École Notre-Dame-des-Écoles / École Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes / Académie Masson

On September 4, 1956, the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame took on the direction of Masson School and transferred the Grade 1 to Grade 6 students from the Congregation’s own Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Convent in Danville. The founders of this school were: Sister Sainte-Marcelle (Jeanne Gingras), Director, Sister Saint-Claude-Martyr (Rita Hébert) and Sister Sainte-Monique-Maria (Monique Lévesque). As soon as it opened, Masson School, renamed Notre-Dame-des-Écoles, received three hundred and two students. Forty-three were boys placed in an English class that comprised Grades 4, 5 and 6. On October 16, the school was blessed and a statue of Our Lady of Schools was erected in the front of the building.

From the start, the associations Anges-Gardiens, Enfant-Jésus and Croisade eucharistique were present at the school. Courses in diction were added to the general curriculum. Each year on Marguerite Bougeoys’s feast day, students organized a performance to which were invited parishioners, parents and friends. On February 1, 1960, the school caisse populaire was inaugurated and the Grade 7 students were able to make their first deposit. During the 1960s, a high school level curriculum was also offered. In 1963, the school received four hundred forty students divided in eleven classes and one home economics class. At the start of the 1965 summer vacation, Masson School was demolished and the high school students were transferred to a more spacious building which would have the same name and be under the direction of lay personnel. The elementary levels returned to Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Convent.

NB: This text was written using documents found in the archival holdings in our possession and does not constitute a complete administrative history of the teaching establishment.