St. James the Less Academy offers an authentic Catholic education in the liberal arts tradition rooted in truth, goodness, and beauty. It seeks to serve the parish and larger community, and partner with families to create a dynamic community grounded in faith. The school offers an environment in which children love to learn, are formed in virtue, and flourish in their God-given gifts allowing them to joyfully respond to Jesus' plan for their lives.
“The specific purpose of a Catholic education is the formation of boys and girls who will be good citizens of this world, loving God and neighbor and enriching society with the leaven of the gospel, and who will also be citizens of the world to come, thus fulfilling their destiny to become saints.”
—Archbishop J. Michael Miller
About our School
SJL Academy strives to respond to the needs of parents, the primary educators of their children, to assist them in providing the best return on the greatest investment they will make: the education and formation of their children. This is done through a rigorous liberal arts education with a content rich curriculum and intentional formation of students and their families, especially in instilling virtue and handing on of the beauty of the Catholic faith to the next generation.
Our Mission
St. James the Less Academy forms students in collaboration with their parents by the model of Jesus Christ through a rigorous classical liberal arts education that cultivates the theological, intellectual, and moral virtues so they may persevere to meet their God-given potential to become mature, complete persons in service to the Church, their country, and society.
Our School’s Motto
Perseverantia perfecti: “Perfected through perseverance."
Derived from James 1:4: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete (perfect), not lacking anything” and James 1:12: "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."
Perseverance is the key virtue to becoming a mature adult. Our students will face many challenges in life: Spiritually, academically, professionally, on the sports fields, in their relationships. Life has many seasons, many ups and downs, much adversity, and so a life well-lived crucially requires perseverance. And this is why perseverance is the central virtue of St. James the Less Academy. Perseverance is the key virtue instilled in parents, teachers, and students at SJL Academy. But perseverance is not a trait purely cultivated by our own efforts. Indeed, wholeness, holiness, maturity, completion, perfection, or excellence is not something we achieve without God. We have to desire excellence and must constantly start again and again in seeking it. We do this in imitation of Our Lord and with the grace of the Holy Spirit. We must continuously choose to run the race and run it well as God guides us in our path to the finish line. At SJL Academy, perseverance will be the inspiring watchword to help our students thrive and flourish on their journey to excellence.
“Education cannot be neutral. It is either positive or negative; either it enriches or it impoverishes; either it enables a person to grow or it lessens, even corrupts him. The mission of schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful.”
—Pope Francis