23

Sam Morie, teacher at St. John's Roman Catholic School
1948

Credits:
Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society

24

Catholic Schools from the 1960s to the 1980s

J. A. Turcotte O.M.I. Elementary School opened in January 1969, the second Catholic school in the area. Taking the younger students from St. John's Roman Catholic School, Turcotte Elementary helped ease the burden on the overpopulated schools. It opened with 14 full-time teachers and 300 students. During its first years, Principal Frank Peters was busy transforming the school's storage closets into classrooms or offices for new staff members, such as the guidance counsellor.

Good Shepherd Elementary School was named by eight-year old Bridget Churchill, who said that as the Good Shepherd cares for his flock, a Good Shepherd School would care for its children. The school was slated for opening in 1975, but the building was not ready in time. It was not until November that the school was ready for use.

St. Paul's Elementary School was also built in 1975, and like Good Shepherd was not ready by September. Both schools housed students in Turcotte Elementary until they were finished.

Composite High School, a joint venture between the Catholic and Public school boards, opened in January 1977. About one in three students were Catholic. The Boards decided to follow through with this project instead of each building their own smaller high school with limited resources. Composite was known for its trades program. In 1982, however, the Catholic Board backed out of the Composite venture due to its desire to include religious education at the high school level.

Students from Abasand registered in Father M. Beauregard OMI Educational Community Centre, named after Father Maurice Beauregard, for the beginning of the 1978-79 school year. However, as with many building projects in Fort McMurray, the school was not completed by September. The school, known colloquially as the Father Beauregard Edu-Com Centre, was not finished until the New Year. It opened its door on 20 February 1979 to 160 students. This school made an effort to integrate the community into its activities, using its spaces for community group meetings, fitness and Tai Chi classes, and a hospital overflow or emergency holding area.

St. Gabriel's Elementary School was built in response to the growing body of students in the Thickwood Heights area. The school opened on time in September 1981. It received 287 students on the first day, from kindergarten through grade seven. This was 32 students more than anticipated, meaning that on the first day St. Gabriel's was two classrooms over capacity. Due to rapid growth in the Thickwood area, the school continued to receive higher enrolments and had to bring in many portable classrooms.

Father Mercredi Community High School was opened as a way of including Catholic education into the high school curriculum. It opened in September 1982, receiving 700 students. The school's namesake, Father Patrick Mercredi, died one day before the school's official opening on 1 November 1982. One interesting policy at Father Mercredi was the absence of bells. Class length was regulated and maintained by the teachers rather than by a public audio system. This policy was planned to help teachers and students feel less like part of an institution or bureaucracy.

St. Anne's School opened on 3 September 1983 to accommodate the new Timberlea population. It managed to open on time, despite a number of last-minute requirements. Like any other school in an area with a blooming population, St. Anne's struggled to adjust to its growing student body.

25

Father Patrick Mercredi and Father Sylvio Lesage, soccer goalposts in background
1940-1948
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society

26

Students Remember

Myrtle Pacquette started attending St. John's when it opened. At that time she was in grade five and was living in the Old Catholic Mission. Mr. Loiselle was her first teacher, but she remembers that he did not stay long. His replacement was Mr. Duchak. Myrtle would walk to school, even on winter days that were 50 degrees below zero. The room was so cold, she remembers, that the students would go into the basement to hug the furnace to warm up. Sometimes they held class next to the furnace until the room upstairs was warm enough. June was better: not only was it warmer, but there was the annual track meet between the students of St. John's and Peter Pond. This was a very competitive event, and they would train hard each year. Myrtle graduated from grade eight when she was fifteen years old.

Phil Pacquette, one of Myrtle Pacquette's nephews, started at St. John's in 1944 and left in grade nine. He remembers Father Mercredi fondly: "He played basketball, hockey, and baseball with us. Father also coached both our school baseball team and hockey team. We were great rivals with the Peter Pond Public School." He was impressed with the Grey Nuns' dedication and teaching skills. He remembers Sister Lapointe for trying to talk him into staying in school.

Roy Hawkins switched from the public school system to St. John's for his grade eleven year. At that time he had only two classmates, brothers Pat and Lowry O'Coffey. He recounts that St. John's opening was for some students a "traumatic experience," especially in athletics, because students who originally trained together and played together now competed on opposite teams. Despite the split in sports, he remembers that the two schools collaborated on the Christmas concert. They alternated which school hosted the concert from year to year. Later in life, Roy Hawkins had three children--Patrick, Beverley, and Richard--all of whom also attended St. John's School.

Patrick Hawkins graduated from St. John's in 1964, while his sister Beverley graduated in 1966. Their brother Richard started at St. John's in 1950, when he was six years old. His first teacher was Giselle Golosky and his second teacher was Miss Marcotte. In Richard's opinion, teachers were more than just teachers: "They'd spend eight hours a day at school. Then afterwards they would spend time with us, coaching and training us in sports." His First Communion in March 1951 was what he called an "elaborate affair." The students sported a dark suit or a white dress, and an arm band. The girls sat on one side of the church and the boys sat on the other. After communion, they paired off down the aisle and headed to the Grey Nuns' for a large banquet. Richard became an altar boy and recalls that his classmate Ron Henriette tripped over his cassock while serving Mass. He graduated in 1960, and his children also attended schools in the Catholic system.

The Auger family grew up in St. John's. Roy Auger attended St. John's School until his grade twelve year, when he was required to attend St. Anthony's in Edmonton because St. John's could not offer that grade in 1962. His brother Tim graduated in 1966. Their sister Joanne remembers a lot about her years at St. John's. They played volleyball and had their own curling bonspiels. "I remember my first communion," she remembers. "I made it in Grade 1. I was only 6. I had a beautiful white dress." She remembers a number of concerts, more than just the annual Christmas concert. This was partly because Sister Poulet and Sister Lapointe enjoyed music and making costumes. Sister Poulet also loved ballet, so the concerts incorporated dancing. In the Spring 1958 concert, Mary Woodward was the only girl to have a pair of ballet shoes, so Sister Poulet taught her to dance and the entire ballet performance revolved around Mary. Edward Shells was Ukrainian and taught Ukrainian dancing, which became part of the concerts when he was teaching at St. John's. Joanne Auger, like her brother, graduated in 1966.

27

Ricky (Richard) Hawkins as an altar boy
1954-1958
St. John the Baptist Church (1950), Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society

28

Grades 6, 7, and 8 at St. John's Roman Catholic School
1944
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society

29

Merle Rudiak: Student and Teacher

Merle Golosky, along with her five brothers and one sister, attended St. John's School. Merle and her brother Grant went to the public school but attended St. John's for Catechism classes (i.e. religious education classes). When Merle was entering grade six, her mother told her she was being switched into the Catholic school. She remembers that she cried she was so upset because now she would be playing baseball against her friends rather than with them. When she got to the school, her first teacher was Sister Agnes Sutherland, who she remembers as a 'good sport.' At that time Sister Boulet was the principal and called herself 'The Old Bird.'

Merle found the nuns liberal in their thinking. She said as a girl that she did not think marriage should be a life-long commitment, reasoning that at eighteen a person cannot be expected to know whether they could live with someone until death. Rather, Merle suggested, marriage should be a contract automatically up for renewal or cancellation after three years. If renewed, it would only ever last five years at a time. While Sister Lapointe never endorsed this line of thinking, she was willing to discuss it and never said that Merle was wrong.

Merle had originally wanted to quit school in grade ten and join the Air Force, but Sister Lapointe talked her into becoming a teacher. She went to the University of Alberta, where she was shocked by the class sizes. In Fort McMurray, classes might only have a dozen students. In Edmonton, the classes were much bigger. Merle returned to Fort McMurray in 1958 to teach at St. John's, where Sister Lapointe was now her boss. During her first year she taught grades five and six, totalling 35 students combined. 19 of them were boys. She says of the boys, "When they found out I could build a good airplane, they said it was okay for me to teach them." While she only taught at St. John's for one year this time, she returned to Fort McMurray and St. John's again in 1965. She and Jeanne Golosky shared a teacherage and "lived a lot on noodle soup." For three years she taught grade one, during which time she met and wed Peter Rudiak, taking time off for her family.

30

Jim and Jane Lawrence at St. John's School initiation
November 1964
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Mary Jane Peden
Fort McMurray Historical Society

31

The Mystery Student

Frank MacDonagh and Frank Peters reminisce about a student who they refuse to name. He was a renowned lock pick, though he was embarrassed when he could not get into his own locker, having forgotten the lock's combination. This young man had "a heart of gold," even though it was set on the wrong things. The former teachers remember when St. John's needed a Christmas tree and the student said not to worry because they would have one tomorrow. The next morning, a 15-foot tree had been delivered to the school. Amid jubilation at the unexpected gift, the Principal received a phone call. The call was from a local woman who claimed to have seen two boys running away with a tree from her back yard. "Still, St. John's had a beautiful Christmas tree that year," they recall.

Frank MacDonagh also recalls a less charitable misdemeanour. For a $1.00 bet, the mystery student set the school on fire. He went into the attic, stacked paper behind the door, and lit a fire. As he was leaving the building, he ran into Peter Hobbs, the vice principal. Caught in a conversation, he sat on the steps and spoke calmly for an hour to the vice principal while upstairs the fire was getting started. In the end, only part of the school was damaged.

32

Middle school students on steps at St. John's Roman Catholic School
1955
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society

33

Interesting Figures at St. John's School

Jeanne Durieux of Tree House, Alberta, (later Jeanne Golosky) came to Fort McMurray in September 1956 as a teacher at St. John's School. When she arrived, school had already started and her housing, a teacherage for single women like herself, was still in construction. Golosky stayed with a married couple until the construction was finished in October. The teacherage's three rooms consisted of a bedroom, a kitchen, and a living room, with an outhouse out back.

Golosky recalls the teachers of her first year. Nuala Seguin taught grade one in the Church basement and Giselle Golosky (nee Lapointe) taught grade two and some of the grade three students in the school attic. Jeanne Golosky herself taught a combined grade three and four class. Sister Pouliot taught grades five and six, as well as a few grade four students. Walter Walcer taught grades seven and nine, while Sister Lapointe taught grades ten through twelve.

Golosky taught for three years. During her second year of teaching she met and married Bert Golosky, and during her third and final year at the school she gave birth to the first of six daughters. She returned to education in 1968, teaching at J. A. Turcotte Elementary. She remembers that children wanted to learn.

Frank Peters left Ganway, Ireland, in 1965, headed to Fort Chipewyan to teach. He came to Fort McMurray in 1967 as Vice Principal of St. John's, when the school was teaching grades one through eleven. 348 students were registered in September of 1967. He was impressed with Sister Sutherland, but worried about working with Sister Gagnon, whom he thought of as saint-like. After getting to know her, however, he found that she was as human as anyone else. In 1968, Peters was appointed Principal of J. A. Turcotte Elementary, during the school's first year. Later he went to teach at the University of Alberta and at Keyano College in Fort McMurray.

Frank McDonagh came from Ireland to teach in Saskatchewan. He moved to Fort McMurray in 1970 and taught at St. John's for the following decade.

Romeo and Tessie Gonzalez were the first Filipino couple to marry in Fort McMurray. They were both teachers at St. John's.

34

Grade 8 students playing baseball
1950-1959
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society

35

Teenage girls on bus to play volleyball in Edmonton
1965
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Credits:
Mary Jane Peden
Fort McMurray Historical Society

36

The Impact of St. John's Roman Catholic School

Despite a rocky start and on-going staff and resource shortages, St. John's Roman Catholic School provided a key element to the community's makeup: education. During the St. John's Separate School Board's first years, splitting the student population into smaller groups seemed financially unwise and threatened to bankrupt both the public and the separate schools. The dedication of regional bishops and the work of local citizens allowed the school to remain open and adequately funded. Fort McMurray's population expanded after the oil sands companies began to develop the area. When this happened, the presence of multiple schools and school boards became a blessing. As it was, the schools could hardly house the influx of students. The rapid construction of new schools in the 60s, 70s, and 80s indicates that dividing the population was no longer an issue.

The Catholic School Board also provided a different education than the public system. It offered grades eleven and twelve before the public school did. St. John's Catholic School also accepted transfers when the public board could not afford to run the upper grades. At least a few citizens switched into the Catholic system because they believed that St. John's School's quality of education was superior to the public system's. The public system, of course, was unable to call upon the Grey Nuns for assistance. These women taught in St. John's and the other Catholic schools virtually for free, and they worked hard both in and out of the classroom. These factors all contributed to providing a different--and some would argue better--education than the public system.

As far as the Mission was concerned, the primary reason for establishing the Catholic school board was to teach catechism and Catholic values. Unable to insist on Catholic education in the public school system, the clergy that pioneered this Board and others in northern Canada wanted to fulfill Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article guarantees parents' right to determine their child's education. Since its creation, the Catholic board has maintained the value of religious teaching and provided it to those who wished to be a member of their schools.

For more information about the Grey Nuns, read "Northerners Say: 'Thanks, Sisters,'" by Agnus Sutherland s.g.m, and published by Les Oeuvres de M�re d'Youville in 1996. See also "The Bishop Who Cared: A Legacy of Leadership," written and published by Agnus Sutherland s.g.m. in 1995. For more information about the Catholic Schools of Fort McMurray, see "Fort McMurray Catholic Schools Celebrate Their 50th Anniversary 1936-1986," written by Joan Jarvis and published by The Fort McMurray Catholic Board of Education in 1986, and "'Those Were The Days': Fort McMurray All School Reunion August 1, 2, 3, 1981," compiled by Mary-Jane Peden in 1981.