| St. John Paul II STEM Academy at Bellarmine-Jefferson | |
| Streetaddress: | 465 East Olive Avenue |
| City: | Burbank |
| State: | California |
| County: | (Los Angeles County) |
| Zipcode: | 91501 |
| Country: | USA |
| Religion: | Roman Catholic |
| President: | Dr. Jeff Hilger |
| Type: | Private, Coeducational |
| Grades: | 9-12 |
| Conference: | CIF - Southern Section Camino Del Rey Association |
| Motto: | God helping me, I will do my best today |
| Accreditation: | Western Association of Schools and Colleges[1] |
| Patron: | St. John Paul II |
| Established: | 2019 |
| Status: | Closed |
| Closed: | 2020 |
| Homepage: | http://www.jpstem.org |
St. John Paul II STEM Academy at Bellarmine-Jefferson was a private, STEM-focused Catholic high school in Burbank, California, launched in August 2019. It was owned and administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the former site of Bellarmine-Jefferson High School, which had closed in 2018.[2] St. John Paul II STEM Academy closed in 2020 after one year of operation.[3]
In October 2017, The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced that it would close Bellarmine-Jefferson High School at the end of the 2017–18 academic year, and would re-open after restructuring in 2019. The creation of a STEM Academy was announced in June 2018, with an opening date of August 2019 and Jeff Hilger hired as its founding director.[4] The school would be dedicated to the recently-canonized St. John Paul II.
The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to Archdiocesan schools, and the nascent academy closed in 2020 after a single year of operation.
JP2 STEM Academy had two specialized pathways: Engineering and Media Arts. The academic day was to feature a 4×4 block schedule. Students would take four semester-length courses at a time, arranged in a block schedule. Students would also complete courses in ethics and humanities. In order to graduate, each senior would have completed a Capstone Project.[5]