École Notre-Dame-des-Bois-Francs

Notre-Dame-des-Bois-Francs School was established in 1957 in Arthabaska. Because Saint-Christophe d’Arthabaska Boarding School became too small to receive all the enrolled students, the Bois-Francs School Commission purchased a piece of land on Suzor Street in the centre of town. On this land the eight-classroom school was built. The school took the name Notre-Dame-des-Bois-Francs at the request of the convent-school’s Alumnae Association. The following October, the school was blessed by Bishop Albertus Martin of Nicolet. The founding sisters were Sister Saint-Jacques-Marie (Muguette Beaudry) and Sister Saint-Albert (Angéline Lachance), respectively grade 7 and grade 6 teachers. The other classes were taught by lay teachers. At the beginning of the school year, they received one hundred twenty-six students, both boys and girls. In 1957, Sister Sainte-Aimée-de-Jésus (Marie-Reine Drouin), the superior of Arthabaska donated a statue of Our Lady of Schools to the institution. In 1960, the school commission in the rural area merged with the one of the town. Thus, Notre-Dame-des-Bois-Francs became an exclusively girls’ school from grade 1 to grade 7. The students were offered a variety of courses, such as, physical education, diction and music. In April, the school’s walls, which had been white since it opened, were repainted. In 1962, the teachers’ room became a grade 8 classroom. In the late 1960s, the sisters relinquished the direction of the school to lay personnel.

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.