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VII
A School Is Opened and a Tradition of Education
Is Begun
he year
after the new church opened, St. Francis of Assisi began its tradition of
education, which has now touched three generations. Its school opened for
grades 1, 2 and 3 on September 12, 1955, under the auspices of the Sisters
of St. Joseph, an order based in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. A history of
the school compiled by Tom Nugent in 1995 described its origins.
“Monsignor Daly had orchestrated the dedication
of the new church in November of 1954 – and then had proceeded,
full-speed ahead, with the plans to convert the older, one-story structure
into a parochial school ... Newly renovated and outfitted with desks, coat
racks and blackboards, the new, one-level school contained four classrooms,
an assembly room, restrooms, a sisters’ room, and office for the
principal and a temporary
clinic.”
clinic.”
Sister Joseph Leonore taught the 25 first-graders.
Sister Grace Martina was in charge of the second grade. Mother Virginia
Teresa served as principal and taught third grade, the group that would
have the honor of being the first graduating class of St. Francis of
Assisi, on June 11, 1961. For the 1957-58 school year, when that class was
in the fifth grade, the parish had added a second floor to the school to
accommodate its growing population. Nancy Assero remembers having the honor
of placing her signature on a wall before it was covered with a blackboard.
Even with the second floor, there was not enough space. When the Doerfler
family moved in 1968 from the Belair-Edison neighborhood into Mayfield,
they were told that there was no room at the school for their children, and
that they should continue to have them educated at
Little Flower.
Little Flower.
Many students were touched by Bettye Bailey, who was
a fixture on the faculty from 1961-91. Esther Craig sent all 10 of her
children to St. Francis of Assisi School. The Moriconis sent along their
seven children, and the Waldts sent eight through the doors of the parish
school. Those growing bodies and minds needed to be developed. While the
Sisters saw to their spiritual nourishment, the men and women of the parish
stepped forward with instruction and guidance that broadened their
horizons. A Peabody Conservatory-trained member of the adult choir began to
volunteer her time teaching music in the school. Eventually, Mrs. Geraldine
“Miss Geri” Broccolino developed a children’s choir, and
she always had love in her heart and a song on her lips.
“The first time I ever saw ‘Miss
Geri,’ was over at the rehabilitation center at Montebello State
Hospital,” choir member Hedy Droski said. “As part of the
parish’s community service, she was teaching music to the children
who were in a special education program there. Geri was always involved in
working with kids, and eventually the school added a position for her on
the staff. I joined her on the adult choir in 1976. She was queen of the
parish even then, the longest-standing member of the choir.”
The late “Miss Geri” oversaw elaborate
Christmas plays and spring musicals, and found no shortage of
like-
minded volunteers. Father Joseph Kerr, one of the parish priests who served under Monsignor Daly, was a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, and one year he directed the children in a production of the “Pirates of Penzance.” Earlier, May Processions during the days of Father Nestor had been elaborate ceremonies, with First Communicants, members of the Holy Name Society, Ladies’ Sodality and the Junior Holy Name Boys marching behind their respective banners in a pageant that stopped traffic on Harford Road.
minded volunteers. Father Joseph Kerr, one of the parish priests who served under Monsignor Daly, was a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, and one year he directed the children in a production of the “Pirates of Penzance.” Earlier, May Processions during the days of Father Nestor had been elaborate ceremonies, with First Communicants, members of the Holy Name Society, Ladies’ Sodality and the Junior Holy Name Boys marching behind their respective banners in a pageant that stopped traffic on Harford Road.
Out on the white top and across Chesterfield Avenue
in Herring Run Park, the children of the parish found an able and willing
legion of men, and then women, who would guide them through an assortment
of sporting pursuits under the CYO banner. Joe Hession recalled to Nugent
the city championship won by the girls’ softball team in 1967. That
was the year that Al Udris was recruited to coach by Tom Bodie and Ed
Angeletti. Udris raised four children, and all attended school at St.
Francis of Assisi. In the spring of 2002, he was still donating his
expertise, coaching his granddaughter Lindsey’s softball team.
One parishioner’s volunteer hours became one of
the links in the chain of events that would figure in a second expansion of
the school. Renee and Jerry Buettner have four daughters. In the late
1980s, as she pondered how to prepare their youngest, Mary, for
kindergarten, Renee ran a basketball team that included one of her older
girls through practice at the gym at nearby St. Matthews United Church of
Christ. A light bulb came on, and thus was born the Mayfield Christian
Preschool in 1989, a joint ecumenical venture between the two
congregations. The children who were taught by Renee Buettner that first
year will be high school seniors during the 2002-2003 school year.
“It started on a shoestring, and was in
God’s hands from day one,” Buettner said. “There was a
preschool room down the hall from the gym at St. Matthew’s, so the
space was available. It took a year to get it up and running, but a
man who had grown up in Mayfield worked for the city, and helped
streamline the licensing process. We were going to have to install a fence
around the play yard there, but an inspector stood outside while we played,
counted two cars in a half hour and said it wouldn’t be necessary. We
had no money to start with, and we were using tables and chairs designed
for much older children. I remember little Claire Maylor’s feet
dangling two and a half feet off the ground. I said to Sister Judith
Gallen, who was then the principal of St. Francis, ‘we have to get
some tables.’ That was our first purchase. It was an exciting
adventure. If a spot teaching first grade at St. Francis hadn’t
opened, I’d still be there.”
The Mayfield Christian Preschool helped boost
enrollment at St. Francis of Assisi, but soon phonics
classes and small group instruction were being conducted on the stairs between floors. Leadership of the parish had shifted in 1980 from Monsignor John Daly to Father William Burke, and toward the end of his first decade, a Restoration Fund was established. Between 1989 and 1992, approximately $325,000 was raised for improvement and repairs to the church that was now nearly three decades old. The success of that campaign, conducted under the guidance of the Moran Company, was the inspiration for a movement to expand the school one more time.
classes and small group instruction were being conducted on the stairs between floors. Leadership of the parish had shifted in 1980 from Monsignor John Daly to Father William Burke, and toward the end of his first decade, a Restoration Fund was established. Between 1989 and 1992, approximately $325,000 was raised for improvement and repairs to the church that was now nearly three decades old. The success of that campaign, conducted under the guidance of the Moran Company, was the inspiration for a movement to expand the school one more time.
“That money for the Restoration Fund came in
over a three-year period,” Father Burke said. “That gave us the
strength, we knew that the potential was there, to do a campaign for the
school.”