Ashtabula’s St. John School of today is the culmination of a long tradition of Catholic education in the Ashtabula Harbor, beginning as far back as the mid-1800s.
The oldest school in Ashtabula was Saint Joseph’s elementary school, opening in 1865 and staffed by Sisters of Saint Joseph and Sisters of Charity from Cincinnati until 1897, when the Humility of Mary sisters came to the school. Due to the consistent population growth of the area, Catholics in Ashtabula petitioned for a new parish—Mother of Sorrows—and with it, a new parish school.
In 1952, the Diocese of Youngstown determined a Catholic high school was needed in the area and purchased a building on June 24 of that year, on the feast of Saint John the Baptist. It opened the following year, in September 1953, but was destroyed by a fire just a few months later. Despite the setback, the school still held classes in the nearby St. Joseph School and the Pacific School annex. Just under a year after the destruction of the original building, the new school reopened in September 1954, bringing all the students back under one roof.
Holy Humility of Mary Sister Visitation was the first principal. Diocesan priests and Humility of Mary Sisters both left their mark on the academic and religious life of the school throughout the years.
In 1989—due to population decline in the city and the resulting decline in enrollment in area Catholic schools—the parish schools at St. Joseph, Mother of Sorrows and Mount Carmel were consolidated into Ashtabula Catholic Elementary School.
In 1992, the Diocese of Youngstown made the decision to close Saint John High School due to low enrollment. However, the community’s parents, teachers and alumni banded together to keep the school open. They were able to raise enough money to retire the school’s debt, and the diocese agreed to sell the school building and its contents to the supporters for just $100. The school reopened as an independent Catholic high school for the 1992 academic year, under the governance of a board of directors.
The K-12 school of today was formally established in 1997, when all the Catholic schools of the area were consolidated into Saint John Catholic School and brought back under the leadership of the Diocese. Grades K to 6 were housed at Mount Carmel parish, and 7 to 12 were housed at the Saint John Building on Station Avenue.
While the school was able to remain open, it continued to face enrollment challenges due to the cost of tuition and population decline—in 2012, there were only 225 total students enrolled. To counter this decline, a group of alumni and community members approached the board to purchase the recently closed Saybrook Public School and bring the entire school under one roof. The board and diocese both approved the move, and the new location received major renovations, with a new cafeteria, kitchen, science labs and much more. More than 200 community volunteers pitched in to complete the renovations and launch the new combined school.
The risk paid off—in the 13 years since the new building opened, total enrollment has nearly tripled, from 225 students to 637. Sister of Notre Dame Maureen Burke, who became Saint John School president in 2010, credits the enrollment boom to the increased awareness the unification brought.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to get people thinking about being in a Catholic school from K-12.’ The grade school had a higher enrollment—people were willing to do K-6 but often left after sixth grade. So we took the leap of faith,” Sister Maureen said. “I think people were always fearful the school was going to close—that was always kind of in the back of their mind. With the growth and the expansion, we don’t get that question anymore. Certainly the positivity and the facilities have [really] helped.”
School Life
Today, Saint John Catholic School seeks to produce young men and women who are not only academically talented but are spiritual leaders as well.
“We believe that our mission is to develop scholarship, deepen faith and inspire leadership, and we’ve tried to be very purposeful about that,” Sister Maureen said.
She also credited the school’s principal and assistant principal—Scott Plescia and Millicent Zullo, respectively—as being instrumental in maintaining a top-notch educational program, allowing the role of president to focus on the school’s mission, spiritual development, alumni relations and fundraising.
To develop the holistic educational approach desired at Saint John, the school decided to become a “Leader in Me” school—an increasingly popular PK-12 framework based on Stephen Covey’s famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which “nurtures student leadership, fosters a culture of trust and boosts academic success.”
“We’re very purposeful about teaching those [principles], incorporating them into academics, clubs and athletics,” Sister Maureen said. “We try to reinforce on the students that they are not leaders of tomorrow—they’re leaders today.”
While most Leader in Me schools are secular, Saint John also strives to develop students who will be spiritual leaders throughout their lives. “It’s about educating mind, heart and soul, and you can’t do any one of them without doing the others,” she said.
Additionally, thanks to a larger enrollment, the school can offer more advanced classes, such as honors and AP classes, alongside standard curriculum—something that would have been impossible with fewer students, teachers and classrooms. By focusing on scholarship, Saint John has become a bigger part of the community of Ashtabula, bringing in students who have not yet been catechized. The students, Sister Maureen says, have truly adopted the mission of Saint John School as their own.
“I think they’ve taken up that ‘charge of the light brigade’ to do that. They recognize that they are part of something unique,” she said. “They’re our best recruiters—they go out and tell their friends in public school, ‘You need to come here.’ They know what type of students are Saint John students, and they want to attract more of that here. I think they believe in their leadership role, they believe they have a voice, they believe they can recruit students. They know what a Herald is. They know our core values.”
Sister Maureen concluded, “Catholic education is about making the mission a lived mission by the students and by their families.”
By the Numbers:
Total Students: 637
Pre-K: 23
K-6 Enrollment: 343
Grades 7-8 Enrollment: 99
Grades 9-12 Enrollment: 172
Student/Teacher Ratio: 13-1
Graduation Rate (2022 to 2024): 100%
Average College/University Placement (2022 to 2024): 65%
Scholarship Dollars Awarded (2024): $2,500,000
Average ACT score (2022 to 2024): 19.7
Extracurriculars: Young Philanthropy Board, Key Club, Debate Club, Home Economics Club, National Honor Society, Class Retreats, Praise Band, STEM Club
Athletics: Baseball, Softball, Boys & Girls Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Football, Tennis, Volleyball,
Wrestling, Gymnastics, Bowling, Cheerleading
Visit www.sjheralds.org
