St Rose School Celebrates 50 Years Of Excellence In Education

St Rose of Lima School is celebrating its golden anniversary. The school will mark the occasion with a 50th Anniversary Celebration Mass on Sunday, October 12, immediately followed by a reception at the new St Rose Gathering Hall.

Parents, alumni, and parishioners are invited to attend this landmark event, where the school will unveil its new look, as well as a new school crest, designed by a St Rose alumna, and a new school motto.

The anniversary celebration will be the first event to be held in the school’s spacious new wing, which was added as part of a successful building campaign spearheaded by St Rose’s pastor, Monsignor Robert Weiss. In addition to the new facility, the construction project also included the renovation and repurposing of existing space to accommodate new offices and a state-of-the-art science lab.

For 50 years, St Rose has maintained its tradition of academic excellence in a faith-based environment, designed to nurture the virtues of individual integrity and service to others. The St Rose curriculum is designed not only to meet but to exceed the requirements of the State of Connecticut’s Department of Education, the Diocese of Bridgeport, and the accreditation guidelines established by the New England Association of School and Colleges (NEASC).  It has been selected two years in a row as a nominee for the US Department of Education’s national Blue Ribbon Award based on its Iowa test scores, which consistently place the school in the top ten percent of all schools in the United States.

St Rose of Lima opened it doors on September 3, 1958, under the direction of Reverend Walter R. Conroy. Staffed initially by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the school served children in grades one through five. Three years later, the school expanded its education program to include grades six through eight.

Since 1989 the school has employed lay principals, including the current principal, Mary Maloney.

Also in 1989, St Rose established a full-day kindergarten program, which continues to be the only full-day kindergarten program in Newtown.

In 2000, St Rose added its preschool, which now includes 3-, 4- and 5-year-old programs. Currently under the direction of Sister Thaddeus Rajca, CSFN, the preschool has the unique advantage of being academically integrated with the main school’s K–8 curriculum.

St Rose’s enrollment is at a 50-year high, with 341 students in grades K through 8 and approximately 100 students in its preschool programs.

(Anyone wishing to attend the 50th Anniversary Celebration on October 12 is asked to RSVP to the St Rose Parish Office,  426-1014.)