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Major changes mark end of school year for two schools

Story and photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

This is a spring of finals for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Belleville: May 21 was the 60th and last joint parade and picnic for the Belleville Catholic schools; St. Mary’s, called the Academy at St. Mary’s for the last few years, will close its doors for the last time May 30 as the school merges with St. Augustine of Canterbury for the next school year; and by June 1 Sacred Heart School in Du Quoin will also be closed.

Many parents, and even grandparents lined the streets in Belleville or marched in the parade with their children to Hough Park, the location of the picnic for more than 20 years.

In earlier years, the picnic, with its accompanying carnival games and rides, was held at St. Clair Fairgrounds but moved to Hough where Catholic schools held their picnic during the same week but after public schools so that expenses could be shared.

However, the world has changed, as one elementary school teacher said, before the parade began. Safety concerns eventually brought diocesan officials to the conclusion that youngsters could not be adequately monitored or protected from potential dangers, and the joint picnic will no longer be held.

Marching in the parade for the last time were students at the Academy of St. Mary’s followed by a float announcing the St. Mary-St. Augustine Catholic School. “We Are One,” the float proclaimed, and students from St. Augustine’s followed the float.

Discussions and activities have been under way since the merger was announced. The need for the merger surfaced during meetings held over the past two years among the six city schools, pastors, staffs, administrators parents and those interested in Catholic education. After many meetings, the committee made recommendations to Bishop Edward K. Braxton earlier this year.

Smaller enrollments and increasing costs were cited as reasons to make changes in the Belleville schools, and smaller numbers of students played a major role in closing Sacred Heart School in Du Quoin as well.
While Sacred Heart School has an endowment to pay expenses, the enrollment had dropped to 22 at the beginning of this school year with 11 students in pre-school.

At press time, a May 28 liturgy was scheduled to mark the conclusion of the school year and the closing of the school.

At St. Mary’s, students — present and former — were invited after Mass on May 18 to an open house and tour of the school. Many people stopped by to look at photographs taken through the years.

Greg Bassler and his sister, Patty Bassler Miller, stopped in one of the classrooms to reminisce and see how much it had changed.

Greg Bassler decided the room had not changed that much over the years since he had spent time as a sixth-grader in Miss Lorraine LaChance’s class.

Why stop in this room? Sixth-grade was memorable for both Basslers, they said, because of the teacher. Students felt comfortable and safe with Miss La Chance, and classes were always interesting.

A number of young men who graduated from St. Mary’s School became diocesan priests, including Father Leo Reinhardt, 1943; Father Don Blaes, 1944; Father Roger Karban, 1953; and Msgr. Tom Flach, 1959.
While Father Bob Gore graduated from Cathedral Grade School in 1952, he went to St. Mary’s from kindergarten through seventh grade.

School Sisters of Notre Dame taught students at the school that opened in January 1894, a year after the parish opened, with 75 students in its two rooms.

The school was culturally diverse in 1885 with 60 German children, four Italians and five Bohemian children, who, according to a parish history only spoke their native languages. An added note said 16 other children attended the school who spoke English.

Rooms were added to the school building until 1928 when a contract for a new school building was awarded to Bauer Bros. Construction.

In September of 1934, then Father (later Msgr.) Joseph J. Orlet was appointed pastor at St. Mary’s.
He began the first Catholic kindergarten program in the city in September of 1935, fearing, according to a parish history, that 5-year-olds who went to a public school for kindergarten might not enroll in the Catholic school for elementary education.

In 1939 Miss Stella Wagner was hired to teach kindergarten and was, at that time, the only lay teacher on the faculty.
Msgr. Orlet organized a Mothers’ Club in 1947 to provide a hot lunch program for students, provide for a school library and equipment teachers needed.

All of the diocesan priests who responded to questions about their days at St. Mary’s remembered Msgr. Orlet.
Father Reinhardt lived a block from the school and walked to class every day. Describing himself as “a poor student,” he remembers the monsignor as someone who “really cared about us.”
While he was not active in sports, Father Reinhardt remembers the Scouting program at St. Mary’s. “I was one of the first Cub Scouts at the school,” he said.

Father Gore said students always knew when Msgr. Orlet was around because “you could smell the cigar smoke.”
Students who stopped at the rectory to visit received “a key chain or something like that” from Msgr. Orlet, and the men were always given a cigar, Father Gore said.

Father Blaes described Msgr. Orlet as “a marvelous man, very inspirational and a good role model.”

Msgr. Flach remembers report card time. Msgr. Orlet made “playground and classroom visits at report card time. Msgr. Orlet would distribute the report cards to each student in the school. (There were more than 600 at the time.) If a student did well in studies and conduct (I usually did okay) he or she would receive a pat on the back and smile from the pastor. However, if there were some failing grades or misconduct marks on the report, the recipient would get a gentle tug on the ear and the comment, ‘Ach, Jimmy, Jimmy, what are we going to do with you. You can do better.’”

Fathers Blaes remembers Sister Bernadelle as “delightful, energetic and a lovely person.”
Father Reinhardt remembers Sister Bernadelle as “most inspiring.”


Both priests said she inspired them to think about the priesthood.

Father Karban remembers all of his teachers, from Miss Wagner in kindergarten to the Notre Dame sisters who taught in the school, where tuition at the time was 75 cents.

His first day in kindergarten was memorable: “I simply presumed at least one parent would be permitted to stay with his or her child throughout the school day. To my horrible surprise, my mother suddenly disappeared, and I found myself with 30 totally strange children and one adult who introduced herself to this crying multitude as ‘Miss Wagner.’

“She was the legendary Stella Wagner. Within a few days she turned the once dreaded term ‘school’ into a place I enjoyed,” Father Karban said.

Then Father Joseph Orlet played a pivotal role in the lives of students, Father Karban said, handing out candy to kindergartners on their way out the door each day.

Not only delivering candy to students but also inspiring them to consider vocations to the priesthood, Father Orlet gave them such a strong example that “from the early 50s until the late 60s, St. Mary’s boys always had multiple students in every seminary class. It was a joke at St. Henry’s during my years that St. Mary’s simply enrolled their whole eighth- grade class in St. Henry’s.”

While the traditions at St. Mary’s will be translated into more memories for those graduating this year, the tradition of Catholic education will continue as the merger takes place.

St. Mary’s students will carry their traditions and their name to the newly-formed St. Mary-St. Augustine School.