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Growth and AdditionsAt the end of the 1940s, the Board realized they needed to upgrade St. John's from a two-room schoolhouse to something larger. When construction began on the new St. John's Church in 1949, the lay brothers, under Brother Bruyère, also added two new rooms to St. John's school. This addition cost $11,314.00. Bishop Trocellier lent $5,908.00 to the Board to help ease the financial pressure. The Board also purchased a used 34-passenger bus, which James Hutchinson drove.
In 1949, Father Lesage succeeded in establishing St. Peter's Roman Catholic School District in Waterways. This meant that the Catholic students in Waterways no longer attended the Waterways school. Instead they attended St. John's school, beginning in September 1950. Unsure of how many children would arrive from Waterways, the Board decided that three teachers--Sister Boulet, Miss Carmen Turcotte, and Miss Therese Desrosiers--would have to suffice. When 107 students arrived, the Board began looking for another teacher, and Miss Blache Regimbalde arrived in October.
Due to the influx of students, the Board yet again discussed adding another classroom. Brother Bruyère had left room on the second floor. The Board, however, had to ask for approval from the Provincial Department of Education before they could use the second floor. The Department denied approval, but St. John's used it as a classroom in 1951 anyway because enrollment was still high. That year, there were five teachers: Sister Marie Boulet, Miss Laurette Marquis, Miss Germaine Somers, Miss Therese Desrosiers, and Miss Loretta Scarbar.
By the end of the 1954-1955 academic year, enrolment had increased by so much that yet another addition was necessary. Now grade eleven and twelve students from the public school system were taking classes at St. John's because the public schools still did not offer these grades. Despite the Protestant-Catholic tensions, some non-Catholic families decided to send their students to St. John's instead of going to Edmonton for the upper grades. Enrolment spiked again. In March 1956, the new Principal, Sister Yvette Lapointe, received approval from the Provincial Department of Education to build a new addition. The new section included three classrooms, an audio-visual room, and a gymnasium. Rain delayed the project past the beginning of the school year in September. On the first day, more than 200 students enrolled, managed by six teachers (Sister Yvette Lapointe, Wally Walcer, Sister Pouliot, Miss Jeanna Durieux, Mrs. Gisele Golosky, and Miss Noella Sequin). The extension was not fit for use until September 1957, during which 224 students were enrolled.
One reason for such growth was the increase in Fort McMurray's population. Another possible factor was that the Grey Nuns had a reputation for higher quality teaching than the public school's teachers. Some families switched schools not because they were Catholic or because their children were entering grade eleven, but because they heard that St. John's was simply a better school.
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Classroom with teenaged students and Grey NunMay 1953
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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Growth and Additions continued272 students were enrolled at St. John's by the end of the '63-'64 academic year, and the Board was confident that the growth would continue. They hired Lonergan Co. to extend and renovate the school, adding classrooms, a library, an infirmary, and a staff room. By 30 September 1964, enrolment was 283.
Anticipating even higher student numbers in the next few years, the Board decided in 1965 that they would need to build a new school. Not only was Fort McMurray's population still increasing at a significant rate, but St. John's original structure and the additions built in the 1940s were condemned and destroyed in 1967 due to their advanced age and deteriorating condition. All that was left of St. John's was the newer additions. More students in fewer classrooms would not work, so in 1968 construction began on a new elementary school. It was named after Father Turcotte. In the winter of 1969, J. A. Turcotte O.M.I. Elementary School opened at last. It held grades one through five. Grades six and up remained in St. John's, which changed its name to St. John's High School.
In the 70s, St. John's High School became St. John's Junior High School. Grades 10 and 11 moved into Peter Pond High School, which was part of the public system. In 1974, enrolment was still growing. The school had to convert the gymnasium into an industrial arts classroom. The Phys Ed teacher was not discouraged; he held his classes in the hallway outside the Principal's office.
In 1983, the Board decided to modernize the school. The project cost almost $2 million and took until the summer of 1984 to complete. While school was in session during construction, Principal McIsaac instituted a rotational program: students had class in one section of the building in the morning while the workers worked on another section, and then after lunch they would switch.
After the modernization, St. John's saw a standstill and then a decrease in enrolment. Fort McMurray's population was shifting from the downtown section, where St. John's was located, into the newer communities of Thickwood Heights and Timberlea. Many students from Gregoire, Beaconhill, Abasand Heights, and Waterways still attended St. John's, but the total enrolment declined nonetheless. For instance, in 1982 the school had 560 students, while in 1986 there were 350 students enrolled.
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Father Turcotte and Sister Lapointe with students in classroom1950-1959
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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ClassesAs society changes, so do the classes schools offer. The Catholic schools of Fort McMurray were no exception. How St. John's students and staff dealt with their culture's changes helped define who they were.
In the 70s, the school attempted to diversify its physical education program, introducing calisthenics, tumbling, trampoline, javelin, discus, and shotpot. Square dancing made its way into the grade 9 program. After squaring dancing's unexpected success there, grades 8 and 7 adopted the activity. Students remember enjoying it and finding it more exhausting than a game of hockey. In 1978 the school changed its focus in physical education to participation, making the class accessible to students of all levels of athletic ability.
The advent of the commercial computer in the 80s demanded that schools add new courses to their curriculums. In 1982, St. John's offered computer literacy courses and in 1984 the Board began constructing standardized programs for this subject.
While St. John's offered a number of courses and opportunities in the arts, these were all optional and specialized. Music was divided between choral and instrumental, art was optional, and drama and dance were separate programs not incorporated into classes.
Religious education courses define the Catholic school system. Unlike public schools, a Catholic school has mandatory classes in the fundamentals of Catholic practice, theology, and morality. St. John's used the Edmonton Christian Living Series for its junior high students. This program was designed to assist students in recognizing the presence of God in their present life experience. The community held certain Catholic celebrations and masses in the school to help in the students' Catholic education. During Lent, members of the Catholic community joined classes in the morning to lead in prayer and readings. Younger students prepared for their first communion and older students prepared for their Confirmation, a ceremony over which the local bishop often presided.
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Lola Isert and Margaret Mercier, teachers, standing outside of St. John's Roman Catholic School1940-1945
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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Life at SchoolAs the years passed, conditions in St. John's Roman Catholic School changed. Class sizes grew and shrank, technology emerged, rules changed, and customs evolved. This development is hard to track, but the memories of those who studied at St. John's give some insights on life in Fort McMurray's first Catholic school.
Mary Redmond offers a look into the school's first years. She recalls that the lay brothers from the mission had difficulty keeping the furnace going. The school was cold so often that she regularly wore mukluks and ski pants in class.
Merle Rudiak, formerly Golosky, recalls attending St. John's School in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The nuns had built a huge log slide in the winter, with two big store cases on each side, and between these cases were six slides. They put snow on the slides and then watered it to make them icy. Sister Sutherland would slide with the children, her cap flying out behind her. Once, the students piled snow at the bottom of the slide. Sister Sutherland came down and went straight into the snow. "She was all wet!" Rudiak recalls.
There were dances on Friday nights. Someone would play the piano while the students danced. Sister Boulet would lift her skirts and tap her toes. Sister Lapoint eventually replaced Sister Boulet as principal and produced the Christmas, Spring, and Easter concerts. Rudiak remembers that the nuns' hands would be red or yellow or blue depending on what costumes they were making at the time. The nuns often made costumes from scratch, dyeing their own material. The weeks before a production involved not only practicing on the students' part but also sewing and fitting on the nuns' part. The costumes always fit well and were quite ornate.
The Grey Nuns helped students who stayed at school for lunch, Rudiak recalls. They made soup and cocoa in the Hospital attic. From there the students carried it to the school's attic, which they used as a lunchroom. The older students were responsible for ensuring the younger students had enough to eat.
When Jean Golosky taught forty-four students in her grade three-four split class in the late 1950s, her students ranged from ages 7 through 14. Some of the older students only went to school for a single month in the fall and a single month in the spring, spending the rest of the school year on the trapline. It took them a long time to complete a grade this way.
Golosky also remembers that there were no substitute teachers, so if a teacher was ill or stranded in Edmonton, their class was cancelled and the students returned home.
Joanne Auger studied at St. John's in the 1960s. She recalls that smoking was not allowed at school, so the students would go outside the fence and smoke. There were no uniforms, but there was a dress code--girls had to wear dresses, not shorts or pants. During the winter they could wear long pants to and from school, but at school they had to wear a dress.
In the 1973-1974 academic year, St. John's decided to adopt the new Open Forum teaching concept. In this program there were three classes of up to 100 students. One teacher taught each class, with two teachers supporting. After the initial excitement, the teachers discovered that the program was not working. Frank McDonagh recalls of the experiment: "We realized it was disastrous trying to function with 100 students between the ages of 14 and 15!" Before the year was out, St. John's had switched back to more familiar class sizes.
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Grey Nun standing with students near slide1950-1965
St. John's Roman Catholic School, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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Teacher ShortagesEven though enrolment had levelled out in the early 1950s, it was still a challenge to keep an efficient student-teacher ratio because teachers tended to leave. Not all of the teachers who remained were considered suitable, either. Father Lesage wrote to the Superintendent of Education in Fort Smith, NWT, "The Principal, Sr. I. Gallant has been transferred to Hay River. Earlier, Sr. Champourx had been transferred to Chipewyan. After the school opening we managed to get two non-Catholic teachers. One of them has now been instructed to discontinue teaching forthwith, because of lack of proper qualifications. The other is a Hindu (no disrespect intended) who has much difficulty to discipline the class. A third one is an addict to alcohol. Thus, the whole school is affected by the adverse influence of those teachers.
"It will take a teacher of strong character to assume the function of teaching in Grades 6 and 7 which have gone 'wild'."
The Board built teacherages and petitioned to the Grey Nuns for more staff, but even these efforts only managed to secure the minimum teachers required. The teacher and space shortage had some unusual results. For instance, Sister Lapointe taught chemistry in the evenings so that students could get their matriculation requirements.
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Sam Morie, teacher at St. John's Roman Catholic School1948
Credits:Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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Catholic Schools from the 1960s to the 1980sJ. 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.
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Father Patrick Mercredi and Father Sylvio Lesage, soccer goalposts in background1940-1948
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:Doris Somers
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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Students RememberMyrtle 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.
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Ricky (Richard) Hawkins as an altar boy1954-1958
St. John the Baptist Church (1950), Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Credits:School Reunion
Fort McMurray Historical Society
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