 In 1989 a College Board was established and St John's was confirmed as an independent school of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.However, with the departure of Principal Father Robert Irvine at the end of the 1990s, the direct association of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart within the college ended and led to the appointment of the first lay Principal, Gerard Keating.The college crest is emblazoned with an eagle, which alludes to artistic representations of the college's namesake, Saint John the Evangelist, which in turn symbolises the heights to which he rose in the first chapter of his Gospel.