By Dan Laxer
The Suburban
Carlyle Elementary School, in the heart of Town of Mount Royal, recently celebrated its 105th birthday, last Tuesday, May 20, with a special event in the school gymnasium. Parents, students, and special guests enjoyed a lunch provided by Rotisserie Portugalia Montreal North (cousin to the original on Rachel near Clark Street.).
Carlyle was the first school to open in TMR, which itself was incorporated only eight years earlier.
“One hundred and five years ago today, this school opened its doors with a vision,” said Vice Principal Mario Benvenuto, addressing attendees, “to provide a nurturing environment where children could grow and learn and begin their journey towards becoming thoughtful, responsible citizens. And today that vision is still very important and very much alive within these walls.”
The school is still housed in its original building on the street from which it takes its name. It only had two classes in the beginning, with two professors teaching 26 students. Now it is an International Baccalaureate school with a full student body of 310.
Soon after its founding it changed, for a short time, to Mount Royal High School, but reverted back to Carlyle Elementary in 1950, when Mount Royal High School moved to a new location (MRHS was initially an Anglophone high school under the then Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, but turned exclusively Francophone in 1985).
Three former principals were in attendance at the anniversary celebration. Don Houston had taught in an alternative school before moving to Carlyle for a short time from 2002 to 2003, after which he was called back to the alternative school where he’d worked before. “But I so regretted leaving this place,” he tells The Suburban. He had started his career in high schools, including a stint as vice principal at LaurenHill Academy. “Suddenly I’m in an elementary school! I had died and gone to heaven! The teachers were fantastic. The kids were fantastic.”
He felt he had to be there to celebrate its birthday. “I haven’t set foot in here since my days as principal,” he says. “I’m so glad it’s still going strong.”
Barbara Weir was principal of Carlyle from 1982 to 1991. “I loved it when I was here,” she says. “I had the best kids in the system.”
Dorris Beck, who succeeded Weir from 1991 to 2002, acknowledges that some things have changed since her tenure, “but the school has always had a good vibe,” she says. “It’s a lovely school.”
Joe Ortona, Chair of the English Montreal School Board, was also in attendance. “It really speaks to the sense of community over all these years and generations,” he said. “We’re really proud of the school and everything that it accomplishes.”
Carlyle recently won first prize in the Défi OSEntreprendre, a marketing competition hosted by HEC Montréal. n