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Little school has a big heart

Feb. 23, 2007

Mary Street Community School is one of the smallest schools in Oshawa but has one of the biggest hearts.

Here at Mary Street, we treat each other like family. We all know each other. Support is there when you need it and our friendships last a lifetime. Students work hard to balance schoolwork and teams. We are all so busy, with basketball, cross-country, volleyball, lacrosse, European handball, you name it, we do it all.

We may not beat every team, but you’ll never find as much team spirit as we have. We also have great clubs such as knitting, ski, chess, Red Maple and Blue Spruce reading, cheer, drama, band and office duty, just to name a few.

I truly do believe that Mary Street students get to experience great things!

Not only do we have classroom field trips, we have whole school field trips! Just to name a few: bowling, theme parks, Oshawa Generals games, etc. It’s amazing to have everyone in the building having fun together. We also have SCC movie nights to raise money for our school; we come to school at night in our pyjamas with our pillows and watch a movie with our families. Isn’t that cool?

Mary Street Community School is proud of our community partnerships. So many people help to make our school better, too many to mention.

Whether they come to help our students read, donate clothing or food, we are so appreciative of all the support each person gives. Students from O’Neill Collegiate come to tutor our students on Mondays, if they need extra help or just want to get ahead! St. George’s volunteers kindly host our Breakfast Club every school morning for those who don’t have time for breakfast. The Oshawa YMCA provides swimming activities for our whole school; all we need is a bathing suit, a towel and good behaviour!
Reuben Ramsay is a Grade 8 student at Mary Street Community School.

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Mary Street key part of community

Apr 24, 2007 By: Jillian Follert

Feb. 23, 2007

OSHAWA -- When Karin Schmidlechner leaves the house in the morning, she isn’t going to work -- she’s going to school.

That distinction is important for the Mary Street Community School principal, who describes her job as a joy and her staff and students as one big family.

“I love what I do, the staff love what they do and we want the students to leave at the end of the day and look forward to coming back,” she says, seated in a cozy office that feels more like a living room than a place to visit the principal.

With only 200 kindergarten to Grade 8 students making up the school population, it’s easy for every teacher to know every face and for the entire school to take part in activities as a group -- and there’s lots to be part of.

From twice-yearly “family fun nights,” and a last day of school tradition of swimming at Cedar Park, to bi-weekly assemblies and an annual breakfast with Santa, there’s always something to look forward to.

The students also take full advantage of the school’s bustling downtown location at the corner of Mary and William streets, making regular trips to the YMCA and recently taking in an Oshawa Generals game at the new General Motors Centre.

While fun is a big part of life at Mary Street, so is learning. Reading is big here, with a literacy coach on staff, a whole room donated to literacy resources and a daily routine of dropping everything for 20 minutes of silent reading.

The school even received a Love of Reading grant from the Chapters/Indigo chain of book stores, to invest in new reading materials.

In the evenings and on weekends, the building is alive with programs offered by the City -- hence the name Mary Street Community School, instead of the more common public school tag.

The partnership with the city dates back to the 1970s, when the original Colborne Street School, built in 1877, burnt down.

The City and school board were reluctant to build a replacement school to serve the small downtown student population, so Mary Street was built as a partnership between the City and the board, offering a place to learn and place for programs.

“Even people who live around here and don’t have students at the school or don’t have children at all, will volunteer here or stop in to donate to a fundraiser,” Ms. Schmidlechner says fondly. “The school really is the hub of the community.”