Category: Chesterton Academy

“Happy Catholic Schools Week to you all! What a wonderful celebration of the gift of Catholic schools, where we have the freedom to live our faith daily. At the same time, there is a danger that comes with this freedom, where we as humans lose sight of our daily call, to take up our crosses and follow Jesus (Cf. Lk. 9:23). 

I was reminded while watching one of our seniors’ capstone presentations that we as Catholics are born to be warriors; the evil one is always lurking to undermine the good we are striving for. Our faith—and the freedom to live it authentically and daily—should not be taken for granted, whereby we get caught up in how the world thinks. Our faith should be a lived expression of hope, joy, love, and peace.

Our school—our Catholic school—and the community that makes us who we are, must always be on guard, for our “adversary the devil prowls around” (1Pt. 5:8) and we are his prey. This imagery is meant to inspire us to strengthen our community and help lift one another up. All this comes from and leads us back to the Eucharist, to the source and summit of our faith, to gratitude.” — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

We are excited to welcome new students for the 2026–27 academic year. Admission applications are now being accepted! Re-enrollment information can be found here. If you’re new to GRACE, please click the button below to learn how to apply.

St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“Each year, the last week of January is dedicated to the national celebration of Catholic Schools Week—an opportunity for our community to rejoice in the truth, beauty, and goodness of Catholic education. As our patron, Pope St. John Paul II, reminds us, “The mission of the Catholic school is the integral formation of students, so that they may be true to their condition as Christ’s disciples and…work effectively for the evangelization of culture and for the common good of society.”

This mission reminds us that a Catholic school is not an isolated institution, but a living community formed through the collaboration of families, school, and Church. Catholic Schools Week, therefore, is a celebration of the whole—an invitation to gratitude within each of these relationships. How is gratitude being lived and expressed in these three areas? How will Catholic Schools Week be celebrated within the school of your home?” — Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

“This month we turn our attention to the virtue of orderliness—a term not often associated with virtue, and one that may at first seem more descriptive of temperament than of moral formation. Yet, when understood classically, orderliness is deeply virtuous, for it reflects the proper ordering of the soul toward the good.

Seen in this light, orderliness draws us toward discipline and stewardship. Discipline, rooted in discipleship, disposes us toward docility—an openness to instruction, correction, and growth. It is through disciplined habits that the intellect and will are trained to love what is true, good, and beautiful.

Stewardship follows naturally, for what is rightly ordered within must also be rightly ordered without. To be good stewards is to live in harmony with others and with the created world entrusted to us, exercising care over our minds, bodies, and spirits so that we may serve well.

In your homes, how is order cultivated? Have you considered orderliness not merely as structure, but as a virtue that forms character and prepares the soul for wisdom?” Headmaster Eric Schreiber

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

We are still in the Christmas season and in the midst of celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior. The incarnation is a launching pad moving us into this next semester and onward because Catholic education must be incarnational. In Mr Schreiber’s last lecture night, he fleshed out that the Incarnational is the belief that truth is not abstract but became flesh in Jesus Christ. This means education is embodied — it involves real relationships, real encounters with beauty, real moral formation, and the shaping of real human beings. Teachers and parents participate in this incarnational mission by making the faith tangible through words, actions, and the culture we create at home and school.

Though the Christmas season is a little on the shorter side, every time education is embodied—with Christ at the center—we can share in the Christmas joy.

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

The latest GRACE Winter 2026 newsletter is now available to read! Check it out by clicking the button below.

St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

Please take a moment to read a special Christmas message filled with heartfelt wishes for you and your loved ones from GRACE President Kimberly A. Desotell!

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St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

As we continue this beautiful season of Advent, our school community is on a journey of watching, waiting, and preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ. Advent invites us to pause amid the busyness of life, to make room for silence and wonder, and to remember that God comes to us in love—quietly, humbly, and personally.

Our school environment slowly shifts toward a more prayerful posture: Advent wreaths, purple cloths, and moments of intentional silence woven into the rhythm of the day. Teachers are guiding students to reflect on themes of hope and anticipation, helping them see Advent not simply as a countdown to Christmas, but as a season of spiritual preparation.

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

The 2026-27 GRACE calendar is now live! Check it out on the GRACE website by clicking the button below.

St. John Paul II Catholic School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic schools serving Preschool and Elementary through high school, adding one grade per year. They have with open enrollment and provide an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.

The Christian anthropology of Catholic education is incarnational. It is education that is embodied, involving real relationships, real encounters with beauty, real moral formation, and the shaping of real human beings. It shapes children not into test-takers, but into fully human persons made in God’s image.

It is the culture we live, being in communion with God and one another. And as Pope Leo XIV recently stated in “Drawing New Maps of Hope,” it is a “collective endeavour” (§3.1). 
“If Catholic educators, parents, and others who dedicate themselves to this apostolate fail to keep in mind a high supernatural vision, all their talk about Catholic schools will be no more than ‘a gong booming or a cymbal clashing’ (1 Cor. 13:1) (J Michael Miller, p. 21).”

Embody Catholic Education. Live it at home. Support it in the classroom.
Together we form saints — real, whole, and fully alive in Christ.

St. John Paul II Classical School and Chesterton Academy are of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. They are private Catholic classical schools serving Montessori preschool and elementary through high school. They have open enrollment and provide an individualized education in an integrated faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. Learn more by scheduling a visit.