2013-2014 School Year in Review
Now that the 2013-2014 school year has come to a close, The Paper Wolf remembers some of the top stories from the past school year.
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Students Travel to LSL Conference
In late July, eight Saint Paul’s students and three faculty members hopped on a plane and headed to California for a Lasallian Student Leaders (LSL) conference, where students took part in skill sessions and committees while meeting and connecting with Lasallian students and educators from seven states.
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Lasallian Districts Combine to make District of San Francisco New Orleans
St. Paul’s is part of a global education network run by the Brother of the Christian Schools, following the teachings of St. John Baptist de la Salle. The merging of two of the U.S. districts creates a closer connection between Lasallian students from California to Louisiana. The new District of San Francisco New Orleans will combine the District of New Orleans-Santa Fe (which includes schools in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado) and the District of San Francisco (which includes schools in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington).
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SPS Welcomes New Faculty
This year, the St. Paul’s family was blessed with seven new faculty members — including two upgrading from part-time to full-time status.
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Dickens Takes on New Administration Position
With the new school year comes a new structure to the school’s administrative staff. With Coach Dickens as new Curriculum Coordinator, students can look forward to a new uniformity in the classroom.
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Serve Ten Program Sees Changes This Year
St. Paul’s new and improved service hour program will see students more actively participating in service on campus and in the surrounding community.
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Mayor Leads March Through the Arch
Led by SPS alum and Covington Mayor Mike Cooper, 163 seniors followed in the footsteps of their predecessors in the annual March Through the Arch ceremony. In this long-standing tradition, the new seniors march down La Salle Drive through the arch at the entrance of campus as their fellow peers, teachers, and family members stand watch on either side of the drive.
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Eighth Grade Welcomed into St. Paul’s Brotherhood
The new eighth grade students of St. Paul’s School were welcomed into brotherhood during Eighth Grade Orientation, the first Principal’s Assembly, and the Five Core Rally. During these events, the new brothers learned about the importance of the five core principles as well as what it truly means to be a student at St. Paul’s.
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Battle of the Blues: The Rivalry Lives On
A recent chapter in the “Battle of the Blues” rivalry between St. Paul’s and Jesuit occured when the two teams met on the football field on Friday, Sept. 13. The game was close to the the very end, but St. Paul’s finally pulled ahead after a last-second field goal by senior, Grant Hebert.
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Charges Dropped Against Refs Arrested at SPS Football Game
The arrest of two referees during the St. Paul’s/Mandeville football game put SPS in the national spotlight.
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St. Paul’s Homecoming Festivities Conclude
Always one the most highly anticipated events of the year, during Homecoming Week students took part in themed dress down days, the homecoming football game, and of course the homecoming dance.
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Bro. Ray Pleads Leniency for Campus Vandals
Justice was swift for the two vandals who attacked campus earlier in the year. In the spirit of forgiveness, Principal Bro. Raymond Bulliard met with District Attorney, Walter Reed, to reduce the sentences of the two vandals.
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Students Prepare for Shining St. Paul’s Tradition
The favorite SPS tradition of many, St. Paul’s wrapped up 2013 with a tribute to the “Year of Grace” with the annual Luminaria Celebration.
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Eighth Graders Discover What it Means to Be Lasallian
“The retreats are really the main focus here, they have always been. It’s that real life, tangible experience with the older students, some of their teachers, their experience, their testimony with God, and giving that to the eighth graders, getting them used to that whole format we use that will go all the way up to senior retreat,” Brad Marchese, regarding this year’s pre-freshman retreat.
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Cross Country Wins State Championship
When the Cross Country Wolves captured the state title, they exhibited the strength of brotherhood in more ways than one.
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Spanish Club Hosts Dia de Los Muertos
“This is the third year that we have had the Día de los Muertos prayer service, and it seems like every year, we have more and more participation from the students and faculty about honoring their deceased loved ones,” said Liz Brett, Spanish teacher and Spanish Club moderator regarding this year’s celebration.
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What Happens at Senior Retreat…
“I feel now that my heart is still in St. Paul’s, but my mind has graduated,” Senior Michael Brown said. Although what happens at senior retreat is a closely held secret, the lasting effects can be seen by all.
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Justin Addison Remembered
The students and faculty of St. Paul’s School came together for a prayer service in the Briggs Assembly Center to honor and remember the life of Justin Addison. The assembly marked the one year anniversary of Justin’s fatal cycling accident, in which he collided with an oncoming vehicle after running a stop sign.
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AFJROTC Exceeds Standards in Inspection, Saving Program
The SPS AFJROTC program was in danger of disappearing from St. Paul’s when they failed the inspection held last year, but with their hard work and dedication, the program was rescued and earned an “Exceeding Standards” rating, the highest rating.
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Juniors Taken Back to Historic WWII
When the St. Paul’s School junior class visited the National World War II Museum in New Orleans as a field trip for American History class, they learned more than they expected.
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Students Treated to St. Joseph’s Altar
On March 10, St. Paul’s School celebrated its annual St. Joseph Altar. The tradition was brought to SPS by Dr. Ann Kay Logarbo, “vintage mom” and wife of SPS teacher Brian Logarbo, who continues to spearhead the annual project with the help of the SPS Mothers Club.
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Students Advance to State Literary Rally
Over half of the SPS delegates sent to the Southeast Louisiana District Literary Rally placed in the top five of their category, and 16 students qualified to advance to the State Rally.
At the state level, 10 of the 16 participants came home with honors. One major award that was earned by a St. Paul’s student was nearly mistakenly given to another competitor due to a misplaced test by rally officials.
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Brother Jeffery Returns
The sound of more than 850 young men singing “Rise up o Men of God” filled the air at a principal’s assembly on Feb. 18 in the Gene Bennett Sports Complex. Although this song is sung on many occasions at St. Paul’s School, it was extra special in this instance because it was sung to welcome back the 16th Principal of St. Paul’s, Bro. Jeffrey Calligan, FSC, who returned to school community in February.
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SPS Rocks Foreign Language Festival
St. Paul’s sent a delegation of students to compete in the recent Foreign Language Festival held at Southeastern University (SLU) to see who had the best Spanish skills in Louisiana, which resulted in seven awards for SPS in the Spanish division.
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Marian Players Put on 15th Annual Passion Play
The Passion Play, the story of Jesus’ love for us, was performed for the student body on April 16 by Denny Charbonnet’s Theater III class, with music by a variety of faculty members and Marian Players alumni.
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SPS Matheletes Take State for Second Consecutive Year
In April, the St. Paul’s Math Wolves competed in the state Mu Alpha Theta math convention and took first place–for the second year in a row–out of 31 schools in the sweepstakes competition, the equivalent of a state championship in math.
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Golf Sinks District and Makes Run in State
St. Paul’s golf team has long been a strong team in the district and also in the state. This year’s team was looking for a repeat of last year’s state championship. The team swept the district and made an underdog run in the state tournament, but fell one place short of their goal.
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Conroy Passes Gavel to Giberga
As the school year winds down, elections speed up. The time has come for the student council of the 2013-2014 school year to pass the gavel to next year’s student council, beginning with the election of next year’s president, Sam Giberga.
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Skinner Brothers Lead Gymnastics Wolves to Three Peat
The three-year-old St. Paul’s Gymnastics team won the state championship for the third consecutive year on May 2, finishing with 390.5 points, over 150 points more than second place Baton Rouge High, who finished with 233.8 points.
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Lacrosse Finish Strong with Second in State
St. Paul’s lacrosse season came to an end at St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette on Sunday, April 27, when they were defeated by Jesuit High School in the state championship game, ending their season with a 15-4 record.
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SPS Sports Ends Year with Three State Titles
The Sports Program achieved much success in the state rankings this year, with half of the sports teams placing among the top five in the state, three teams (Cross Country, Soccer, and Gymnastics) obtaining state titles, and five teams finishing as state runner-up (Lacrosse, Indoor Track, Powerlifting, Golf, and Ultimate Frisbee).
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SPS, Other Area Schools ‘Stuff the Bus’ for Food Bank
Amidst the craziness of end-of-year banquets, contests, award ceremonies, and projects, SPS joined forces with local catholic schools to heed the call of the Covington Food Bank’s empty shelves by going school-to-school to stuff a school bus with food donations.
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