The St. Mary’s Elementary School community is celebrating the school’s 90th anniversary this year, nine decades of integrating the values and traditions of the Catholic faith into each students’ high-quality academic studies, while also celebrating the uniqueness of each child by fostering their ability to analyze and think critically as well as instilling an excitement for learning.
School History
The Church of St. Mary, which was established in 1854 and became an independent parish in 1912, rapidly became large enough to support an elementary school as more and more young families with children joined the parish community. On Sept. 14, 1925, pastor Father Ambrose Dunnigan laid the cornerstone for St. Mary’s Elementary School. He invited the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Scranton, PA, to come teach and in February of 1926, the school opened. Eight years later, when St. Mary’s opened for the 1932-33 school year, two new teachers had been added for a total of eight—one for each grade. The school now offers the Early Childhood Education program of nursery, pre-k and kindergarten as well. Originally a part of the Diocese of Brooklyn, the parish and school became a part of the newly created Diocese of Rockville Centre in 1957.
When the sisters first arrived in 1926, they lived in a wooden house behind the school building. In 1929, Father Francis Coppinger, pastor of the Church of St. Mary, purchased the house between the church and school to serve as a convent for the sisters. Though they no longer actively serve St. Mary’s, their years of dedication and service to educating and nurturing the minds and hearts of St. Mary’s students lives on.
Over the years, as the student population grew, an expansion of the school facilities became necessary. The latest and largest major renovations happened under the pastorate of the late Monsignor John J. McCann, who led the Church of St. Mary from 1998 until his retirement in 2015. As pastor of St. Mary’s, he tackled the parish’s need for more space, forming a building committee to analyze what could be done. The old elementary school gymnasium was found to have structural problems so Wiest Hall was demolished and a new gym, with a full-size basketball court, was built underground. Two levels of classrooms were added above the new gymnasium and this new wing of the elementary school was dedicated as McCann Hall in honor of the pastor. The renovations amounted to an additional 30,000-square feet to the elementary school building.
Technology, Extracurriculars and the Arts
Since the founding of St. Mary’s Elementary School, technology has grown in leaps and bounds, and the school has taken advantage of all it has to offer. The school building is now set up with wireless access, children at every grade level work with Smart Boards in the classroom and the middle school students are issued iPads to complement their curriculum.
At St. Mary’s, the school day doesn’t end when the final class bell rings. With the addition of many extracurricular activities, including competitive sports programs, students are encouraged to participate in academic and social clubs such as Mock Trial, American Sign Language, coding, science club, the newspaper, chess and board games, as well as arts and crafts.
St. Mary’s also believes in art education and the value of the performing arts. The school added a marching band in the 1970s and students today continue to take lessons and perform in school concerts. Music classes and the school chorus encourage an appreciation for music. The school’s 12-year partnership with The Josephine Foundation allows St. Mary’s middle school students to work alongside theater professionals to learn the ins and outs of working onstage and behind the scenes to put together a theater production, such as last year’s musical Peter Pan and this year’s Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Teachers Are Special
Though the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were the first teachers at St. Mary’s Elementary School, lay educators eventually followed. Over the years, many dedicated and talented teachers have walked the halls and classrooms of the school, not only educating but nurturing the hearts, minds and spirits of the children of St. Mary’s. They have created the best academic environment for the students here. For some faculty, the St. Mary’s community was such an inviting place they remained, dedicating their lives and careers to advancing the academic and spiritual well-being of its students. They have watched and contributed to the growth and changes in the students, the curriculum and the technology while helping to keep fundamental aspects—providing the best academics as well as emphasizing to live out the Gospel values and practicing of faith—at the heart of everything St. Mary’s does.
Maria Swanberg has been a first-grade teacher at St. Mary’s for nearly 40 years, starting her career here in September 1978. She noted that since then, there have been some changes at the school. “The students are so much more advanced today than when I first started,” she stated. “The work that they’re doing now used to be done in second or third grade. There seems to be more research that children are capable of learning at this level.” One important thing has remained the same over the years, however: “The Catholic faith,” said Swanberg, “the strong faith that’s here.” And that has played a big role in why she has been at St. Mary’s for so long. “I am very spiritual and this is the perfect venue to share that with the children. When I became a Eucharistic minister in my own parish, one of the reasons was because I wanted to be a model for my students. I really do instill a love of religion and the faith in them. We bring God into everything. You can always bring up God’s name no matter what you’re doing.”
Assistant Principal Elaine Drzymalski has also spent close to four decades at St. Mary’s, starting as a teacher in 1977. She noted that over the years, “technology changed teaching in general and teaching math for me in ways never even imagined.” Since becoming assistant principal in 2000, “I’ve had the opportunity for more interaction with the younger students, who never fail to surprise me,” she said. “On a daily basis I still learn from the students and hope that my math students develop a love of math and achieve their potential. This is a ‘job’ that I enjoy and look forward to each day.”
The qualities that make St. Mary’s special have kept some teachers here for years and still draws new teachers today. Michael Griffin has been teaching here since September 2013 but, he noted, “St. Mary’s has offered so many unique opportunities for me as a teacher. Not only am I able to teach history but I am able to incorporate faith into my lessons and daily relationships with the students. This is something that makes Catholic schools in general, and St. Mary’s in particular, so special. I am able to help mold informed citizens who have a Catholic identity, which the students portray through their values, words and actions.”
“One of the best parts about teaching at St. Mary’s,” said Griffin, “is that I am able to reach my students outside of the classroom as well as inside. Class trips like the eighth-grade trip to Club Getaway in Connecticut, faith events and retreats allow me to build strong relationships with students. These relationships make the classroom experience even more worthwhile for me and the students. As a result, the environment that I have gratefully been able to take part in here at St. Mary’s has truly been a one-of-a-kind experience that I never imagined when I was studying to be a teacher.”
(Continued in next week’s issue of Manhasset Press)
