An Important Announcement on the Future of St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School
September 13, 2024
Dear friends of JPG,
On Friday, September 13th, the Archdiocese of Denver announced that Bishop Machebeuf High School is closing its doors at the end of the current school year after 66 years of faithfully serving the families of Denver.
While saddened by the news, I wanted to share with you that Archbishop Aquila reached out and requested our exclusive support to welcome the Bishop Machebeuf students and families into the St. John Paul the Great community as we look ahead to the 2025-26 school year. We were humbled by the request and joyfully accepted it.
We are grateful for Archbishop Aquila’s trust in our vision for Catholic academic formation and are excited to welcome families from Bishop Machebeuf into our school community. Moreover, our ability to accept this opportunity is a testament to the zeal of the JPG community for our mission, which puts St. John Paul the Great in a position to support our Archdiocese and the Bishop Machebeuf community in this challenging time.
A partnership between JPG and the Bishop Machebeuf communities will be rooted in our shared vision for a curriculum focused on forming the whole human person through strong academics, a strong Catholic identity, robust athletics programs, diverse co-curriculars, and state-of-the-art facilities.
You will likely have questions about how this partnership will impact JPG, and as such, I wanted to share some key points related to the announcement around our partnership with Bishop Machebeuf:
The entire JPG community has worked hard to create a truly exceptional Catholic high school for Denver, which has doubled in size year over year for the past three years. The partnership with Bishop Machebeuf will not change the leadership, board, vision, mission, or strategic plan for St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School—it will only be enhanced by the growth.
JPG will remain an independent, Catholic high school founded on collaborative and supportive relationships with the Archbishop and the Archdiocese of Denver.
JPG will receive a full-time Archdiocesan chaplain, Fr. CJ Mast, who currently serves the Bishop Machebeuf community, effective Fall 2025. Having a full-time Archdiocesan chaplain fulfills one of our dreams since our founding and will strengthen the formative environment for our students.
The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (the “Nashville Dominicans”) and the Servants of Christ Jesus (both orders currently serving at Bishop Machebeuf as faculty) have been formally invited to join the JPG community as faculty. This will benefit our students and complement the love and support we graciously receive from the Companions of Christ.
We intend to expand our athletic programs, with an increase of students from the Bishop Machebeuf community, in an ongoing effort to increase competitive, co-curricular options in line with our approach to whole-human formation.
The Archdiocese is committed to providing bus services for JPG students. In addition to St. Thomas More Parish, we are collaborating on ideal locations to provide before and after-school bus service across the Denver metro area in the upcoming school year.
Our commitment to providing an exceptional educational experience centered on Jesus Christ for families across the Archdiocese of Denver is unwavering. With the recent news, the student body will grow, and there will be challenges; however, my promise to our growing community is that the team at JPG will take every necessary step to ensure this transition is both smooth and successful.
Please join me in praying for the faculty, staff, families, and students affected by this announcement.
All for the greater glory of God,
Steve Pries
President, St. John Paul the Great
All media inquiries should be directed to media@jpgdenver.org
