145-year history

CHATHAM  A quick glance at St. Patrick School here today — its rigorous academic courses, faith-filled religious practices, engaging extracurricular activities and numerous accolades — points to many successes in preparing its students for the challenges of the 21st century. But it also harkens back to many of the significant touchstones in the school’s 145-year history, which it celebrates this year.

The 267-students at St. Patrick’s recently presented a performance of “Beauty and the Beast Jr.,” much like the plays that it produced in the 1930s. Students learn science in a state-of-the-art lab, which recalls the school’s technologically advanced lab for its time in the 1960s. Every morning, a different grade attends Mass in the parish church in keeping with St. Patrick’s tradition of religious practices of school liturgies and May Crowning ceremonies dating back at least to the 1920s and 1930s.

“Throughout its 145-year history, St. Patrick’s has known what’s academically, spiritually and socially beneficial for the whole child. We are always looking for what works for students and applying those approaches. We are continuing that tradition today,” said Christine Ross, Ed.D., St. Patrick’s principal for the past year. “The anniversary is important, because it says a lot about how a Catholic school has thrived for so long in Chatham. It speaks to our mission and purpose. We plan to continue thriving into the future,” she said.

One of the oldest schools in the Paterson Diocese, St. Patrick’s also continued its legacy of receiving well-deserved academic accolades when the U.S. Department of Education named it a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 2003. About 70 years earlier, the State of N.J. named St. Patrick’s one of the Garden State’s “most promising schools,” after it began a domestic arts program for the upper grades. The school has been Middle States accredited and has been preparing for its AdvancED re-certification this spring with AdvancED STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] certification this fall, Ross said.

St. Patrick’s will kick off its 145th anniversary on Sunday, Jan. 29 at the beginning of Catholic Schools Week. An opening Mass celebrated by Father Robert Mitchell, the parish’s pastor, and Father Christopher Barkhausen, its parochial vicar, will be followed by an open house. On Tuesday, Jan. 31, the school will present a “1872 Day” — the year of its founding — that will feature students dressed as people from that era, exhibits that show daily life and Catholic worship then and a large timeline that displays the parallel histories of both St. Patrick’s and the U.S. Anniversary celebrations continue on Saturday, Feb. 4 with a dinner-dance and a family event in the spring, as well as other activities, Ross said.

One of St. Patrick’s eighth-graders, Katie Pridham, has developed a great love for the Morris County school since she began attending in pre-k. She has a sister Meghan, in fifth grade, while their mother, Maureen, teaches kindergarten here. Katie said she enjoys science, music and art; plays basketball; and servers as a cheerleading coach.

“I love the attitude of the students and teachers here. There is so much happiness and joy. Everyone is friendly. It’s like a big family. I have made many friends. Teachers are nice and give us extra support when we need it. They help make the school day go by more quickly,” said Pridham.

Today, St. Patrick’s also builds on its legacy of continual expansion, which began in its early years, when it opened with 30 students and quickly doubled its enrollment. Recently the school has expanded its early childhood program, divided instruction in the intermediate grades by departments, added more sports programs, introduced Chromebooks to the upper grades and expanded its forensics program to include public-speaking enrichment. Also, its students have been involved in such extracurricular activities through the N.J. Gifted and Talented Consortium, such as the Brian Bowl and Model U.N., Ross said.

For nearly a century-and-a-half, St. Patrick’s also has strived to deepen the faith of its students. In the morning, the school community gathers in the gym for prayer and listens to a reading from Scripture. Students also engage in Christian service projects, including volunteering at a food pantry, collecting socks for the poor and helping a school with students with disabilities, located across the street, Ross said.

“For Christmas, St. Patrick’s put on a Nativity pageant. The students dressed up [for the Nativity scene] and sang songs about the Baby Jesus. That’s why parents send their children here — because we talk about God,” said Ross, who noted that Chatham is home to the No. 1 ranked public school district in the U.S.

Looking at the present and onward to the future, St. Patrick’s worked last year to ensure its financial stability and viability. This year, it has been assessing and improving its curriculum as part of the AdvancED re-accreditation and devising marketing campaign to increase enrollment. Ross praised the support of Father Mitchell and Father Barkhausen, who both sit on the school’s education council and teach religion classes, as well as the parish and parents. Over the decades, St. Patrick’s has cultivated great affection among its families, many of which have built a legacy here — the parents or grandparents of a few current students had attended the school, while a few parents teach here, Ross said.

That loving legacy of St. Patrick’s extends to two current faculty members, who are alumna, including Judy Almgren, a kindergarten teacher, who previously taught first grade. A member of the Class of 1981, she remembers when religious sisters staffed the school and inspired her to pursue teaching as a career.

“I remember the school as a family. Even today, I have a constant feeling of support here,” Almgren said. “I love the kids here. Some kids need extra help — a little TLC. Other kids are so bright and need to be challenged,” she said.

The faith-filled tradition of St. Patrick’s started in the 1800s, when Chatham experienced an influx of Irish Catholic immigrants. They worked in the local brickyard and walked more than two miles to Madison to attend Sunday Mass — demonstrating the needed for their own church and school, which opened in a small, wood-framed building 1872. In 1931, faculty and students moved into a new building, which houses the current St. Patrick School. In 1948, the Sisters of Christian Charity replaced the Sisters of Charity, followed by decades of expansion to keep up with increased enrollment, including the moving of the upper grades to the church basement, St. Patrick’s history states.

Second-grader Harrison Szot told The Beacon that he enjoys math, because “I love solving stuff,” including word problems. He said that he also enjoyed a recent STEM project that involved creating landforms from Plaster of Paris.

“I have made a lot of friends here. The teachers are so nice and help us when we don’t understand something. I also like talking about God when we pray in the morning and listening to a Bible story,” Szot said. “I love it at St. Patrick School.”