We believe that St. John the Baptist School is an extension of the Catholic Church. We commit to integrating truth and values within our unique curriculum. We strive through our own personal witness to teach and live as Jesus did. St. John's School is a center of individual development and as such we believe in the right of each child to develop to his/her fullest spiritual, academic, physical, and creative abilities.

St. John the Baptist School provides a well balanced educational curriculum through which the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for daily living can be acquired. The students are challenged to develop to their potential with open inquiring minds while always realizing a sense of accomplishment.

Pre-Kindergarten Program The St. John the Baptist Catholic School preschool program is committed to providing a creative learning environment for the young child in an atmosphere of Christian love and concern. Our program is designed to include the following subject areas.

• Art
• Religion Readiness
• Reading Readiness
• Play
• Natural Science
• Motor Skills
• Music
• Math Readiness
• Writing Readiness
• Health
• Computer
• Personal-Social Development
• Kindergarten Program

The Kindergarten program follows the Curriculum Guidelines set by the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Our program is very academic in nature. Each day, our children receive instruction in Reading, Math, and Religion. Our extra curricular subjects include Music, Art, and Computer. We have many projects throughout the school year. Some of these projects are Johnny Apple- seed day, Catholic Schools Week Banner, Easter-New Life Day, and Graduation Activities.

Our classroom is really a “Family Affair”. We encourage parents and friends to get involved in all aspects of activities. A weekly newsletter informs the parents of all Kindergarten events. This encourages each parent to be involved in every aspect of their child’s learning.

GRADES 1 THROUGH 3 (PRIMARY)

Reading Skills include noting and finding details, comprehension, main ideas, phonics, vocabulary, decoding words, oral and independent reading, making predictions, and recognizing fact and opinion.

Language arts involves penmanship, writing skills, and English. Parts of speech are introduced: nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students are expected to use correct punctuation marks. The transition from manuscript to cursive writing is done on the second grade level.

Social Studies focuses on children learning skills for working and playing with one another in a family as well as in neighborhoods and communities. The history of the United States, map skills, citizenship, natural resources, rules, and laws are taught.

Religion is based on communicating the Catholic Faith to our students. Preparation for Reconciliation and First Communion are part of the primary program. In addition to the children learning about the parts of the Mass, and the Stations of the Cross, they also take an active role in the planning, preparation and participation for these celebrations. They learn how to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Math stresses the use of manipulative to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Telling time, counting money, place value, and linear measurement are introduced. Learning to read graphs and charts are a part of the math curriculum on the primary level.

The science curriculum allows students to become aware of natural and applied science. The curriculum highlights include: plants, sound and light, weather, habitats, simple machines, magnets, health, the universe and nutrition.

GRADES 4 THROUGH 6 (INTERMEDIATE)

Reading on the middle level encompasses vocabulary, comprehension development, sequence of events, context clues, cause and effect, comparing and contrasting, details and facts, main idea, fact and opinion and figures of speech.

Language arts includes parts of speech, writing skills such as, friendly letters, business letters, research reports, editorials, biographies, and autobiographies. Contradictions, compound words, and homophones are also taught.

The social studies curriculum on the intermediate level begins with the history of the United States. The students are exposed to the Renaissance, Reformation and Age of Discovery, the Americas, as well as pre-historic people, ancient civilizations and middle and modern times.

Religion includes the introduction of the New Testament and the Holy trinity. The sacraments, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love, are included. An in-depth study of the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments are also included in the curriculum. The students also take an active role in the planning of Masses, Rosary Devotions and Stations of the Cross.

Our math curriculum includes the following: geometry, evaluating expressions, solving one and two step equations, fractions, square roots, decimals, ratios, proportions, percent and solving rational as well as mixed numbers.

Science includes the study of energy, motion, electricity, physical and chemical change, scale and structure, stability and equilibrium. The solar system, rainforests, volcanoes, earth quakes, water supplies, wetlands, the study of the ecosystem and cells and heredity are also included.

GRADES 7 AND 8 (MIDDLE)

Reading skills continue to be developed through vocabulary development, prefixes, suffixes, sequence of events, discussion of context clues, cause and effect, compare and contrast, details and facts, finding the main idea and the secondary idea, and the reading of trade books.

Language Arts include the study of language skills, sentence structure as well as figures of speech. Written communication includes summative and descriptive paragraphs, essays, opinions and poetry styles. Oral communication skills includes oral descriptions, reports, panel discussion, telling a story, speaking with expression and interviewing.

Social studies begins with Early American history in seventh grade and continues in eighth grade with the Civil War and ends with present day events. The teacher stresses the importance of learning history and how past events have influenced and continue to influence our lives.

The religion curriculum provides instruction in the Church’s history as well as the Old and New Testaments, the Holy Trinity and the Ten Commandments. Morality, virtues, justice and the importance of truthfulness are discussed. Videos are incorporated along with the text to reinforce the religious studies. Also the Sacrament of Conformation is studied and preparation for receiving the Sacrament also begins.

In math, the students in seventh grade study pre-algebra. Algebra is taught to eighth grade students. Teaching methods include teacher lecture and demonstration, cooperative learning, and self-discovery. Math counts is offered to the students who show a strength in higher thinking mathematical concepts.

The seventh and eighth grade science programs involve an integrated curriculum that covers a wide variety, including Earth Science, Physical Science and Biology. Teaching is done by lecture and hands-on activities.

Spanish is also offered to students in the seventh and eighth grade. Students are taught the correct pronunciations, vocabulary and verb conjugation. Students also practice speaking the language in class in oral drills and oral presentations.

Currently: 222 students
Preschool: 23 students

Catholic Rate - Grades K-8

First Child: $2,500
Second Child: $1,350
Additional Children: $0
Family Rate:$3850

Non-Affiliated Rate - Grades K-8

First Child: $3,100
Second Child: $1,525
Additional Children: $1500

Three year old preschool: $57 per month for nine months

Four year old preschool: $70 per month for nine months