Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This episode of Catholic Education Matters features Troy Van Vliet in conversation with Darren Watt and Jose Vargas of St. John Paul II Academy. They reflect on the school’s growth, its impact on students and families, and the power of a faith-centered education. Through personal stories of their children’s journeys—from homeschooling and small-school environments to thriving at major universities—the discussion highlights the Academy’s strong academic preparation, supportive community, and inspiring new campus.
The conversation also focuses on the May 14 Alumni Golf Tournament and other fundraising events that support the school’s bursary program, ensuring no family is turned away for financial reasons, while building a broader Catholic community committed to accessible, excellent education rooted in faith.
If you are interested in our school, make sure to check out our website:
🌐 https://www.sjp2academy.com/
Follow us on social media:
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjp2academy/
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sjp2academy
🐦 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/SJPIIAcademy
- (00:00) - Intro
- (01:13) - Student Success Stories: From SJP2 to University Excellence
- (03:40) - Homeschooling to High School: Finding the Right Educational Fit
- (06:49) - Building Community Through Partnerships & Faith-Based Learning
- (11:07) - The Beauty of the New Campus & Faith Through Architecture
- (13:40) - Alumni Golf Tournament: Funding Bursaries & Building Access
- (15:30) - Bursaries Explained: Ensuring Access to Catholic Education
- (18:53) - Community Support, Sponsorships, and Why the Tournament Works
- (23:41) - Real Impact: How Bursaries Change Students’ Lives46:53 Outro
- (25:15) - How Givergy, Auctions, and Sponsorships Expand the Mission
- (29:02) - Building a Parent, Alumni, and Volunteer Community
- (34:57) - Growing Demand for School Transportation and Bus Access
- (35:47) - Expanding Bus Routes: Sacred Heart, Surrey, and Feeder Schools
- (37:12) - Removing Barriers: Public Transit, Bus Stops, and Safe Access
- (38:25) - Overcoming Obstacles Through Vision, Faith, and Momentum
- (39:19) - Families Traveling Far for Catholic Education and Carpooling Solutions
- (41:02) - Humble Beginnings: From Portables to a Thriving Catholic School
- (42:20) - Athletics, Bursaries, and the Impact of the Golf Tournament
- (49:00) - Outro
Creators and Guests
What is Catholic Education Matters ?
Welcome to Catholic Education Matters the podcast that celebrates the beauty of Catholic education, highlighting excellence in academics, athletics, and the transformative power of faith. Join us as we share the stories of those making a lasting impact on Catholic education.
[00:00:01] Intro: Welcome to Catholic Education Matters, the podcast that celebrates the beauty of Catholic education, highlighting excellence in academics, athletics, and the transformative power of faith. Join us as we share the stories of those making a lasting impact on Catholic education. Let's begin.
[00:00:26] Troy Van Vliet: Good day everyone and welcome to Catholic Education Matters. My name is Troy Van Vliet and I'm so glad today to have with us Darren Watt and Jose Vargas from St.
[00:00:36] John Paul II Academy. Welcome to both of you And, we're gonna get into some real fun stuff today talking about our golf tournament. So please enjoy. So glad to have you guys here.
[00:00:47] Darren Watt: Great to be here.
[00:00:48] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. It's awesome. Lots to talk about. Lots to talk about.
[00:00:52] And, a refresh for everybody. Now you were on last year before the golf tournament. And so hence, we're back here again to talk about the golf tournament and other things as well. So as a recap, both of you parents, Jose, alumni parent, Sofia is in second year university here at university and she's at Dalhousie?
[00:01:13] Jose Vargas: Dalhousie, yes, in Halifax.
[00:01:15] Troy Van Vliet: And she's taking?
[00:01:17] Jose Vargas: She's taking science and she wants to apply to the dental school program. Yes.
[00:01:23] Troy Van Vliet: Fantastic. And she's doing well?
[00:01:25] Jose Vargas: She's doing extremely well.
[00:01:27] Troy Van Vliet: I love it.
[00:01:28] Jose Vargas: So, and thanks God for our school.
[00:01:31] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. That
[00:01:32] Jose Vargas: has enabled her go, like she's going.
[00:01:37] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's well prepared.
[00:01:38] Jose Vargas: She's well prepared.
[00:01:39] Troy Van Vliet: Love it. Love to hear that. And I believe she expressed that to, Mark Wilkie, our science teacher. Yes. So he's head of the science department at our school as well.
[00:01:51] And, you know, something that, and it's not said enough at our school, that all of our students that wanted to go on to university once they've graduated, all of them got into the university, that they chose to go to. They all got in like, you know, when they applied to several, but they had their top pick was this university and all of them gotten in so far, which is really great. That says a lot about our preparation.
[00:02:16] Jose Vargas: Yeah. I think the acceptance rate, like in the case of Sophia was 100%.
[00:02:20] Troy Van Vliet: 100%.
[00:02:21] Jose Vargas: Like applied to six universities, she was accepted.
[00:02:25] Troy Van Vliet: Love it. And when our kids are applying today, it's not just your grades anymore. I mean, it's quite a cross section. And I think our school has done a great job at preparing your kids for that as well, make sure, even when it comes to volunteering, the sports that they play, extracurricular activities, that kind of stuff. So great, great cross section of education that our kids are getting.
[00:02:49] Super. And Darren and your son Ollie
[00:02:52] Darren Watt: graduated Graduate last year and two in the school and two still yet to come.
[00:02:56] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. And two still. That's awesome. And, sorry, where is Ollie?
[00:02:59] Darren Watt: He's at UBC in engineering, first year engineering.
[00:03:02] Troy Van Vliet: Nice.
[00:03:04] Darren Watt: Hoping to continue on to mechanical engineering is what he wants to
[00:03:07] Troy Van Vliet: focus on. How's he making out so far?
[00:03:09] Darren Watt: He's loving it. And I mean, it's been a big bit of an awakening, you know, going into that pond, very, very competitive field, but he's thriving in it. He's doing very, very well.
[00:03:20] Troy Van Vliet: Yes.
[00:03:20] Darren Watt: Just loving it.
[00:03:21] Troy Van Vliet: So he went from homeschooling through elementary grades, right? Grade eight, he started at SGP two and then now he's off to the big, big, big, big school at UBC. And how was that as a transition all the way through? It worked out well.
[00:03:41] Darren Watt: It's worked out extremely well. I think we just sort of were grounded by faith through the whole process. But with our oldest Ollie, he was actually the reason why we started going down the whole homeschooling path. It wasn't something that we had considered at birth or anything, but Ollie, Oliver,
[00:04:01] Troy Van Vliet: Ollie
[00:04:01] Darren Watt: is known as, when a he kid, he was very, very like hypersensitive and very anxious. And we knew very early on when he was in sort of kindergarten that he wasn't going to thrive in just a big open environment.
[00:04:17] Troy Van Vliet: Did he go to kindergarten? Like he went to, okay. South Point. Yep.
[00:04:24] Darren Watt: And then, but so we just decided, no, like, I think we can probably do a better job of this and kind of create an environment that's going to sort of support him. And then having made that decision for the first, then it sort of doesn't really make sense. And, you know, my wife, Sam,
[00:04:39] Troy Van Vliet: she
[00:04:41] Darren Watt: works with kids. She was a speech pathologist and she's very used to working with children and
[00:04:45] Troy Van Vliet: she
[00:04:45] Darren Watt: said, you know, I think I can do this. And so, you know, spent all the time figuring out what curriculums we're going to follow, know, followed kind of a faith based curriculum. Anyway, and that sort of paved the path for our whole family to sort of stay on that track. And, you know, it's worked out amazingly. I think by the time Ollie got to be high school age, he was ready to really ready to come out of his shell.
[00:05:08] And St. John Paul II Academy just, we could not have asked for a better place to fit where we needed him to be. He was ready to spread his wings, but the thought of going into a large public school or even a huge like Catholic, Catholic school would
[00:05:24] Troy Van Vliet: have been challenging. So
[00:05:26] Darren Watt: to step into SJP two at the time when it was really just, you know, starting out, just couldn't have been a better fit for us.
[00:05:34] Troy Van Vliet: And it was through homeschooling with Ascend, is that right?
[00:05:40] Darren Watt: Yes. Yeah, we've done it. We've actually over the years have used a number of different programs. Some of our kids went through TLA
[00:05:48] Troy Van Vliet: for a while as well. Learning Academy.
[00:05:50] Darren Watt: Traditional Learning Academy, which is very flexible. You can kind of, you know, build your own sort of program
[00:05:54] Jose Vargas: a
[00:05:55] Darren Watt: little bit. And so we've done both of those and at times we actually were following mother of divine grace, like just our own program completely on our
[00:06:03] Troy Van Vliet: own
[00:06:03] Darren Watt: by ours.
[00:06:04] Troy Van Vliet: Is that word liberally?
[00:06:06] Darren Watt: Sam was always the manager, the administrator, the teacher of all
[00:06:10] Troy Van Vliet: of that,
[00:06:10] Darren Watt: but there's lots of resources out there, you know, to be able to do it. It's sort a question which one works best
[00:06:16] Troy Van Vliet: for Yeah, and right now we're partnering with Ascend, which we thought, and we got a lot of information from you first on it in terms of whether or not we think it'd be a good idea. So ASCEND will on occasion take kids that are being homeschooled, get them together and quite often in a school environment to take advantages of some of the facilities and different learning, what do you want to call it, props, whatever they need.
[00:06:49] Darren Watt: And
[00:06:51] Troy Van Vliet: so we thought it'd be a great introduction for the kids that are in elementary school to come in, you know, either once or twice a week that are homeschooled and they can kind of get familiar with the big school so that at, in grade seven, or sorry, in grade eight, that maybe if they are considering, going into a full blown high school that, they'll have at least been introduced and may have a smoother transition.
[00:07:17] Darren Watt: So think it's a great, it's a great alliance and it's a great way to sort of forge a path and allow people to kind of, who have kind of come from a classic homeschooling environment to
[00:07:27] Troy Van Vliet: sort of
[00:07:28] Darren Watt: get a feel for whether, you know, this is right for them. Like, you know, and I think it just makes it a far easier transition for them
[00:07:34] Troy Van Vliet: to And move we didn't invent that idea that it started in Kamloops, I believe, and they're doing it at St. Ann's there where Ascend is kind of a mixed, it's mixed into the school, which is great. So I know at first we were approached with them, I like, what would you do? And then it's like, oh, this makes great sense actually. So we actually do a lot with our, especially our feeder schools, our Catholic feeder schools will get, like today we have a grade six basketball tournament at our high school.
[00:08:03] So there's eight schools, eight or eight teams that are there right now. And they're being introduced to the big high school in grade six already so that it's not foreign to them. You know, as families are trying to figure out, you know, where they're going to go, to high school and so we want to give a nice introduction. Grade sixes and sevens quite often will do events at our school to help families get their feet wet.
[00:08:27] Darren Watt: Yeah, that's great. And I mean, it's just another way to continue to build community too, right? Yeah. Expand our community.
[00:08:31] Troy Van Vliet: Yes, exactly. I know we've been saying that from day one, we're in a community school like, you know, think of us as a giant community center, you know, where we do so many, so many other events at our school. Like for instance, we have the, the Shroud of Turin, that tour that's going on. We're going be having the Shroud on display at our school, in the spring as well, which, around Easter time. I think in March, I think we're doing March, I believe.
[00:08:56] Yeah. March. Yes. So that's another amazing thing. So we just, we've had so many events, just getting people in the facility and actually getting to experience St.
[00:09:06] John Paul II Academy. So and Sophia going way back, because I met you Jose at Sacred Heart at, well, speaking of basketball, it was at, my daughter was, playing your daughter in basketball. And, so she went through the Catholic elementary school system before coming to SJP2 and that was a good transition, I'm sure, because we were a really small school at that stage still.
[00:09:34] Jose Vargas: Yeah, it was like 30 students, even probably less. I cannot even remember.
[00:09:41] Troy Van Vliet: Well, second year, so it would have been at least 30 or so students. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's great. And it was a good path for her.
[00:09:48] Jose Vargas: Yeah, it was a good path. I think same thing as Ollie. She enjoyed being in a smaller school. Yeah. And she was very happy.
[00:10:01] Troy Van Vliet: She flourished. Yeah. I know. And the girls of that graduating class of a few couple of years ago now, they still get together. Yeah.
[00:10:11] So we're slowly building that alumni program as well. So even the kids that didn't get to graduate from our new facility, of course, we've etched their names, those three graduating classes, we etched their names on a glass railing in the school. So their new home is in our new campus. And so we're inviting them back to be a part of the school going forward. Some of them are actually, you know, going towards being teachers, things like that.
[00:10:38] So we're like, Hey, you know, remember us as our school grows. We want to be able to have them come back as well.
[00:10:45] Darren Watt: Know Wally's been back to visit a few times in the course of the year, just because he's here and he's here locally. Whenever he gets an opportunity, he
[00:10:51] Troy Van Vliet: loves to
[00:10:52] Darren Watt: say hi to the teachers.
[00:10:54] Troy Van Vliet: And fortunately I've got to spend quite a bit of time at the school and I'm so happy to see when the alumni come back and I always tell them, said, you know, you helped build this. Without you guys, this wouldn't be here right now. You know, those pioneering grades.
[00:11:07] Jose Vargas: Yes. One thing that I find really beautiful is that the school had the previous campus, the temporary campus, and now it has the new campus, is The first time that I went to the campus I couldn't believe how beautiful like the architects, the people that designed that building and the whole campus, they did an amazing job. They took care of every single detail.
[00:11:39] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.
[00:11:39] Jose Vargas: And you really, you enter the campus and you just feel a different environment. Yeah. Like you feel, particularly when you go to the chapel, that is an experience that I cannot describe. It's like the highlight of the visit every time that I go Mhmm. Go to the chapel and it's just like you feel like in heaven.
[00:12:03] Troy Van Vliet: Even like this time of year where the days are short and it gets dark early, and it's dark. It gets light late in the morning. Pulling up to the school and it's dark outside and, you know, the school's lit up somewhat, but when you all, you have to drive past the chapel in the front to get into the underground parking and the way it's lit up, it's just, wow. You know what our school is all about just because we got the two stories of glass right in the front with a big modern cross on it. And it's a thing of beauty.
[00:12:36] it truly is. You know, and if architecture or beauty can be the tip of the spear for evangelizing, you know, draws people in, you know, good architecture draws people in. It creates this atmosphere when you're in there. And, I think our kids are, well, I don't want to call them spoiled, but I think they're extremely fortunate to be able to experience that when they come to school every day. Like it's a pretty special place.
[00:13:02] Darren Watt: Inspirational.
[00:13:03] Troy Van Vliet: It is very inspirational. So, and we have room to grow in it, of course, because we've built the entire facility, but we have room to, we have our arts wing that we're still going to finish off, our fine arts and also downstairs for trades, which we're working on for next year. So, and speaking of alumni, we've got our alumni golf tournament coming up May 14 and this is the third one. Yeah. And both of you have been a part of the alumni golf tournament as, we've got a committee set up and both of you sit on that committee and thank you for that.
[00:13:41] And, and of course you're also both on the society board as well, the school board. So thanks for your service there as well. So we have all
[00:13:49] Darren Watt: We'll roll your sleeves up.
[00:13:51] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, yeah. Everybody's got to pitch in. I mean, it's been a parent led initiative from day one, the school, like it wouldn't have come about without parents getting together and saying, hey, we need a school. Let's, you know, let's champion this. And you two have been a huge part.
[00:14:04] Your families have been a huge part. So the golf tournament and I'm going to let you explain why do we have this thing? What do we do? Why is it there?
[00:14:14] Jose Vargas: So we want to provide Catholic education for everybody. Not every family has the means to send their kids to a Catholic school. Mhmm. Because, yes, they have to to pay the tuition. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't go if they don't have the means because we have a bursary.
[00:14:35] And that bursary is for those families that cannot afford it, but that want Catholic education for their children. So both the golf tournament and the Royals Bowl are the events that we have to raise funds for that bursary and for some athletic programs. I'm very proud to say that we have, just last year, we had about $200,130,000 dollars in bursaries, and that is just amazing. And that's what pushes me every time that I do something for the golf tournament or the Royals Bowl because that's the motivation. We have to raise money to allow these families to come to our school and keep us growing as a school and as a community.
[00:15:31] Troy Van Vliet: A 100.
[00:15:32] Jose Vargas: Well said.
[00:15:34] Troy Van Vliet: Said. Echo that. Yeah. Echo that. Yeah.
[00:15:36] Our founding principal, Mich Deloret, when we first recruited him to come and champion the startup of SGP2, He said to me, Troy, he says, I'll do this. He goes, on one condition. I've got one condition. I was like, okay, what's that? He says, we have to guarantee that we will not turn any families away for financial reasons.
[00:15:59] Any families that want a Catholic education, we're not going to turn them away for financial reasons. And I was taken aback by that at that time. I was just like, okay,
[00:16:08] Jose Vargas: all right.
[00:16:09] Troy Van Vliet: I guess so. Yeah, it makes sense. And I cannot believe how important that has been, you know, here we are. What is it? Eight years later.
[00:16:18] Yeah, I think we're in our night there of operating a school and we've held to that. We have not turned any families away for financial reasons. There is tuition. We got to pay bills. We have an enrollment deposit.
[00:16:32] These are for families that can afford to help the school and tuition is something we need to collect, but not everybody is all in, you know, and especially with our Catholic families, if I hear, breaks my heart. If I hear, well, no, we're going to go somewhere else or we're going to the public system because we just, you know, can't quite afford that or whatever. They're scared off by the tuition. I'm like, come anyway, apply. You know what?
[00:16:56] We're here to help. And it's things like the golf tournament. We have two big events that raise money for our bursary program. The golf tournament is one and, the next one is the Rose Bowl, that we do both of them now. We've done both twice.
[00:17:11] So now into our next year, this is the third golf tournament. We've had a lot of success.
[00:17:18] Darren Watt: Yeah, the
[00:17:18] Troy Van Vliet: momentum just keeps coming. Yeah. Yes.
[00:17:22] Jose Vargas: And I also like the fact that through these events, we're building a community. It's not just the parents and the children that go to our school, it's also all the people, the community supporters that come to these events and that donate for this cause. And it's not only attending, it's also through the silent auction. Like I have seen many people bidding silent auction even though they are not attending the event. Yeah.
[00:17:54] That is a lot of support right there.
[00:17:56] Troy Van Vliet: And I think when you're saying as a community builder, this one, the golf tournament really reaches out outside of our, you know, the parent community because it's not like we don't just sell, foursomes, you know, and say, hey guys, come and golf, you know, and so the biggest thing that, one of the biggest parts that raises the funds is there are sponsorships and that's where we reach out into the community, into, you know, all different sectors of the community and just say, 'Hey, look, we're having a And it's easier to get sponsors when they hear what it's for. You know, what we're raising money for, this is for families that can't afford to go to our school and we're not going to turn them away. So, but we got to pay the bills still. So, that's why we focus so much on raising money for the bursaries. You know, that's a huge, huge part and, over $200,000 a year we've raised just for the bursaries.
[00:18:53] So it's very, and it's great to have confidence when you're talking to families one on one, just say apply for the bursary, you know, and don't just, that's what it's there for. And we want families like you in the school. So that shouldn't be a reason why, why you don't come. Right. So now in the tournaments themselves have been pretty good from
[00:19:14] Darren Watt: top shelf. If you've been to golf tournaments, this is, and if you're curious about this one, is top shelf. It is top shelf. Yeah. We put on an outstanding day.
[00:19:27] I think every time we've just had nothing but rave reviews from participants. From the quality of the food to the quality of the sponsors to the dinner and the event in itself. And a great course too. We've held it at Tsawwssen Springs. So for those of you golfers who have played it, it's a fantastic course.
[00:19:47] Troy Van Vliet: It's
[00:19:47] Darren Watt: challenging, and beautiful.
[00:19:51] Troy Van Vliet: It is. And to keep the pace moving, it's a shotgun or it's best ball. So which as, because I don't get to golf, very often, I'm a big advocate for best ball. It makes the game fun for me. If it's all relying on me, it's just like, you know, so but anyways, tons of fun.
[00:20:14] It's always a chance
[00:20:15] Darren Watt: to meet new people. Yeah. Go to one of these things.
[00:20:18] Jose Vargas: There's new
[00:20:19] Darren Watt: people that I haven't met before and better than to, you know, play a
[00:20:23] Jose Vargas: few. Yeah. And it's not just a round of golf, like you have activities basically at every hole.
[00:20:30] Darren Watt: Yeah.
[00:20:30] Jose Vargas: And you have the putting contest, you have well, you start with the going to the driving range, to warm up. Then you have the holes in one, like we have cars, know, in one.
[00:20:45] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, you can win a car for a hole in one.
[00:20:47] Jose Vargas: So it's
[00:20:49] Troy Van Vliet: We even had Tesla last year, with a bunch of cars, that they were advertising, they were sponsoring and they said, hey, look, we'll bring a bunch of cars down and, anybody can, who wants to drive a Cybertruck, you can take one for a boot. And a lot of people did that, you know, we had no idea. So there's a lot of activity going on. And then food. We have food like to start.
[00:21:17] So as people arrive, they got lunch or they get lunch because the same thing is going to be happening this year. I think we have a different food sponsor this year. And then you get on the golf course and depending on the sponsors, there are some food sponsors, whatever, giving out snacks and stuff like that. And then after we have a cocktail reception and then after that, we got dinner, auction, live auction and, and, the, online auction as well. So people can, you know, even if you can't make the tournament, the other thing that we did is we have a lot of people just come for dinner as well, because not everybody's a golfer.
[00:22:00] So we almost doubled the numbers for dinner as, as we do for golf. So that's a major thing. So if people that aren't golfers, yeah, they want to contribute.
[00:22:09] Darren Watt: People want to be part of the community events. It's a good point.
[00:22:12] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, exactly. So, great prizes throughout the, even the, what do call them? Not the gift bags, but the bags. Yes. You want to call that.
[00:22:24] They're great. We always make sure we got lots of stuff and actually you're, you're donning a, yeah, there you go.
[00:22:31] Jose Vargas: Second one. So for the first year we had a black hat. Yes. Last year we had a white hat. This year it will be a surprise.
[00:22:40] Troy Van Vliet: You have to show up. You got that. Yes, we're going to have a whole collection of hats. That seems to be one of the most popular things actually. Everybody loves golf hats.
[00:22:48] Jose Vargas: Yes. I usually play golf, during the summer with, with some friends of mine. And, last, for the first golf tournament, I had my cap and I had the bottle, the water bottle. Yep. And last year, they asked me if if they could get some some swags like that.
[00:23:10] So I I brought some caps for them and one of them has his bottle Water bottle? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He uses it all the time.
[00:23:20] Troy Van Vliet: They're nice water bottles too. Yeah. No, they're great. Some of the biggest success stories, like after the tournament, have come from seeing kids that were on bursaries come through the school and have success afterwards. Like, you know, they had not.
[00:23:41] There was one family, their son had some learning disabilities and just couldn't see it happening in the public school, but they couldn't afford our school. We got them, got them in on a bursary. You know, not only did he graduate, he's now off in college, and doing well and had we not had these bursaries, wouldn't have happened. Family, a single mom, father died in a car accident and the daughter went through on a bursary and she's now to Trinity Western University in the nursing program there in her third, no second year in nursing program and just killing it. You know, these are opportunities for families that they just they wouldn't be able to get without this bursary program.
[00:24:37] Darren Watt: Like it's so incredible. It's so much more than just a fun day. It really makes a difference.
[00:24:41] Troy Van Vliet: It does. It's a huge difference, a huge difference. So it helps continue to build the culture in the school and it's called the Alumni Golf Tournament because we're getting more and more alumni every year, of course, and we're trying to keep them involved in the school. So we want as many alumni playing one day as business owners, maybe even sponsoring what have you. So that's great.
[00:25:05] Have you Jose, And now you're also involved. You play a big part in the golf tournament, with Givergy. You want to tell us a little bit how that works?
[00:25:15] Jose Vargas: Yes. So we use Givergy is a system that we use for multiple purposes. One is it has our website. Yep. So it has all the information about the tournament.
[00:25:26] It has the ticketing system.
[
00:25:28] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.
[00:25:29] Jose Vargas: So we sell tickets through Givergy. It has all the information about sponsorships, like opportunities to sponsor the tournament. And also the live and silent auction. Mhmm. So we do silent auction completely online.
[00:25:47] And this year we are also going to use Givergy. We have some parents from Star of the Sea that have also used Givergy for the events at Sea and they're going to help us with Givergy this year as well. So we're involving parents now.
[00:26:07] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Got to have to pass the torch at some point.
[00:26:10] Jose Vargas: Not
[00:26:11] Troy Van Vliet: that we want you to. Hopefully you'll stay forever, but, yeah, we need help. We can't fall on the same shoulders for forever and ever, but, you've done an incredible job with Givergy because that's a big job having gotten that set up over the years and then operating it. That's a really big job, but it's what is really huge for yes, is reaching out to the greater community, like on the silent auction because anybody can be bidding on stuff from anywhere and supporting the school that way. So, and we've raised quite a bit of money from the silent auctions.
[00:26:45] So those sponsors that are out there that are considering, and we don't, you don't just get sponsorship at the golf tournament. You also get it like, when we're advertising the golf tournament to others, those sponsors names are out there And you'll also be part of the next year's golf tournament because as we are looking for sponsors and advertising for sponsors, for this year, well, we're using last year's sponsors to show as examples of what it's going to look like. So you get a whole second year of advertising from it. And, it goes in papers, you know, after we thank people, we thank our sponsors, it goes out again. So I mean, the sponsors really get some bang for their buck.
[00:27:41] And our sponsors are also invited if they want to hand out any swag, any sort of extra advertising that they want to do at our tournament.
[00:27:51] Darren Watt: If
[00:27:52] Troy Van Vliet: to up at the hole and you talk to people, yeah, promote however you want to promote, because it just, it makes our tournament that much more valid and meaningful.
[00:28:03] Jose Vargas: Yeah. I think there is a lot of value for sponsors because for all of the holes we have signs with the sponsors, logos and all the information that we publish on newspapers, the program itself, the website will contain information about the sponsors. Yeah. So it's a great way for those sponsors to broadcast their products or services.
[00:28:36] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, yeah. That is a way of giving back to your community, right?
[00:28:39] Darren Watt: I want to make a pitch out to our parent community as well. Just, you know, we can never get enough volunteers and people to participate in these things. And this is the golf tournament, the gala are just great opportunities to meet some of the other parents and be part of the community. I think that becomes even more important as the school gets bigger. Like when Jose and I started and joined as families, there were a couple of handfuls of families.
[00:29:02] We all knew each other and everybody, you just had, by implication, you were just heavily involved. You know, I think now that the school starts to get bigger, it's important for that parent community to know like, yeah, you step up, but come forward. We need your help. You know, we can be part of this community.
[00:29:20] Troy Van Vliet: We do. And we've got now the, we have officially the parent participation program. So, you need your PPP hours. And, there's a quasi pay in Liu, which will be more official for next year. Second half of this year, we're asking parents to put in fifteen hours and now we're live with OnVolunteers.
[00:29:41] It's called it's an app that's on or it's a program that's on our website that you can log in and you can see all the different opportunities where you can pitch in the golf tournament being one of them. And, so if you're not involved in the golf committee and planning it, we do need volunteers on that day actually running it as well. So there's lots of things, you know, either, at one of
[00:30:03] Jose Vargas: the
[00:30:03] Troy Van Vliet: holes or you can be, running the putting contests, things like that. So we've always got, we always need volunteers and we're trying to get more of the alumni to come in and volunteer, which we've had, some good success with. And, but the parent community too, like you said, community building, it's huge. We want to do as much of that as possible going forward. So, and, Darren, you also mentioned, yeah, the gala.
[00:30:28] So the Royals ball, same opportunity. So that's a big event, it's a ton of work, a ton of planning. Next year's, Royals Ball might be held at, the school considering that maybe. So in our theater, if we can transform it into our theater is not finished yet, it's a shell. You know, in the past we've been able to transform rooms like gymnasiums and turn it into a ballroom.
[00:30:59] So, that's something that we could be looking at doing that next year as well. So for the Royals Ball, so yeah, anyway, it's being worked on as we speak. Yeah. So lots of stuff happening coming up and we also have the carnival coming up, in the spring. So those that aren't golfers, we have a big, carnival that's gonna be planned in, May.
[00:31:22] It's kinda like a Mayfair. And so the we'll have, you know, what is it? The theme rides or stuff like that. Kids play houses, bouncy castle. Midway.
[00:31:32] Thank you. I need all my terminology for this. And then also stuff like beer gardens, music, live band playing. We'll have tables up for with, crafts, people selling stuff and, yeah so it's going to be another fundraiser once again. I'm not sure if the funds are going that a for the same thing?
[00:31:52] Bursary program. Yeah, can't emphasize enough the bursary program. Know and we know it's a challenging time economically right now for a lot of families and I can empathize with them in that and it's like, okay, well, hey, let's do everything we possibly can to raise money for the bursaries.
[00:32:10] Jose Vargas: Yes. One thing that is also worth mentioning is that when people think of paying the tuition for our school, it's not really that you're paying that full tuition because you get a tax.
[00:32:24] Troy Van Vliet: Thank you for saying that Jose. Yes.
[00:32:26] Jose Vargas: So that really ends up being, you're not, honestly, you end up paying maybe half?
[00:32:33] Troy Van Vliet: Maybe half, yeah. Depending on the tax bracket that you're in. We don't have any really low tax brackets in Canada for most towns. But anyway, yeah, that's a great point. Because our tuition, we've got to pay the tuition to pay for the school.
[00:32:50] And for those that can't, like I said, we've got the bursaries, but yeah, for those that are paying their tuition, and especially right now, with the school being small and we have massive infrastructure costs, it works out that last year, a 100% of the tuition was tax deductible. And that's just the way the math works right now. It won't always be like that, but just because of where we're at with building the school. So that's a big factor that people need to, you know, remind you. Thank you for bringing that up.
[00:33:24] It's a huge point, huge point. And then there's discounts also for those that, you know, that are paying the tuition. Yeah. Sibling discounts. So, our non Catholic brothers and sisters, they have a certain tuition fee and, our practicing Catholics are eligible for scholarships, which basically knocks it down by 25%.
[00:33:47] And then for both groups, for the sibling discount, so if you have a second child, it's 25% off the tuition fee, retrospectively. Third child, same thing, another, an additional 25% off and then fourth child free. So if you do have four, there's a few families out there that'll have four going in right at the same time. Yeah. So that's great news too.
[00:34:13] Jose Vargas: Yes. Alright. The other great thing is now that we're in the the new campus, we have a bus and Darren and I are to share driving. Yeah. So for those people that live in South Delta, Richmond, Cloverdale, you name it.
[00:34:35] Yep. We have a way to get them to and from the school.
[00:34:39] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. And we're adding two full size buses next year. That's the plan right now.
[00:34:46] Darren Watt: Yeah. Was going to say, I mean, it's a conversation we've been having as a society board, right? If we see the numbers, if there's numbers in, you know, any parts of the Lower Mainland, if we can make
[00:34:54] Troy Van Vliet: it work, going
[00:34:55] Darren Watt: try to find a way to do it.
[00:34:57] Troy Van Vliet: And the inquiries over the years, I can't believe, like, you can inquire online and say you want more information and as we're collecting information of the different families out there, you know, there's a question, would you need a bus or, you know, would you be utilizing a bus? Probably 80 to 90% people say yes, you know, it's like, oh wow, okay, there's a big demand. Now we've focused our little bus right now, we focus it on Sacred Heart because Sacred Heart's probably, it's kind of the orphan school out there in terms of it's the furthest away from any of the Catholic high schools. So it's like, hey, you're our school, like come out this way, right? Like come to South Surrey, White Rock to St.
[00:35:33] John Paul. It's So like, but it's a bit of a distance, bit of a drive. So it's like, okay, we need a bus that heads out there. And last year it was like, if you have at least 10 kids coming, we will send the bus out to Sacred Heart. Well, it's full.
[00:35:47] There's 18 on it and we can't take any more now and there's even somebody on the waiting list. So, we said, okay, well, for next year, we for sure have to get a big new bus. And, so we've got a big new bus that's going go to Sacred Heart, maybe stop at Star Of The Sea along the way. And then we thought the biggest, municipality in the Lower Mainland with the most number of kids K to twelve, eighty five thousand is Surrey. Just Surrey.
[00:36:17] Darren Watt: Surrey's a big
[00:36:18] Troy Van Vliet: geographical area. We haven't even got a bus driving in Surrey yet. So, so next year the second bus is going to do the Surrey, well kind of the quasi Surrey Delta Tour but it's going to be Surrey. So Saint Bernadette's, Cloverdale Catholic, maybe swoop out through South Langley as well and, and do that scoop. And, you know, there'll be many stops along the way, we're saying those schools right now because they're actually feeder schools.
[00:36:49] And, we want to be able to, you know, make sure that, you know, that, you know, we can handle the tuition side of things, make sure we're not turning people away for financial reasons. But the other one is logistics. People say, well, I can't get my kid there. It's like, okay, we got a bus. We can fix that too.
[00:37:04] So, and now we're going to have two and we'll see. And we're anticipating those getting filled up pretty darn fast.
[00:37:10] Jose Vargas: Yeah.
[00:37:12] Troy Van Vliet: The other great news is that Metro, the bus service goes, I mean, that goes right in front. So the public bus system goes right in front of our school as well. And we put on our side of the street, a brand new bus stop that stops right in front of the school. Sidewalk goes straight in the front doors, right from the bus stop. So that's great.
[00:37:32] The problem was, is that on the other side of the street, there was no bus and we don't have sidewalks there yet. We're in green space. We're a little bit out there. That's been a problem. So with a little bit of lobbying and a little bit of pushing, we managed to get the city of Surrey to kick in a bus stop on the opposite side of the Yeah.
[00:37:54] Well, I don't think it'll be covered. That might be yeah. Might be, yeah. Beggars can't be choosers there. So we're just happy that it's gonna stop right there because it's it really wasn't safe for our kids to be going.
[00:38:04] So and we have paid in for the traffic light. We have paid for the traffic lights. We've paid for the crosswalks. We've paid for all that kind of stuff. So the city's kicked in to put a bus stop on the other side of the street.
[00:38:14] No, there's no reason why your kid can't get to our school now. Yeah. So That's exciting. And if they so dare to ride their bike there, we've got a lot of bike parking as well.
[00:38:25] Darren Watt: What's funny, know, as I keep hearing all these things that we've done, right? I mean, I think it should send the message that, you know, there's no obstacle, small or great that we can't find a way to overcome in some way. Great. Yeah. Think about like over the past eight to nine years since this started as a vision, all of the obstacles that we've overcome and continue to overcome.
[00:38:45] I mean, it isn't gonna stop.
[00:38:48] Troy Van Vliet: No, no, no, We've just got this incredible momentum now.
[00:38:51] Jose Vargas: Yeah, but even carpooling is still valid, right? Like if you know people that live in your neighborhood that go to the school,
[00:38:58] Darren Watt: then the opportunity is greater because there's so many people that are going to be in the same boat.
[00:39:02] Troy Van Vliet: That's great. We're getting inquiries from people that live in Vancouver that they can't get into the schools in Vancouver. Now there's four Catholic high schools in Vancouver proper, just in Vancouver. I'm not talking North Vancouver, I'm talking Vancouver. There's four Catholic high schools there.
[00:39:19] There's about 50,000 kids K-twelve in Vancouver. And some of our Catholic feeder schools, they can't get into the Catholic high schools because they're full. So some of them now are looking out to the valley and thinking like, wow, they go so far to come to I went from the South Surrey White Rock area. I commuted every day to Burnaby to go to St. Thomas More when I was in high school.
[00:39:40] So when you talked about carpooling, that's what we did. In the mornings, we carpooled and, know, so it was a bunch of families that would get together. We took public bus too at times, but we went through all of that to make sure that education was important to us. And so families got to look into that band together and, you know, or get together and work out carpooling just like you guys did. And you may even just carpool to the bus stop, you know, so that you can get together.
[00:40:10] So, and I know it's been convenient for some families that we stop at the Catholic elementary school because their siblings are going to the elementary school and then, you know, the older kids can come to the high school from, you know, same drop off area. That can work as well. Yeah, that's good. So we got lots of action happening and I'm glad, Darren, you brought that up. All those things that we've overcome.
[00:40:32] You know, we started the first obstacle, well, there's even many more before this, but it's like, where are we going to have this school? You know, and it's like, well, we can do it in portables. We can start it in portables at the Star of the C elementary school. Then so those kids can just continue on and go into, you know, what would be the high school. And then it was Father Dion at the time that said, Hey, well we have the old elementary school that's being utilized for just some daycare stuff.
[00:41:02] Why don't you take that? And instantly we had our own school, which was, you know, it was old, very humble beginnings, but it had everything. Yeah. And we made it work and the kids that got to go to that school, they got a special education. Like it was
[00:41:19] Darren Watt: It was an absolute blessing.
[00:41:21] Troy Van Vliet: It was small and it was something that we could all get our heads wrapped around. You know, our kids are going to get a lot of attention, which they did, you know, they weren't falling between the cracks anywhere.
[00:41:32] Jose Vargas: And,
[00:41:34] Troy Van Vliet: you know, all with the vision to be where we are today. But, it's those humble beginnings, you know, and we had a lot of donors that stepped up and believed in us right out of the gate. Families that, you know, kicked in the enrollment deposits, which got our seed money together. Like these stories go on and on.
[00:41:52] Darren Watt: This is character building stuff that we had the privilege to be part of and our kids had the privilege to be part of, right? And My biggest wish for the school is we take that character that we've developed, right? And we bring that forward
[00:42:06] Troy Van Vliet: and
[00:42:07] Darren Watt: just keep growing it, right? Because it's important people learn about like overcoming obstacles and just having faith and believing in what you're doing and seeing it actually come to fruition. It's great learning stuff.
[00:42:20] Jose Vargas: And seeing how big can you get when you start with a humble beginning, just like sports. And that's the other part of the bursary. Yeah. We have or the golf tournament. We have also support for athletic programs.
[00:42:39] And it's just amazing how far the school has gone in terms of athletic success.
[00:42:47] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. I'm glad
[00:42:48] Darren Watt: you mentioned that too. I mean, that's something that has always struck me the day we joined, like the way that this school is punched above its weight. Yeah. Athletics for such a small school is just
[00:42:58] Jose Vargas: incredible. I have been to other Catholic high schools.
[00:43:02] Troy Van Vliet: They
[00:43:03] Jose Vargas: don't have the number of banners that we already have. And they have been around for many, many years. Yeah. And, I remember, you know, our old gym, it was old.
[00:43:16] Troy Van Vliet: Oh, was old. Volleyballs would hit the ceiling and knock out the ceiling tiles and we were up there on scaffolds every once a week. They're replacing the ceiling tiles and but they had great, great volleyball teams.
[00:43:29] Darren Watt: The first couple of track meets my kids were really into track and the first couple of track meets we went to, you know, had our little, you know,
[00:43:37] Troy Van Vliet: little tent thing. Yeah,
[00:43:39] Darren Watt: tent set up and people coming by and what are these guys? Where are you guys from? Like little school. They sure know who they knew who we are. Yeah, the first season or two.
[00:43:50] And now when we go and I think we've now got two or several tents and we're very well known now.
[00:43:57] Jose Vargas: Yeah. The other aspect that I love is when you are in a big school, access to those athletic programs like football, volleyball, soccer Yep. They're just for the elite players. Yeah. Our school, it's quite the opposite.
[00:44:15] It's open to everybody. Yeah. And you can discover real talent within those kids. And that's what I think enabled us to be so successful.
[00:44:29] Troy Van Vliet: So true. That was an advantage for the the few families that we had in the beginning is that, I know kids would come up and say, Hey, can we have a volleyball team? You know, a grade nine volleyball team or whatever. And it's like, you all have to play. Like as long as all of you will play, we could have a team.
[00:44:50] Otherwise we don't have enough.
[00:44:51] Darren Watt: And you can't be sick.
[00:44:52] Troy Van Vliet: No, you can't be sick. Can't miss anything, you know. And then you got this little, this little team of all and they got good because they all had to play all the time. You know, they, they so it's not like they could, hey, I need a break. No, you can't have a break.
[00:45:07] You got to keep going. And, so we had this little school of 70 kids that are beating schools that have 2,000 kids in them. That's not even an exaggeration in any way, shape or form. And it's like, how is this happening? What is this little school?
[00:45:21] And they're coming in here and, you know, cleaning up. So yeah, these are some, these were some great times in the beginning and now it's expanding that much more. Our grade eight boys did, I think, I think they've won, lost two games this year, Like in the whole season and, they're doing, they're just having a great time.
[00:45:45] Darren Watt: And just with more kids, we're able to open up more programs and now you can open
[00:45:49] Troy Van Vliet: Yes.
[00:45:49] Darren Watt: Whereas we had to choose before, types of teams you could field, what we'll be able to increasingly field more And
[00:45:55] Jose Vargas: that's a good point because some parents were or are worried that their kids are not going to have the sports program at the school because it is small school. Yeah. But it's quite the opposite. They have actually more opportunities at our school than what they would have in other schools.
[00:46:13] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the, I'll speak to the girls volleyball again, a lot of them would not have made a team or maybe it might even be safe to say that none of them would have made the team in a bigger school. But in grade eight, it doesn't matter because whoever plays the most is going to get better and then away you go. And that's exactly what happened, you know, by the time our girls ended up being senior, in the seniors.
[00:46:37] And it's the same thing with all the other sports as well. And it's
[00:46:40] Jose Vargas: great that with the golf tournament and the Royals Bowl as well, we are raising funds, not just for the bursary, but for these kind of programs so that we can hire coaches, we can have equipment, all of those
[00:46:54] Troy Van Vliet: things that are needed for the sports program. Huge. Lots of buildings still to do. Our trades program that's going to be coming up too, industrial trades. We want to make sure kids have those kinds of opportunities as well, introduction at least anyway.
[00:47:09] And so we can cover, you know, a broader spectrum of what we need from our kids as student leaders getting into the real world after outside of high school. Yeah, that's great. Gentlemen, thank you. Thank you for everything that you contributed to, like from day one, going back to the very, very beginning, like we couldn't have done it with these parents all getting together, and you guys have been true champions. And thanks for everything you're doing with the golf tournament and that you what you continue to do.
[00:47:44] Jose, I know your daughter graduated two years ago and you're still here. No, he's somebody, your family, you so believe in St. John Paul II Academy and thank you for your continued dedication. It's very much appreciated. So Once again, May 14 golf tournament, and, there will be, opportunities for, what do you call it, sponsorships.
[00:48:09] So please feel free or not feel free, be encouraged to, to join us in the SJP Duke Golf Tournament because, we have incredible, incredible success with our kids that, that need those bursaries. So Alright. Okay.
[00:48:24] Darren Watt: We'll see you out there.
[00:48:25] Troy Van Vliet: Alright.
[00:48:25] Jose Vargas: And check the link for the golf tournament. It will be in this, below this video.
[00:48:31] Troy Van Vliet: Yes. Yeah. So the link will be in the video and I think it's also on our website. The link is on our website too. So sjp2academy.com.
[00:48:40] Thanks everybody for joining us today and, be sure to join us at our golf tournament on May 14. It's coming up. And, lastly, please like and subscribe, to this podcast. It really helps out. And also please leave some comments.
[00:48:55] We'd love to hear your comments, feedback, anything that you have for us. Thanks for joining us. Have a great day.
[00:49:00} Thank you for listening to Catholic Education Matters. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast on your favorite listening platform, rate it, and also leave a review. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends and family to help spread the word about the impact of Catholic education. Be sure to listen again.