Saint Michael School

Institution founded in 1948, Alma (Riverbend), Québec.

In 1948, at the request of the English-speaking Catholic population of Riverbend, near Alma, Saint Michael School, formerly a Protestant school, became a Catholic institution. In January of that same year, the Catholic School Commission, asked the Congrégation de Notre-Dame to send sisters to teach in the new school. The request was at first refused. However, it was accepted two months later thanks to the involvement of Father Gérard Bujold, of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, who approached the council of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame and requested that two English-speaking sisters be sent to the school. A few months later, Sister Saint-Jean-des-Anges (Margaret Annie McKenna) and Sister Sainte-Agnès-de-la-Croix (Jane Margaret Perro) arrived in Riverbend. They joined Sister Saint-Joseph-du-Temple (Marie-Joséphine Lanctôt) who, since 1947, at the request of Father Ludger Gauthier, had been providing religious education to the Catholic children studying in the Protestant school in Riverbend. The three sisters resided in Saint-Joseph d'Alma Convent. In September 1948, the school opened under the administration of lay personnel. There were eighty registered students. The sisters taught from Grade 1 to Grade 7. Higher grades were taught by lay teachers. Most Reverend Georges-Arthur Melançon, bishop of the Diocese of Chicoutimi, blessed the building on October 30 of the same year. In 1950, registrations increased with the arrival of the Catholic English-speaking students from L'isle Maligne. Two years later, the boys of the school won the boys’ provincial curling championship. In 1960, the school authorities decided to separate Grades 1 and 2 because registrations for Grade 1 had increased. In September 1961, a new method of teaching arithmetic in elementary schools was adopted. There were one hundred twenty-five students. In 1962, the sisters left the school.

Saint Michael School was founded in 1948 to provide education to the Catholic English-speaking girls and boys of Riverbend in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Region. During their mandate, the sisters taught Grade 1 to Grade 7. They also taught Domestic Sciences, Drawing, English and Math to the students of the other grades. The school was administered by the Riverbend Catholic School Commission until 1961 and by the Alma School Commission after that. The teaching sisters were under the direction of the General Council of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame.

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.

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Saint Michael School

Saint Michael School

Alma (Riverbend), Quebec

Institution fondée en 1948

Dernière adresse : At the corner of rue McNaughton

At the corner of rue McNaughton