Welcome

Dear Students and Families,

It is my pleasure as your new principal to welcome you back to St. John Berchmans Catholic school for the 2021-2022 academic school year. Before I go onto the rest of my letter, I want to take a quick moment to introduce myself to those of you who may not know me.

 I’ve lived in the Shreveport-Bossier area for the majority of my life (since I was 6 months old as a matter of fact) and attended school at Christ the King, Loyola College Prep, and then eventually earned my undergraduate degree at Centenary College, my Masters of Education at LSUS, and my Catholic School Leadership certification from Loyola Marymount University.

My first job in education was that of teaching P.E. for students at St. Joseph’s, after which I pursued a college coaching career for three years and then found myself coaching P.E. here at St. John’s. Eventually I was named Assistant Principal and have served in that capacity for the past 4 years; now, I am proud to be leading St. John Berchmans Catholic School as your new principal.

As far as the new COVID strains are concerned, we always want to have your best interest, and safety, in mind. Because of that, at a moment’s notice we will be ready to transition back into 2021 COVID protocols if need be. That means the re-installation of spatial barriers, wearing of face masks, and virtual learning.

In the meantime we are looking to remove our current water fountains and replace them with bottle filling stations, continue checking temperatures upon entering the school, and encourage the sanitization of hands whenever possible. Not only that, but we’ve invested in CASPR (Continuous Air and Surface Pathogen Reduction), active indoor environmental technology that was developed for the healthcare industry. Its patent-pending air and surface disinfection solutions continuously destroy harmful molds, bacteria such as staph and MRSA, and viruses – even the virus that causes COVID-19. I say all of this to reiterate, we always have you and your child’s safety at the forefront of our minds’.

Some exciting news though is that we are looking forward to celebrating the 400th anniversary of our patron saint (John Berchmans) in conjunction with the Cathedral parish with numerous activities, programs, and of course educational materials, starting August 13th and ending November 26th, 2022.

Not only that, we are incredibly happy to see our new partnership with LSUS take place as our middle schoolers begin taking college level courses AND begin their new block schedule which will provide them high school credits before they even begin attending high school.

We have a whole new year ahead of us, and I look forward to walking it with you all, in Christ.

Sincerely,

Trey Woodham