THE BIG MOVE

St. Aloysius School celebrates move into new building

LOWER POTTSGROVE » For the first time in 105 years, students returned to the St. Aloysius Parish School in a building other than the one that has stood on North Hanover Street since the school’s founding.

After a hectic but successful fundraising campaign and just-as-hectic repair and upgrade schedule, the school — now housed in the former St. Pius X High School building on North Keim Street — opened its doors Monday to 239 students.

“I’m exhausted, it’s just unbelievable,” said the Rev. Joseph Maloney, pastor of St. Aloysius Parish and the person who helped convince the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to sell the building for the school’s use.

“As I stood on the sidewalk, I was watching the buses pull up and the kids faces were pressed against the glass because for most of them, this is the first time they were seeing the building,” Maloney said.

“They were very quiet when they came in. I think they were overwhelmed,” he said. “I kept hearing the kids say in amazement ‘we have lockers?’”

“And you don’t know what it was like to see the little ones playing on grass for the first time,” Maloney said, in reference to the pavement which covers all spaces at the older building.

Getting the building ready in time was a Herculean task, said Maloney.

“No one could get in before Thursday and the transformation which took place from then until Monday was amazing,” he said, noting that parents and parishioners stepped up to do much of the landscaping as well.

“We’ve been on a shoestring budget and we only between April and now to get ready and most of everything happened last week,” he said. “It’s truly a monumental accomplishment and it’s the whole parish that did it.”

In addition to getting a new school ready, St. Aloysius also had to hire a new principal — Kathleen Bruce.

“Our first day went very well,” she said in response to an email from Digital First Media.

A life-long resident of Chester County, Bruce wrote on her MOVE » PAGE 3

SUBMITTED PHOTO A young student at St. Aloysius Parish School gets a little help with her locker on the first day of school Monday. This was a special first day as it was the first in the school’s new home, in the former St. Pius X. High School building on North Keim...