On March 28, Pope Theater presented the first Pope’s Got Talent competition with guest judges Principal Bradford and Wes Robertson.  This year’s winner is Onyx Bermudez who sang a beautifully vulnerable version of “Beautiful Stranger” while playing ukulele.  The talent show was directed by seniors Alexis Allphin and Maya Little.  Congratulations to all. 

Onyx Bermudez, winner

Mr. Groeneveld and four of his computer science students attended Mountain View Elementary School's STEM night. The students operated a coding station and gave away four refurbished laptops at the end of the night. The kids who attended the event loved it and our students did a great job!

The Lassiter-Pope-Kell NJROTC drill team visited Georgia Military College en route to the Regional Drill Competition. They placed 2nd in unarmed basic drill and 3rd in armed basic drill.

The Pope Winter Guard is in full swing, recently named Class A Champions at the ‘Southern Arts Performing Association’ Marietta HS and Cass HS competitions! Our 2024 production, 'The Glass Ceiling', was inspired by the 4-foot-tall statue that sits in NYC. The ‘Fearless Girl’ currently stands facing the New York Stock Exchange building on Broad Street, between Wall street and Exchange Place. A modern-day tourist attraction, the Fearless Girl represents female empowerment as it attempts to shatter the glass ceiling. 

The Winter Guard will be competing locally and on a national circuit this winter. 

•      February 24 - SAPA Show @ Chattahoochee HS
•      March 23 - Winter Guard International Atlanta Regional 
•      March 30 - SAPA Show @ Etowah HS
•      April 6 - SAPA Championships in Chattanooga, TN

Pope’s Wind Symphony performed Immersed at the Georgia Music Educators Association Conference on January 26, 2024 in Athens, GA. The performance was amazing! Mr. Sodders and Mr. Rudolph received the Citation of Excellence Award from the National Band Association. Kara Mackay and Ella Jeffres accepted the GMEA plaque on behalf of the band program, commemorating Pope’s performance at the 2024 In-service Conference. Way to represent Pope! We are proud of you and all of your musicians.

The NJROTC Precision Rifle Team has qualified for Regionals! Pictured here are Pope Precision Rifle Team members Aidan MacIsaac and Kristen Lovell. Not pictured is Pope team member Hayden Krueger.  

Pope’s Robotics Team #30062A competed in the VEX Robotics Over Under Competition sponsored by Cross Keys High School on Saturday, November 4, 2023. The Competition Team consisted of Dylan Mashini, Ari Low, Austin Bruder and Ichiro Okochi. The Pope Team was awarded the Prestigious Design Award for the competition. The Citation reads that the Design Award is presented to the Team that demonstrates the most organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organization. The Team’s Engineering Notebook provided a clear and complete documentation of the Team’s robot design process and the development of their game strategy. 

The Pope Marching Band concluded their competitive season on Saturday, October 28, 2023 being named the 2023 Legacy of Champions, Grand Champions at Carrollton High School. Video of Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fis2klZMQ2A 

The Pope Marching Band was named "Bands of America Regional Finalists" on October 21, 2023 at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Our show "WOOF" is all about dogs... check out this weekends final performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wb3eWYiuBM 

The NJROTC had a successful week, which included an Annual Military Inspection and successful outcome at the Drill Team Competition. 

On October 12, 2023, they had their Annual Military Inspection (AMI). AMI is an annual event held in the Lassiter gym, in which the Unit is inspected by the Commander of NJROTC for our local area (Department of the U.S. Navy). It is conducted to ensure that the Unit operates and maintains U.S. Navy standards.  ALL cadets in issued uniform are inspected for:

• Proper wearing of the Navy uniform (cover, appearance of uniform, insignia, name tag, medals, ribbons, shoes, shiny belt buckle, and polished/shined leather shoes
• Personal appearance (hair appearance & cut to U.S. Navy standards, clean shaven)
• Knowledge – General U.S. Navy knowledge, General Orders & Chain of Command
• Classrooms, Unit Offices, Unit Supplies & files are inspected & audited
• The semi-formal inspection includes an exhibition of armed Color Guard & unarmed drill followed with a “Pass and Review” parade of the entire Unit.

On Saturday, October 14, the Lassiter Pope Kell NJROTC unit competed in it’s first Drill Team Competition of the year at Eagle's Landing High School, and the results were:

• 1st Place - Overall
• 2nd Place - Overall Drill
• 2nd Place - Personnel Inspection
• 1st Place -  Armed Exhibition
• 3rd Place - Unarmed Exhibition
• 3rd Place - Unarmed Basic
• 3rd Place - Athletics
• 3rd Place - Pushups
• 3rd Place - Academics
• 3rd Place - Individual award for pushups Jasmine Marshall-Watts
• 4th Place - Individual award for curl ups Nicole Cadavid

 The team is now qualified for the Regional Competition set for early March 2024.

 Next up: Saturday, Oct 28th - Sprayberry High School Drill Comp.

Pope would like to congratulate the following students who have earned the honor of a National Merit Semi-Finalist:

Cristanne Goodwin, Hayden Menezes, Clara Murray, Jay Natu, Simon O’Connor, Michael Soule and Paul (Trey) Trotti.  About 16,000 students representing less than 1% of high school seniors in the U.S. qualify as National Merit Semifinalists as a result of their outstanding PSAT results.  These students will now go on to compete for the honor of National Merit Finalist and the possibility of scholarship money for college. Your Pope Family is so proud of you!

Pope would like to congratulate the following students who have earned the honor of a Commended Student for the National Merit Scholarship program:  Bryce Chapin, Mircea Ghetu, Caitlyn Holmes, Prakash Mitra, Carly Oubs, William Steiner, Siho Sung, Joshua Tenery, Mateo Weeks, Benjamin Wingate and Sean Yan.  These students scored in the top 96% on the PSAT.  Though they will not continue in the competition for National Merit Finalist awards, they still may be considered for some corporate sponsored awards.

Students at Pope High School earned academic honors from the College Board National Recognition Programs. These programs celebrate students' hard work in high school and showcase their strong academic performance. The academic honors for rural area, Black, Indigenous, and/or Latino students are an opportunity for students to share their strong academic achievements with colleges and scholarship programs that are seeking to recruit diverse talent. 

"We're thrilled to celebrate our students and recognize them for the great work they've been doing. We're proud of their strong academic performance in the classroom and on College Board assessments like the PSAT and AP exams," said Mr. Bradford. "There's so much that makes our students unique, and receiving this honor reinforces this as an asset for their future." 

The criteria for eligible students include:

• GPA of 3.5 or higher
• PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 assessment scores that are within the top 10% of assessment takers in each state for each award program or earned a score of 3 or higher on 2 or more AP exams in 9th and 10th grade.
• Attend school in a rural area or small town, or identify as African American/Black, Hispanic American/Latino, or Indigenous/Native.

Pope's awardees are Anna Callison, Bryce Chapin, Dylan Woodcock, Imanol Chopeitia, Laila Nixon, Madison Satsatin, Maliq Sims, Meghan Pascual, Nicolas Leonardo, and Tyler Wold.