St. Luke Catholic School Celebrates Six Decades of Academic Excellence

January 2023

For more than 60 years, St. Luke Catholic School has been a beacon of faith-based learning and development for students, is rated a 4-star A school by the Indiana Department of Education and has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School.

A Legacy Built from Decades of Traditions and Values

Having an established reputation as a premiere faith-based school for more than 60 years, it is no wonder why many of St. Luke’s current students are the second or third generation to attend from within their families.

Building on its Catholic values and traditions, St. Luke is continuing its traditional-progressive approach to Catholic identity and academic excellence. Its educators and administrators focus on providing a wholesome educational experience that maximizes the individual skill and abilities of each student.

St. Luke is an educational institution that prides itself on its ability to fundamentally prepare each student so that they can attain their greatest spiritual, academic, social, physical, emotional and creative potential to make a positive difference in their religious community and beyond. With its ability to offer exemplary academics, St. Luke prepares its students so that they are successful in high school and throughout life.

Growth and Development as a Faith-based School

St. Luke Principal Johnathan Grismore shared more on what makes St. Luke Catholic School one of the archdiocese’s most reputable and successful K–8 schools.

“As of December 2022, we had 566 enrolled, and from this point last year, we have grown 20 students,” Grismore stated. “Since my first year here [2020], we have grown considerably, and St. Luke is one of the larger schools in the archdiocese.”

St. Luke is also unique in its music and STEM curriculum offerings.

“We just completed a significant building campaign, and as a result, we were able to add four fine arts classrooms: two music [rooms] for orchestral and band instruction, a STEM lab and an art room that we opened for this current school year,” Grismore said. “We also added a new kindergarten classroom and a new resource room.”

Grismore elaborated that these additional spaces allow St. Luke to maximize all of its spaces.

“The new spaces allow us to be fully functional,” Grismore said. “We have three sections per grade and can accommodate up to 70–75 students per grade level and still have room for capacity.”

Differentiating Factors

When asked what factors differentiate St. Luke from other area private and public-school options, Grismore explained, “We are a traditional-progressive school, so we are always looking to be better and to be current with the times without losing focus on our roots in our Catholic faith. That is reflected in our curriculum as well. We still teach heavy phonics at the lower grades and cursive writing. We still read, comprehend, investigate and discuss novels. We have not lost our focus on the traditional aspects of education.”

Grismore added, “Part of our mission is to look at each individual child and provide them all of the support they need. I think another thing that sets us apart is that by having three sections per grade level, we’re able to keep the class sizes relatively small. We also have a robust resource department as well as four full-time resource teachers. In addition, we have two enrichment teachers. This year, we’ve added an ENL [English New Language] teacher. We’ve had several families register at our school because of the services that we provide that are not always provided at other schools. And we provide those services in an individualized setting. When you think of a true-to-tradition Catholic community, that’s exactly what St. Luke is.”

Accessible and Affordable

What many folks may not realize is that St. Luke’s student body and parish comprises many families from Hamilton and Boone Counties. Grismore, a Zionsville resident, enjoys a short 20-minute commute to St. Luke Catholic School.

“About 20 percent of our students come from Hamilton County,” Grismore stated. “And we’re seeing an increase just over the past couple of years of students coming from the Zionsville, West Carmel areas. We’re seeing that [growth] as a parish too.”

Though private school tuition retains a stigma of being unaffordable to most of the state’s population, Grismore explained that because of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program and other available resources through the school and parish’s designated programs, financial support is available to most families that might think they wouldn’t qualify.

“The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program is fairly generous,” Grismore emphasized. “A family of four making less than $154,000 a year would qualify. All of the application and registration information is on our website. And you can schedule an individual tour, which we do every week, so that prospective families experience the individualistic approach from the very beginning of their St. Luke Catholic School journey.”

For more information and to schedule a tour, visit school.stluke.org.