History
Saint Philip the Apostle Church was built in 1926 and Saint Philip the Apostle School opened in September 1927. It was staffed by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs). The BVMs charism is to share God's steadfast love through education and helping the poor. The BVMs left the school in 1974 and today the school is staffed by lay personnel. The charism of the sisters continues to this day in the school's mission to meet the spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical needs of each student integrating Catholic values and Christian Service with high academic standards.
The parish and school are in the heart of the city of Pasadena, a diverse community of over 148,000 people. The parish has over 3000 registered parishioners and the school is its largest ministry. In 2007 the parish built a new parish hall. In 2008 the parish built a new school building adjoined to the original school building. In 2018 St. Philip the Apostle expanded to include a transitional kindergarten (TK) program.
The school consists of 22 classrooms that include two each of TK through 5th grades, a six-room junior high with Religion, Language Arts, Math, Science, Spanish, and Social Studies rooms, and dedicated art, music, and computer labs. In 2015 the school opened the Learning Commons (LC) for grades third through eight, a state-of-the-art center with a library, multi-use computers, 3D printers, and a recording studio. Additionally, the LC has small rooms for students to work in small groups. For grades Kindergarten through second, the school renovated the old library into the Primary Learning Center (PLC). The PLC consists of a huge book collection, a storytime space, multi-use computers, and an individual learner space for small groups. The school makes full-time use of the parish hall during school hours.
The school employs 20 homeroom teachers, 9 auxiliary teachers, 4 resource teachers, and 17 teaching associates. Additionally, there are 3 administrators, a health room aide, an office manager, an administrative assistant, a development director and assistant, an extended care director, 6 extended care unit leaders, 2 receptionists, 2 maintenance staff, a school psychologist, and a bookkeeper.
The school offers an academically challenging core curriculum as well as music, Spanish, computer and internet literacy, physical education, art, and library classes. In addition, extra-curricular activities include academic decathlon, speech and debate, drama, student council, and chess clubs, as well as football, volleyball, basketball, softball, track, golf, and cross country teams.
The school is committed to serving the educational needs of the children of St. Philip the Apostle parish while continuing its pursuit of excellence.
