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History

In 1910, the late Rev. Joseph Campeau, OMI, pastor of St. Joseph's Parish, had obtained permission to build a parish school for the first grade pupils. This school was built on Fourth Avenue, and the Grey Nuns of the Cross of Ottawa, already at St. Joseph's School were commissioned to teach at this new one-grade school.

The opening of a parish school was now the first step toward the realization of the dream for a parish in the Pawtucketville section of the city of Lowell.

From its modest beginning as a classroom for the first grade pupils on Fourth Avenue in 1921, with the establishment of Ste Jeanne d'Arc Parish, the school expansion program continued throughout the years until 1931 when there were 12 classrooms in the old church on Fourth Avenue, and seven classrooms in the Old Moody Street School purchased by the parish from the City of Lowell, with a total enrollment of 878 children.

It was because of continued demands on the part of parents for a primary school that the old Moody Street Primary Public School had been purchased in 1921.

The Grey Nuns of the Cross traveled daily from St. Joseph's Convent to Pawtucketville to teach 300 enrolled children at the Moody Street Parish School while 163 more pupils attended the first grades at the Fourth Avenue facility.

While the need for a new school had been so evident for many years, and now became more and more imperative, on August 5, 1946 the Parish obtained permission to purchase three lots on Dracut Street and Fourth Avenue. Ground breaking did not occur, however, until August 9, 1950 and the school was built under the direction of the then Pastor, Rev. Donat Morrissette, OMI. The late Bishop Louis Collignon, OMI of Haiti presided at the blessing of the new school on September 28, 1952.

During the seventies, there was a temporary phase-out of certain classes. Since 1976 this has been reversed and the school has had double classes of grades Kindergarten to Eighth through the 1980's and is presently seeing a period of even greater expansion with triple classes in many grades. It is hoped that the spirit which brought about its conception, nurtured it through a period of regeneration, will live on through the challenges of the future.

Philosophy

The child is a spiritual being created in time for eternity.  Ste Jeanne d’Arc School fosters, within the child, an awareness of his/her own dignity as a person.  As a Catholic school, it also helps develop within him/her an appreciation of God’s world and an awareness of his/her responsibility towards God and neighbor.  The curriculum endeavors to provide the necessary material to support his/her spiritual, moral, social, intellectual, and physical growth.

Convinced that their function is not so much to teach as to awaken, the faculty endeavors not only to help form cultured men and women, but also to develop confident individuals able to assume an active role in society, working to establish social justice and contributing to human progress in all of life’s aspects.