‘C’est spécial’

St. Vital

River Park South

Students, staff, and the school community at École Julie-Riel recently took a journey to the past.

On May 13, a time capsule that was placed behind a brick marked ‘1995’ next to the front doors of the school during the 1996-97 school year was opened during a widely attended ceremony at the school, located at 316 Ashworth St.

“C’est special,” principal Lyette Carrière said at the beginning of the event. “It’s special.’

From the school’s initial staff of 30, 15 former staff members were on hand for the special ceremony, including the school’s first principal, Denis Gautron. Students from the entire school watched the ceremony, which was conducted in French, in their classrooms via Teams, while Gautron and Jeannette Beaudry, the school’s first kindergarten teacher, pulled the capsule from the wall and opened it before a small crowd assembled outside.

Gautron spoke to the origins of the school, praising the parents who pushed for French education, from kindergarten through to high school and beyond, in the area at the time, as well as all the staff who worked tirelessly to deliver the programming. The school first opened teaching kindergarten to Grade 8, but now operates as a K-5 school.

Stéphanie Gagnon, a Grade 6 teacher at École Julie-Riel who attended the school as a child, read the initial land acknowledgement, along with messages from her students about the Canada they want to see as they grow up. Students from the entire school contributed writing and notes about their lives, both at school and at home and in the community, which were placed in the capsule and returned to the wall of the school.

Carrière said she hopes that the capsule will be opened again in 25 to 30 years.

“But not any longer,” she joked.

Following the ceremony, former staff members were given a tour of the school, which included a scavenger hunt, a light lunch, and a visit to the library, where photos and information about the school’s history were on display.