Controversy behind it, Gonzaga ready to teach

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This article was published 06/09/2016 (3355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

QUIETLY, with no grand opening fanfare, Gonzaga Middle School in Point Douglas will welcome its first students this week.

Ten girls and five boys will form the Catholic school’s inaugural Grade 6 class, principal Tom Lussier said.

He declined media requests to interview the students because, he said, they’re trying to build a relationship of trust with them and their families.

The private Catholic school is proceeding with caution after its announcement last fall prompted a backlash from some members of the indigenous community.

When plans to open the Jesuit school in the inner city were announced by a group led by Winnipeg businessmen Mark and Steve Chipman, they didn’t sit well with everyone. The group wants to see as many as 60 children from surrounding neighbourhoods attend Grades 6 to 8 there, then move on to St. Paul’s High School and St. Mary’s Academy and attend those private secondary schools tuition-free.

Aboriginal activists argued it was an insult to the survivors of the residential school system for a church-based private school to try to inject itself into inner-city and North End communities.

After meeting with members of the indigenous community and assuring them the school will make no attempt to suppress indigenous culture and may, in fact, become a positive force that will teach aboriginal youth more about their language, culture and spiritual traditions, the school is up and running this week.

It’s in buildings that were formerly part of the St. Andrews Ukrainian Catholic Church. They were built in the late 1960s to house a school that never came to be. Since then, they’ve been used as a community hall and youth drop-in centre. Gonzaga has invested $1 million to bring up to code the 10,000-square -foot property at 174 Maple St. North, which includes classrooms, a library, gymnasium and staff rooms.

It’s modelled after some 60 “nativity” schools started by Jesuits across the U.S., beginning in the early 1970s — all of them located in inner-city, urban neighbourhoods — most affected by poverty. Another nativity program, the Mother Teresa Middle School, was opened in Regina in 2011.

Gonzaga Middle School’s first day of classes will start with breakfast at 8 a.m., singing O Canada, saying a “respectful, inclusive” prayer, followed by an orientation outlining plans for the day ahead, Lussier said. The daily prayer will vary, he said, “to introduce them to different prayers of people from different backgrounds.” Classes begin at 8:45 a.m. and run until 3:15 p.m. After-school programs run until 5:15 p.m. The students get breakfast and lunch and at least two snacks a day.

The first three years of operation will cost about $3 million, or about $25,000 per student. The cost after all 60 students are enrolled in 2018 would be at least $1.5 million annually, although the school can apply for provincial grants after a three-year waiting period.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca