École Sainte-Jeanne-D'Arc / École Sylvestre

In 1921, the Office of Roman Catholic School Commissioners of the City of Sherbrooke had a chapel temporarily set up in the basement of Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc Church. This small chapel served as the very first school for the children of the parish of the same name. Father Olivier-Zacharie Letendre, the parish pastor, strongly opposed this decision. He was concerned that this would delay the official opening of a girls’ school in the area. The modest school contained only one classroom where a lay teacher received about sixty girls. Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc School was established finally two years later on the premises of Racine School at 1215 Kitchener Street. Girls occupied the first floor of the boys’ school under the direction of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. The Congrégation de Notre-Dame agreed to send two sisters to teach at the school. A wall in the hallway separated the school from the brothers’ residence. The sisters had five rooms, one of which served as parlour, refectory and kitchen. In 1923, Sister Saint-Honoré-de-Marseille (Adéline Guimond), the director, and Sister Sainte-Marie-Olympe (Marie-Alma-Flore Thérien) received one hundred seventy-five students from pre-school to grade 2. The sisters did not expect so many registrations and had only about forty desks available. In 1941, due to lack of space, the School Commission authorized the sisters to rent the former Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc Church in order to build four additional classrooms. In 1948, a coalition led by Father Albert Gravel was formed to request the formal construction of a girls’ school in the parish.

In September 1951, Sylvestre School for girls was established. The school was named after the notary Ernest Sylvestre, who had been president of the School Commission for many years. When Racine School was made available, it once again became a boys’ school. Because the new construction at 1020 Kingston Street was not quite completed, the beginning of the school year was postponed to September 17. The new school included ten classrooms, a sisters’ residence, a chapel and a recreation hall. The sisters and five lay teachers taught two hundred seventy-one students from pre-school to grade 9. The young women were also offered classes in housekeeping, sewing and piano. On October 26, 1952, Notre-Dame-de-Sherbrooke Alumnae Association was established during an event which gathered about two hundred former students. In 1957, the commissioners asked that the Congrégation de Notre-Dame sisters cede the school’s direction to the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

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.