Open House Shares Plans for Future Building to this Father’s Day event

Open house was a fun event that filled us in on what is currently happening at PACA.

By Annabelle Harper

This photo shows the measurements and layout of the new PACA building.   [by Kevin Flurry, Director of Advancement]

The Open House event at PACA on Saturday,  August 9, incorporated some of the traditional activities to start off the new year while presenting the changes in leadership and the upcoming changes and goals for the future of the PACA community. 

During Open House, one tradition is to highlight Brazilian Father’s Day that often falls on the same weekend as the Open House event.  Both the head of school, Stephen Meier, and the school chaplain, Lucas Ham Swisher, took the time to give many thanks to the dads throughout the assembly. 

PACA’s music teacher, Wesley Penteado, prepared songs for both elementary and secondary students to sing to honor the fathers in the room. The elementary students sang “Eu Quero Ser” and the High School Choir sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”

Meier welcomed everyone and after the Father’s Day presentation, the Father’s Day focus for the Open House was wrapped up. Overall, this part of the Open House is an appreciated part of the day’s activities. 

Mrs. Kathleen Barkley, who has three sons in elementary school at PACA, said, “It was a great assembly that honored dads.”

From then on, the assembly was solely about the school and its developments. The new principal, Mr. Jannie Le Roux, talked about the new leadership team which included Gabbie Freitas as the Elementary and Pre-k coordinator, Joel Rast as the Middle School coordinator, Wesley Pinteado as the High School coordinator, and Renata Portella as the Curriculum coordinator, among other staff. 

Next, they had a video of Renato Sousa, who was not able to attend due to his AASB conference in Rio de Janeiro. He is also the athletics director at PACA and was able to talk about the upcoming sports and the changes to the Varsity and JV teams. The Varsity teams will only consist of high schoolers while the JV team was renamed the Middle School team, and will only allow students in sixth through eighth grade to participate.

Instead of having a Big Eight or Little Ten tournament, the AASB schools will compete in a Middle School and Varsity AASB tournament. The AASB (American Association of Schools in Brazil) association is combining previous tournaments in different locations in Brazil so that all the schools involved can participate in the same events at the same time. 

After Sousa’s athletic department presentation, the expansion plan for PACA was presented by Mr. Meier, Ricardo Silva, and Kevin Flurry. They explained the multiple phases that will go into the process of building more classrooms in a new, four story building next to the covered courts and swimming pool. 

Flurry also explained how the community of PACA can help this expansion project become a reality.  He shared three ways for PACA parents to be involved. 

The first way is for people to recommend PACA to friends. He suggested for parents to invite friends who are looking for a change in environment or looking for a Christian school environment for their children. Flurry encouraged the audience to invite their  friends to the events in which people who don’t attend the school can come and visit. One social event was strategically moved to the first semester for this purpose.  The International Festival will be on September 27, instead of the second semester, to encourage families who are looking to change out of the Brazilian school system at the end of the calendar year.

Flurry’s final suggestion to the audience is to invite PACA to visit their churches. Flurry promised to share PACA’s mission with any church that invites him to come. 

After these expansion plans were given, Mr. Meier gave some closing remarks to end the assembly before dismissing everyone to visit classrooms and enjoy the rest of the Open House activities.  

Mr. Ben Clark, who is both a teacher at PACA, and the father of three students who attend elementary school, showed his appreciation for the assembly being on time. 

“It was nice and short,” said Clark, as he thought the presentations were quick but educational by each of the staff or the “Dream Team.”

 Another image shared with the PACA community showing the colored model of the new building. [by Kevin Flurry, Director of Advancement]