We like Judge the best of local HS options. We think the school is solid in some areas, yet worry…read morethat it veers into style-over-substance elsewhere. We see room for reflection and continuous improvement.
At an authentically Catholic school, Catholic beliefs and doctrines, as well as Catholic prayer and worship, comprise the cornerstone of mission and identity. Judge is Catholic-lite. Only 50-60% of the student body is of the flock, most of whom are cafeteria Catholics. Each year a swath of students matriculate from non-Catholic middle schools, including McGillis (identitarian and politically left) and Carden (informally LDS). There's lots of secularism. Judge is not going to make the Cardinal Newman Honor Roll. (More traditional families within the diocese, feeling marginalized, have broken off to open a Chesterton Academy.)
Our family esteems fostering an expansive worldview. We don't believe this gets accomplished by creating colorful flyers or curating photo ops to pat oneself on the back for appearing woke. We worry that the school gets so preoccupied with the buzz immediacy of virtue signaling that other facets of mission that steward school success become obscured and neglected.
Judge eagerly advertises that it is "diverse and inclusive" on every marketing material it produces. Meanwhile, the school remains comparatively quiet about a legacy of academic excellence, opportunities for discovery and exploration of subject matter, helping students develop effective tools of critical inquiry, instilling habits of mind that position pupils on a path of life-long learning, threads of spiritual life, mature behavior, or intellectual honesty.
We would like to see Judge redouble efforts to incorporate the latest research findings into a carefully calibrated sequence of classes, programs, and activities. We'd like to see students read Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas of Aquinas, sharpen their logic and rhetoric, and understand seminal developments in Western civilizations as a wellspring of modern human progress. We'd like a laser focus on the best opportunities in math and science.
Judge excels at making students individually known, seen, acknowledged. No one is left to wilting anonymity. This is a strength of the school. That said, there is hand-holding. Sometimes too much, particularly with certain families.
We wholeheartedly wish admissions policies were more stringent. As Judge endeavors to get a firm handle on issues that have plagued the school for years (drugs, declining enrollment), more and more talented 8th graders from the top 2 Catholic schools are rerouting to West and Skyline. Judge could do so much to mitigate this by checking certain problems before they ever enter the door!
Judge has a solid population of high flyers but we are blown away by how unambitious a chunk of the student body is. Why in the world would parents pay over $10K/year for HS in order to have their student go on to Salt Lake Community College? This gobstopping scenario is not as uncommon as one might imagine.
We'd like less emphasis on football and don't think any HS sport needs to hold conditioning earlier than 7:00 a.m. Just not healthy for teens.
The physical space of Judge is a ticking time bomb--dated, financially insolvent to fix, not enough acreage. The diocese aspires to sell the property and embark on a new campus at St. Ann's. If this project is moving forward (hopefully it is but a bit shrouded in mystery), it's doing so at a snail's pace.
The diocese regards teaching as a vocation and pays teachers hideously low wages. It is so egregious that as of 2016 they longer publish their educator salary schedule in the public domain. Diocesean schools rely on hiring unlicensed. No one is National Board Certified. Judge can't offer an IB program. In spite of this, there are tremendous educators on the faculty. As these stalwarts gray, the school needs to have a plan to hire and retain quality replacements.
Ultimately Judge does offer a debonair social network. Akin to a giant fraternity/sorority. Families remain connected to Judge for across generations. The more wealth and generosity you bring to the table, the more access and leeway you receive in return.
