Website: stmarysparishcp.com

A message from
Father Augustine Mendonca

Parish is God’s family, where we worship, praise and thank God together; where our children learn about God; where we are nourished and refreshed by the presence of Jesus, especially in the Holy Eucharist.  Where it exists, a Catholic school is an integral part of a parish community.  For me, a Catholic school is a gift of God to a parish.  Therefore, I consider St. Mary School as a God’s gift to our parish family.  As pastor of the parish, I will make every effort to participate in everything that is going to happen in St. Mary School during the coming year.  I am proud of our little school.  We are blessed with a great principal, wonderful teachers and excellent support staff.  I am grateful to God for this gift.  I extend to all teachers, support staff, volunteers and students a very warm welcome and wish you all a very happy and fruitful year.  Together, we shall strive to make Jesus the centre of our lives, both in the school and in our homes and shall build a truly vibrant parish family, where children come first!  May God bless you all in the new school year.

The official opening of St. Mary School was celebrated on September 17, 1959. The school consisted of three rooms where grades 1 to 8 were taught. It also included a teacher's room with kitchenette, storage room, caretaker's cleaning closet and the boiler room.

In 1959, the school population totaled 85 students. Kindergarten education was not funded until the 1950's and junior kindergarten had not yet been conceived. Within two years the school needed to add two more classrooms. In 1968, increases in the school population demanded a further addition including two more classrooms, a gym and a kindergarten room. With its focus on sports, the school's population continued to increase and further expansions were necessary. The official opening of the "Richard Herlehy Addition" took place on November 20, 1983. The two-storey addition included a library and three new classrooms, one of which was the new Junior Kindergarten room which was first piloted at St. Mary School in 1982. In 1985, St. Mary's introduced French Immersion in grades 5 to 8. All of these improvements made St. Mary School a flagship school both in Carleton Place and the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Separate School Board.

Sports were not the only events conducted at St. Mary School. The school has always had an excellent music program, and through the diligent work of the teachers and volunteers, over the years the students performed many musicals and choir presentations.

St. Mary School celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1999. St. Mary School started out as a three-room school house with 85 students and within 40 years, grew into a large school of over 580 students and a staff of 45. In 2003, it was once again a small school sharing half of its population with the new St. Gregory School. In 2008, the two schools were reconfigured and Junior Kindergarten to grade 3 is now offered at St. Gregory School and grade 4 to 6 is offered at St. Mary School.

Primary Source of Information: Beacons of Faith, The Story of our Schools, Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, 2004.