SACO — Thursday was the end of the school year for Notre Dame de Lourdes School ”“ it was also the end of an era.
Children walked through the doors for the last time this week, as the school will consolidate with St. James School in Biddeford in the fall.
Notre Dame School was founded in 1929, and for 22 years classes were held at the former Notre Dame de Lourdes Church on Cutts Avenue. The school moved to its Beach Street location in 1951, where it served students through this year.
Patricia Berthiaume, principal of Notre Dame de Lourdes and St. James, and Donna Wermenchuk, Good Shepherd Parish Catholic Education Board member and parent of two Notre Dame students, described the feeling before a barbecue Thursday night at the school as “bittersweet.”
Berthiaume said the school community is moving forward and the two school families are coming together.
Wermenchuk said they were acknowledging the past and the 82 years the school has served Catholic students, while mourning the closure.
“The home is the heart of the family, and this is our home,” said Wermenchuk.
At the same time, the two said they were looking forward to the future at St. James. Wermenchuk said the two schools have already been working together, with the same music teacher and food service, and students from Notre Dame have gone to St. James for band classes.
The two schools have shared the same principal since the 2009-10 school year.
David Gadbois, business coordinator for Good Shepherd Parish, said after getting formal approval from the diocese, the Notre Dame school property will go up for sale.
In a letter to parents dated Feb. 1, Daniel Bastarche, chairman of the Good Shepherd Parish Catholic Education Board, and Msgr. Rene Mathieu, pastor of the Good Shepherd Parish, stated the board had recommended, “with a heavy heart,” a proposal to merge the two schools. The two cited, among other reasons, increasing costs to educate students, declining enrollment, reduced offertory collections and the desire to maintain an affordable rate of tuition as factors that have caused them to take steps to ensure that Catholic education remains available for local children well into the future.
A month later, it was announced on the parish’s website and in the parish bulletin that the proposal was approved by Bishop Richard Malone.
In an interview in April, Gadbois said there were 59 students at Notre Dame and 156 students at St. James. He said by merging the two schools, the parish can redeploy some of the money it took to heat and maintain a second building and put it into education and enriching curriculum.
Gadbois said there is a trust set up for St. James, and should the parish close the school down, it would lose the endowment. Also he said, St. James has more space, more advanced computer labs, and has “a key amenity” in the nearby St. James Hall, a facility used to hold events.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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