Final day
It was an emotional farewell for St. Agatha Catholic Elementary School teachers and students as doors closed for good
ST. AGATHA — It was the smallest Catholic School in Waterloo Region and also the oldest. Now it has closed for good.
Tiny, spirited St. Agatha Catholic Elementary School in Wilmot Township struggled to stay alive as enrolment fell to 85 students and the building fell into disrepair.
Two attempts by the school board to close it, in 2008 and 2014, failed. But earlier this year, trustees voted 8-1 to pull the plug.
And so on Friday, students, staff and teachers said their final goodbyes.
At 3:10 p.m., as a bagpipe played, students walked out of the building in single file, youngest to oldest. Most were wearing the bright green school T-shirt, which said “Once A Gator, Always A Gator.”
Teachers and staff stood in a line and gave each student high-fives on the way out. Some of the older children hugged each other, sobbing.
Teachers tried to stay upbeat. “Kids don’t understand when adults are crying,” said principal Mary Mayer.
But she also admitted that “it’s breaking my heart” to see the unique culture of this country school disappear. “Rural education is a gem,” said Mayer. At Christmas time, parents gave her baskets of food they’d grown or made themselves: onions, garlic, sausage, jams.
In her six years at the school she came to understand that many parents wouldn’t pay online ahead of time for their kids’ pizza lunches, but they’d find the cash the day before, in the nooks and crannies of their trucks.
Local service clubs supported the school with public speaking contests, kids-to-camp programs, and quiet acts of kindness for a local low-income family, which meant their son could play hockey.
The small size of the school meant she knew not only the children’s names, but also the important details of their lives. She knew which child was sad because the family dog was sick and had to be put down, and she knew which child needed to call home to report that
he had had a good day.
At a school with 700 students, she would never have been able to pay such close attention.
St. Agatha School started in 1835 as a log building that housed both Catholic and Protestant students, and also served as a church and a home for the priests, according to the school board’s website.
It was always connected to the village’s Catholic church, now half a block away.
“We walk to mass,” Mayer said. “Over a third of the kids are in the (church) choir … singing their hearts out.”
Two weeks ago, the whole school went on a field trip to African Lion Safari, and the church priest came along too.
But a school being right beside a church, or being good for vulnerable children because it’s small with a family atmosphere, are not factors that trustees consider when deciding whether to close it.
On Friday, as the school day drew to a close, parents waited outside for their children. Some noted acerbically that the province has just announced a strategy to help small schools survive in rural and northern areas. But the plan is too late to save St. Agatha. Next year, these children will be split up. Some will go to Holy Rosary in Waterloo, which is nearly four times the size of St. Agatha. Others will attend St. Clements in the village of the same name. Still others will go to the closest public school.
“I’m trying to keep an open mind,” said Melissa Purdy, whose six-year-old twins will attend Holy Rosary next year.
“It’s sad. It’s definitely going to be a loss for the community.” ldamato@therecord.com, Twitter: @DamatoRecord