” the Worcester resident said, “and how to get used to what being a St. John’s Pioneer is. It gives you a kind of early welcome going into high school and it helps you to make new friends. So when you’re going into high school, you’re not just the new kid, you know some people there.”
The Brother Robert Treanor, CFX, Middle School Division of St. John’s opened for the 2020-21 school year. Brother Treanor was the first headmaster at St. John’s, which will celebrate its 125th anniversary next year.
Another way Colin gets to know more about St. John’s is by belonging to the middle school’s newspaper club. The students in the club named the newspaper, “Pioneer Press.”
“A lot of people from the St. John’s community,” Colin said, “are able to read it and able to know what’s going on in the world or what’s new with the St. John’s campus.”
Colin wrote a story for the November edition about the Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots, and included an item about Aaron Judge of the Yankees breaking the American League home run record.
The newspaper club, consisting of three seventh-graders and three eighth-graders, meets after school on Mondays and publishes a digital edition each month from November through May.
“It’s pretty phenomenal what they’re able to produce,” St. John’s headmaster Alex Zequeira said, “and they’ve done a great job of mixing both reporting on the news of the school and also reporting on what’s happening in the world. I’m very, very proud of that.”
Lauren Favulli teaches eighth-grade English and advises the newspaper club. Each middle school teacher is required to oversee two after-school activities each week. Mrs. Favulli also helps out in the library.
Mrs. Favulli came to the middle school after teaching seventh- and eighth-grade English at St. Mary School in Shrewsbury. Her husband, Steve Favulli, is the director of the Gregory Academic Center at St. John’s.
“My friends went here,” she said. “Everybody knows St. John’s. I was working at a Catholic school that had that awesome tight-knit community. I knew St. John’s was an extension of that so I wanted in.”
In the summer of 2017, the St. John’s board of trustees began exploring the possibility of opening a middle school. Even though the middle school debuted in the fall of 2020 during the pandemic when desks were wiped down between classes, it was an immediate success.
In the first year the school had planned to open only a seventh grade with 60 boys, but ended up enrolling 70 boys in the seventh grade and 24 in the eighth grade because some parents wanted to make sure their children would be prepared during the pandemic to enter ninth grade at St. John’s.
The 2021-22 school year was the first that St. John’s was fully enrolled with 69 in the seventh grade and 84 in the eighth for a total of 153. This school year, there are 70 in the seventh and 80 in the eighth for a total of 150. Mr. Zequiera said 90 percent of the eighth-graders last year went on to attend ninth grade at the school this year.
St. John’s has about 200 boys in each of the grades 9-12 and a total of 943 for grades 7-12, Mr. Zequiera said.
Mr. Zequiera said St. John’s could add more middle school students, but has already surpassed its business model of 120.
“The program has exceeded our expectations,” he said, “and I get the sense based on interest this year that it will continue to grow. Could we add more students? Yes. But I think right now we’re at a great size. It’s an opportunity for the students to be in an environment where they’re known and the teachers can work with them as individuals while also developing community.”
The north side of Conal Hall underwent a $1.4 million renovation to build middle school classrooms. Middle school students also have access to St. John’s state-of-the-art high school campus, including labs, gym and athletic fields.

 Reporting the NEws

In the four-page November edition of “Pioneer Press,” John Mihopoulos, an eighth-grader from Worcester, recapped the progress of the middle school fall sports teams and intramurals, and Emerson Borgeson, a seventh-grader from Charlton, drew a four-panel Iron Man comic strip.
The middle school has more students than the Shrewsbury Montessori School that John attended two years ago, but it’s not too big.

JUST SMALL ENOUGH

“It’s just small enough where I can know everybody’s first and last names, which is nice,” John said.
Leo Zamarro, a seventh-grader from Worcester, interviewed Warren Hayden, director of alumni and family engagement, for his story about the Pioneer Drive, the annual fundraiser for student financial aid. Leo’s brother, Tony, is an eighth-grader who is also a member of the newspaper club.
Leo left the meeting of the newspaper club on Nov. 7 for a while to interview a student and teacher for profiles he planned to write for the December edition.
“I love interviewing people,” Leo said. “It lets me get to know more people and I can make up the questions.”
Middle school students also have the opportunity to take part in interscholastic athletics and intramural sports. Each fall, there are two soccer teams and a cross-country team. Each winter, there are two basketball teams, two hockey teams and a wrestling team. Each spring, there is baseball, lacrosse and track and field. There are no cuts in cross-country, wrestling and track and field.
There are also clubs for robotics, debate, chess, ping pong, tennis and weight lifting.
Sean Dillon, assistant principal for the middle school, was hired a year before the middle school opened and he spent that time developing the curriculum, hiring teachers and recruiting students.
“All of that work that was done leading up to the opening of the division, I thought set us up for success,” Mr. Zequeira said, “and I’m thrilled and we’re very blessed that it’s been as successful as it’s been.”
Mr. Zequeira said that some parents have wondered when St. John’s will add a grammar school, but he said grades 7-12 work best.