Victoria Park School, 276 Third St. (now Queen St.)

The land for the Victoria Park School was sold to the St. Lambert School commissioners on June 12, 1922, for the sum of $18,000 by Louis Noe Betournay. The school was built in 1924 to the identical plan as Merton (later Margaret Pendlebury)School on Green Street at a cost of $25,000. The original two classrooms upstairs and two activity rooms downstairs were extended in 1957 with another five classrooms behind the school on one floor at a cost of $123,000. The contract included the cost of the building at $100,000, furniture and equipment at $3,000, landscaping and paving at $500, architect's and engineer's fees at $7,500, and printing and discount on the sale of bonds at $11,000. The Ministry of Education contributed $70,000 with the rest funded by municipal bonds repayable through property taxes.

With the original 1924 design for 50 students, the 1957 expansion was required as in later years enrollment usually exceeded 200, including 85 students from the overcrowded Brossard schools in 1969 of a total enrollment that year of 221. The school was designed as a neighbourhood elementary school with almost all students within walking distance, so it was a difficult situation when in 1969, 90 students were staying at school at lunchtime. By 1972, this number had risen to 137 out of 254. The breakdown of students in each grade in 1971 was: 67 in grade 4, 66 in grade 3, 31 in grade 2, 42 in grade 1, and 34 in kindergarten for a total of 240.

Student Valerie Harrison attended Victoria Park from 1958 to 1964 and remembers
“ that the playground was gravel and that when you fell while playing the cuts received were always full of gravel. Although I lived directly across the street I was often late as I was afraid of dogs and at the time dogs would roam as there was no leash law. A Jewish student in my class would have to leave during Scripture class and sit at a desk set up for her in the hall. The three big windows on the Union Boulevard side of the school kept getting broken since all the children used it as a backstop for tennis and other ball games. Eventually they just boarded up those windows.”

By 1993 enrollment was down to 53 students, although there was a slight increase by 1996 to 66.

In September 1999, students were relocated to the Saint-Lambert Elementary, and the building became the new home for “The Alternate School” which currently houses 60 students in Secondary 2 to 5 who are not succeeding in traditional schools. This school has a small, committed staff and the program has been in existence for over 20 years.

Margaret Pendlebury School, 471 Green St.

The land for the Merton School, later the Margaret Pendlebury School, and now known as REACH, was purchased on March 28th 1922 by the St. Lambert School commissioners from the Provident Freehold and Realty Co. Ltd. of Montreal for $7,008.55. The school was opened in 1924 at a construction cost of $25,000. There were two classrooms and two recreation rooms with a capacity of 50 students. In 1957, identical expansions were ordered for Margaret Pendlebury and Victoria Park schools at a cost of $123,000 each. The Ministry of Education funded $70,000 with the rest being funded by a bond issue repayable through property taxes. This extension added five classrooms to each of the schools, increasing capacity to 240 students. Dr. Alfred Garson, the principal in 1972, produced a report outlining the schools activities in the previous year. There was one open room with three teachers and 84 students in grades 3,4, and 5. There were also five separate classrooms with five teachers in the following rooms: a class with combined grades 4 and 5, 25 students, grade 2, 26 students, combined class with grades 1 and 2, 23 students, grade 1, 23 students and kindergarten with 34 students, 17 in the morning and another 17 in the afternoon. This made a total of 215 students which increased in the following year to 242. By 1996 enrollment was only 200 students. In 1999 the Riverside School Board decided to concentrate all primary and elementary schooling in St. Lambert at the St. Lambert Elementary in 1999, and the school building became available for other educational purposes.

The building was renamed REACH May 18, 1999 and has become the regional school for intellectually handicapped students of the Riverside School Board, whose parents are not comfortable with full integration of their children in other schools. Most handicapped children are fully integrated into their local schools. In 2006 there were 35 students attending the school with the ages spanning four to 19.

Preville School, 139 d'Alsace, Preville (now St. Lambert)

The proposal at the school board to proceed with Preville Elementary School was passed on July 22, 1958 with an estimated cost of $220,000. The land for the Preville Elementary School was sold by Mr. Marcel Gani, of Paris, France, to the School Commissioners for the Municipality of Longueuil (Protestant) on Sept. 17, 1958 for the sum of $22,000.

Construction began in 1959 at a cost of $275,000, financed by a grant of $135,000 from the Ministry of Education and the balance funded by a tax on residents. The original school opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1959 and had a capacity of 300 students in 8 classrooms, leading to tremendous overcrowding. The school drew its students from the rapidly increasing populations of Preville, then a town separate from St. Lambert and neighbouring Brossard.

Teacher Janet Brown remembers that students on the side facing the town of Preville would see the trains go by on the Canadian National Railway line which led south to St. John and Rouses Point, while students on the other side of the school looked out at bare fields that had previously been farmland.

Access to the school was by bus from Simard Boulevard, or by walking or bicycling students through a wooden tunnel which passed under the concrete railway bridge a hundred yards south of the school. The railway bridge at this point crossed the St. Charles Creek, which in one direction led into the Saint Lawrence River and the other led back behind the school through forest to the Country Club of Montreal and beyond. A second railway overpass a hundred yards to the south crossed Simard Boulevard. The area behind the school to the east was to become later in the 1960's the Preville Parc section of the town. Students took every opportunity during recess and lunchtime to play in the paths and small hills that ran along either side of the creek, winding through the forest. Students also organized baseball games in the former farm fields to the east of the school.

In the first month of the school in 1959 teacher Janet Brown recounts that there were always workmen in and out of the classrooms to check on the finishing of the construction of the school. One day, teacher Anne McIver had a man enter her classroom and just stand there. After ten minutes he started walking up and down the aisles looking at the students workbooks. She tolerated this for a short while and then spoke up as only Miss McIver could: “Sir, would you please inspect whatever it is you have come to inspect and then get out of my room! I have a lesson to teach and you are distracting us all!” “I am Mr. Brady”, said he, “and I am the school inspector and I am here to inspect you.”

She passed her inspection with flying colours.

In 1963 the railway line had been removed and the overcrowding at the school was answered by a major expansion of its facilities at a cost of $445,000. This expansion included another full wing to the school with an additional 8 classrooms, a library, cafeteria, gymnasium and offices. The removal of the railway embankment directly in front of the school provided direct access for vehicles to the front of the school for the first time. In the wintertime, the town of Preville built its outdoor hockey rink in front of the school, and the remaining portions of the embankment towards both Simard Boulevard to the south and also north of the school provided much opportunity for students with sleds or toboggans.

By 1982 enrollment had declined to 451 students and in 1998, with the reorganization of the Quebec school boards along linguistic lines, Preville School was transferred to the French language board, now the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin. English students attending Preville Elementary School were then transferred to the St. Lambert Elementary School.

St. Francis of Assisi School, 163 Cleghorn, Saint-Lambert (now known as ACCESS)

St. Francis of Assisi School was completed in September 1959 as an English Catholic primary and elementary school next door to the church of St. Francis of Assisi on Notre Dame St.

Previously English Catholic children had to travel to Longueuil for their education, or were allocated classes at French Catholic schools, notably at l'Academie St.Michel on Lorne Avenue in St. Lambert. In 1957 school commissioner Darcy O'Donnell proposed that a request be made to the Ministry of Education to build an English Catholic elementary school in St. Lambert, as there were now 284 English Catholic school-age children in St.Lambert, and another 26 in Preville. There was no longer enough space in the local French schools to accommodate this number.

The land for the school was purchased on May 3, 1958 by “La Municipalite Scolaire Catholique de St.Lambert” from the City of St. Lambert for $591. The school was built by Lucien Bedard & Cie. Inc. for $354,000 and was completed in August 1960. It consisted of 16 classrooms and a gymnasium, but no cafeteria, and had students from kindergarten to grade 7. Boys and girls were in separate classrooms until September 1967 when the disparity in class size necessitated eliminating this policy. The maximum enrollment was 600 students but with the number of English students declining and the number of French students increasing in St. Lambert in the 1970's the Catholic School Board arranged an exchange of buildings. Ecole Cure Rabeau moved to Notre Dame Avenue and St. Francis of Assisi School moved to Cleghorn, where Ecole Cure Rabeau had been completed in 1958. At this time attendance at St. Francis was down to approximately 125 which is mainly attributed to Provincial language legislation and the changing demographics of St. Lambert.

In 1999, with the abolition of religion based school boards, the St. Francis School came under the authority of the Riverside School Board and the elementary students were transferred to St. Lambert Elementary.

Arthur Bergeron, a Franco-American from Providence, Rhode Island, was principal of the school from 1967 to 1974 and recently stated that he was very proud of the kids who came through his school. Many of them went to university and can now be found across Canada in responsible positions in industry, universities and as authors, lawyers, nurses, and even at one time as an National Hockey league coach.

The former school building on Cleghorn became the home of ACCESS, which stands for Adult Centre for Continuing Education South Shore. The former St. Francis school on Notre Dame St. was still being used in 2006 as an elementary school, as Ecole Cure Rabeau for the French-language Commission Scolaire Marie Victorin.

As the needs of the English-speaking community in St. Lambert evolve over time, the citizens must continue to ensure that the schools maintain the high standard of quality education that has long been the hallmark of St. Lambert's English schools.

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