SJCA Lion Line OP - August 2025

I pray everyone has enjoyed a relaxing and fun summer.

The addition of 7th grade on campus is a welcome sign of growth. We look forward to meeting scholars new to St. Johns Classical Academy Orange Park and to seeing returning scholars start in their new grades.

Orientation scheduled on August 8th provides you the opportunity to meet your scholar's teacher, find their classroom, and drop off supplies. I would encourage you to plan on attending your scholar's orientation, during the designated time, and receive important information about procedures, carline, and much more.

Additionally, there will be many of our vendors who provide afterschool activities, before/after school care, and spirit wear samples in the gymnasium during the orientation.

Please take time to read the Family and Scholar Handbook, emails, and Facebook to stay abreast of current happenings.

Join us on August 8 for our Back to School Orientation where your scholar can find their classroom, meet their teacher, and drop off supplies. Be sure to visit the gym as well to see informational tables and spirit wear vendors.

Please arrive during your scholar's designated time.

To avoid overcrowding in the clinic during our Back to School Orientation, we'd like to invite parents to drop off medications to the clinic on August 6 between 1:00-4:00pm.

Please note, the clinic is in a new location. It is now next to the cafeteria.

Questions: OP_healthroom@stjca.org

To welcome our youngest lions, we'd like to invite kindergarten families to join us for a Meet and Greet on Saturday, August 2. We'll gather outside and let the scholars and parents mingle before their first day of school.

On the first day of school, August 11, we'd like to invite kindergarten parents and scholars to come to school at 8:30am for a short gathering. Please arrive at 8:30am, after our carline, park in either the front or rear parking lot, and meet in the gym. Headmaster Bradley and kindergarten teachers will welcome our scholars and you'll have opportunities to take a few pictures before teachers walk scholars to their classroom.

St. Johns Classical Academy Orange Park is excited to announce that we are in the beginning stages of establishing our own Athletic Department.

We will remain part of the SJCA-FI athletic department for the 2025-2026 school year, before the start of the SJCA-OP athletic department in the 2026-2027 school year.

This will allow us to add a dimension to our school culture and school spirit, as well as eliminate the demand on our families to transport to Fleming Island.

Once our athletic department is established, SJCA-OP scholars will still be allowed to participate with the SJCA-FI athletic department in the sports not offered at SJCA-OP.

We are thrilled to be taking this next step to further the establishment of our school. More details will be forthcoming throughout the school year.

If your scholar plans to play a sport for SJCA, you must complete the following steps. If you have questions, please reach out to your coach or to our Athletic Director, Matthew.Sage@stjca.org.

Our goal at St. Johns Classical Academy is to improve our scholar's reading capacity and endurance. We encourage scholars to interact with on-grade level or higher quality materials that can be found on our suggested reading list or in their teacher's classroom libraries.

We ask that "High Interest Low Level (H.I.L.L) books not be brought to campus. Examples of H.I.L.L books are those with low Lexile levels and/or low in character content and virtues.

If you are interested in volunteering on campus this year, please attend our information meeting.

We have several "workdays" scheduled on campus that we'd like to invite volunteers to.

📆 Saturday, August 2

🕐 10:00-12:00pm

Join us as we host a Kindergarten Meet and Greet. We need help setting up pop-up tents, tables, chairs, and water coolers. If you would like to stay and mingle with new parents, you can help them navigate their new environment.

Since volunteers will be around scholars, you must be an approved volunteer to assist with this event, which means you have already been fingerprinted and cleared to be on campus.

📆 Monday, August 4th

🕐 10:00am-2:00pm

Come help our school and teachers get ready for school or help create photo booth areas.

Since scholars will not be on campus, anyone who is interested in volunteering may come to school to help, even if you haven't completed the background check yet.

📆 Wednesday August 6th

🕐 9:00am-2:00pm

Come help our school and teachers get ready for school or help create photo booth areas.

Since scholars will not be on campus, anyone who is interested in volunteering may come to school to help, even if you haven't completed the background check yet.

We get a lot of questions about which shoes are allowed as part of our uniforms. To help, please refer to this guide, which offers examples of approved and unapproved shoes for everyday, formal, and PE.

The last Friday of every month is a spirit day. To participate in spirit days, we ask each scholar to donate $2, which enables them to wear approved spirit t-shirts. We'll provide the spirit wear guide as we get closer to our first spirit day, but you can pay for all 10 spirit days through MySchoolBucks for a one-time fee of $20. Funds raised are used to support teacher appreciation events.

All scholars, K-7, are required to purchase a planner. Planners are purchased through MySchoolBucks for $10 and are delivered to your scholar's classroom.

All K-6 scholars are required to pay a $10 co-curricular supply fee to help offset the cost of supplies used in class.

**Please note, all three of these items will be live on MySchoolBucks on Monday, August 4**

If you still need to purchase school supplies, please refer to the list below. Lists are categorized by grade; K-7. This list is also on our website, which can be found at the bottom of the School Information page.

Please make sure all water bottles have a snap lid or screw top so water cannot spill when tipped upside down. Water bottles with straws will not be allowed this year, even if they have "straw toppers." Please see the examples below.

Seventh grade scholars may rent a PE locker for $5 for the semester. You can make this purchase on MySchoolBucks after August 4. Lockers will be assigned by the PE teachers.

Grammar/Upper School (K-7) Drop-off 7:25-7:55am.

*All cars not in the car line by 7:55am. are required to park and escort their child to sign-in at the Academic-Gym Building. Classes begin promptly at 8:00 a.m.

Grammar/Upper School (K-7) Dismissal 2:55-3:15pm. (12:55-1:15 on Wednesday)

Vehicles will not be permitted to enter from Orange Avenue during carline hours.

ENTER: All vehicles will enter school from Kingsley Avenue and turn right into the parking lot.

EXIT: All vehicles must exit left onto Orange Avenue. If the light at Kingsley Ave is green, and it will not stop the flow of car line, a staff member will direct vehicles to turn right or left.

SJCA will be utilizing the Silent Dismissal software for Car Line Pick Up from 2:55-3:15pm. You must access the Silent Dismissal program before the first day of school. Your scholar does not need to memorize a number for car line.

Scholars are not permitted on campus prior to 7:25am unless attending YMCA.

Vehicles must drive around the Cafeteria Building and unload in front of the Academic-Gym Building. Pull forward at a slow speed until you are instructed by a traffic volunteer to stop your vehicle.

1. For the safety of our faculty, staff, and scholars, cell phone use is prohibited while in car line. Pay attention to other vehicles and children.

2. At pickup, have the mandatory SJCA Silent Dismissal placard number visible through the front window. If you do not have an official and current SJCA placard, you must go to the pull ahead zone to show ID. Pictures of placards are not acceptable.

3. When you reach the loading/unloading zone, place your car in park and watch for a signal from the traffic volunteers to load/unload your scholar.

4. Do not get out of your car. Staff are there to assist your scholar(s).

5. There is a pull ahead zone for cars still awaiting scholar(s) to keep the flow of traffic moving.

6. Do not arrive on campus or line up along the road near the campus prior to your designated time.

7. At drop-off, please have your children ready to exit the vehicle quickly with their belongings.

8. Stay in your lane.

Please take a look at our list of after school clubs.

If you sign your scholar up for one of these groups, you must update your scholar's Silent Dismissal to reflect their participation and he or she will be taken to the club's meeting location on campus at the end of the school day. Parents will pick their scholar up when the club ends.

Picture this: first they construct a LEGO Spike robot and then they up their game by using code to make it do cool stuff.

Every week, ninjas will be challenged to push their imagination boundaries even farther—plus, there's time built in every session for the real magic to happen: kids get to tinker freely and modify their robots with no limits to their creativity.

Sign them up now to build, code, and conquer: https://shorturl.at/VFBQ6

Start date: August 27.

Contact: Flemingislandfl@codeninjas.com (This email address is used for the Orange Park club as well).

Your scholar can enjoy tap, ballet, and jazz in the Little Dancing Stars after-school club. If you're interested in signing up, please visit: https://littledancingstars.com/

Start date: September 1 or September 4.

Questions: hblittledancingstars@gmail.com

All Stars Twirling Academy is a competitive baton twirling team within the National Baton Twirling Association (NBTA)’s system.

In our after school classes, your scholar will learn to twirl, improve team-building skills, and participate in holiday parades and an end-of-the-year recital.

State date: August 25

You may come try a class for free to see if you like it.

To register, click on the All Stars Twirling Academy logo on their website: https://twirlbaton.com/

Contact: June Stoeber, jjbug@hotmail.com

We are planning to offer Safety Patrol, Chess Club, and Run/Walk again this year. You'll receive more information about these clubs once the school year begins.

Throughout the year, you may need to reach out to the school. Please refer to the this handy list of contacts as a guide.

We understand that some appointments are necessary during the school year. If your scholar does need to be picked up early for an appointment, please do so before 2:00pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and before 12:00pm on Wednesday.

✅ To view your lunch account(s) and add funds, please visit: http://www.myschoolbucks.com/

✅ If you need or want to set limits on spending, please contact Lunch@stjca.org

✅ If you would like to check your eligibility for Free/Reduced Lunch, please click HERE

Faculty and staff are not permitted to accept cash or check for lunch. If you'd like to send in cash, please instruct them to either:

✅ Bring it to the lunch staff during their lunch (for immediate deposit to account) or;

✅ Drop it in the Lunch Money slot in the wall outside the administrative offices (allow up to 72 hours for deposit to account). Be sure to include your scholar's name on the envelope/baggie.

Parents are welcome to eat lunch with their scholar. To do so, please check in at the front desk, where you will have your license scanned before meeting your scholar at the outside picnic tables.

FortifyFL is a suspicious activity reporting tool that allows you to instantly relay information to appropriate law enforcement agencies and school officials. You can submit a tip anytime.