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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010
Week of September 6, 1999
Staff celebrate start of new school year
By ANH HOANG
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton
Whether they're rookies or near retirement, teachers of Edmonton Catholic Schools find every new school year to be a new beginning.
"It's always new," said Maurice Lacroix, teacher and president of Edmonton Separate School Local of the Alberta Teachers' Association.
"Sometimes by May, you wonder why you're in this profession. But then by September when you see the kids again, you know why. It's great to see the kids again."
As in the past, this year's new beginning started with a school opening liturgy at the Winspear Centre Aug. 26, concelebrated by Archbishop Thomas Collins, Ukrainian Bishop Lawrence Huculak and 22 local priests.
Even the fourth floor balcony of the centre was filled as more than 2,000 teachers and staff, past and present, came to celebrate.
The celebration also included the inauguration of the district's new superintendent, Dale Ripley.
"We're a family," said Lacroix. "I know it's an old clich‚, but we really are a family."
The customary August Mass and a mid-year renewal day remind teachers and staff that although they work in schools and offices spread throughout the city, "what we do is not in isolation. We are a family working on one mission," Lacroix said.
In his homily, Collins asked employees of Catholic Schools to renew their commitment to their jobs and God.
"It is not in intellectual awareness alone that we can achieve what we need, it is in the imitation of Christ. If we are to be where we were meant to be, we need to be like Christ."
Marcelle Labossiere planned to be up bright and early the morning of Aug. 30, the first day of school, to head for her music class at Elizabeth Seton School.
"I'll have to set two alarm clocks," she joked about the early morning wake-up call.
Like many of her peers, Labossiere is excited to see her old students and meet new ones.
"Every year is always a new beginning," she said. "It's never the same. I'm always excited to come in and see the students again. I enjoy that about teaching. It's always something different."
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter
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