, motto_translation = "The end crowns the work"
, established = 1968
, schoolboard =
English Montreal School Board
The English Montreal School Board (EMSB, french: Commission scolaire English-Montréal – CSEM) is one of five public school boards on the island of Montreal.
At 92.4 percent, the English Montreal School Board has the highest rate of students wh ...
, principal = Pasquale Buttino (2000 - 2007) Eileen Kelly (2007 - 2011) Luigi Santamaria (2011 -2020) Cristina Celzi (2020-Present)
, grades_label =
Grades
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also r ...
, grades = Secondary III, IV and V (?-2020) Secondary I-V (2020-Present)
, enrollment = over 800
, accreditation =
International Baccalaureate Organization
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
(IBO)
, colors = Orange and Black
, mascot =
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Carrier current)
, website =
Laurier Macdonald High School (french: École secondaire Laurier Macdonald), abbreviated traditionally as "LMAC" but occasionally as "LMHS," is an English-language public school in the east end of
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada. The school is named for
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
, the first
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority the elected Hou ...
and a
Father of Confederation
The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...
and
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...
, the first
French-Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...
Prime Minister of Canada. Formerly part of ''La
Commission Scolaire Jérôme-Le Royer
The Commission scolaire Jérôme-Le Royer was a Catholic school board located on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It oversaw French and English schools in the former independent municipalities of Anjou, Saint-Leonard, and Montreal-Est a ...
'', the school has been part of the
English Montreal School Board
The English Montreal School Board (EMSB, french: Commission scolaire English-Montréal – CSEM) is one of five public school boards on the island of Montreal.
At 92.4 percent, the English Montreal School Board has the highest rate of students wh ...
since 1998. Both its male and female sports teams compete as the Rams. Enrollment is slightly over 800 students in Secondary I, II, III, IV and V.
Cristina Celzi is the current principal of Laurier Macdonald High School. Ivan Spilak is the current vice-principal. The school has two full-time guidance counsellors and a nurse.
The
school colours
School colors (also known as university colors or college colors) are the colors chosen by a school as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms of sports teams. They can promote connectio ...
are orange and black. Traditional uniform colours are white and grey. The motto is ''Finis Coronat Opus'' (Latin for "The end crowns the work").
History
Laurier Macdonald opened in September 1969 without a building. The new school was to serve the English-speaking Catholic population of the City of Saint-Léonard. While an older building at 5750 Metropolitan Autoroute (A-40) originally built as a factory was being converted into a high school, the Commission Scolaire Jérôme-Le Royer rented classrooms at a nearby Protestant school ( Dunton High School) so that students could attend classes during the late afternoon and early evening. This arrangement ended in early 1970 when the Metropolitan Autoroute facility was ready. Within a few years, however, the old building's limitations were judged to be too serious, in spite of the renovations, and the school board began discussing the construction of a new building in earnest.
The changing political climate in the province proved to be a problem, however. The Parti Québécois government had declared a moratorium on the construction of English schools shortly after its accession to power in the fall of 1976. A student strike was organized in the month of November 1973, led by a rebellious student named Frank Fazzari, to bring to the public's attention the harm caused by the treatment of all English-speaking schools in the eastern part of Montreal.
The strike by students was the answer to the school being neglected by the Jerome le Royer School Board. An overpopulated school with a capacity of 800 students was serving 1200 students. The school was in complete disarray with one janitor to maintain the facilities, with no washroom facilities operational, doors with no locks, holes in cinder block walls, shortage of classrooms, and unsanitary conditions. Needless to say, the facilities were not the ideal setting for teachers and students vying for the ultimate goal of a proper education.
The walkout was well documented in both the English and French media. A front-page article in the now-defunct ''
Montreal Star
''The Montreal Star'' was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike.
It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950s and remained the dominan ...
'' depicted the story of neglect with a picture of Frank Fazzari holding up one broken sink in the washroom as a symbol of defiance towards the neglect of English-speaking students had to endure.
As this was happening, the Jérôme Le Royer School Board had just completed, in 1969, the most advanced comprehensive French speaking high school on the territory of Saint-Léonard, Antoine de St-Exupéry, while Laurier Macdonald was nothing more than a school in rented facilities. This was much to the dismay of the population of Saint-Léonard's English-speaking parents and students. However, with the opening of the new Antoine de St-Exupéry francophone high school, the building formerly used to house French-speaking students was now available. The Aime Renaud building (also a rented building on Metropolitan) became a junior English High School to feed Laurier Macdonald. This greatly alleviated the overcrowding at Laurier Macdonald. Aime Renaud High School was used as a junior high for Secondary I and II while Laurier Macdonald was used for Secondary III, IV and V.
The media pressure and exposure prompted a quick reaction from the school board with a meeting with the student council who presented a petition on behalf of the students with the demands that their school be equipped with the maintenance and the proper equipment to operate a school burdened by overpopulation.
The board's reaction was a temporary closing of the school for one week and much to the dismay of all the members at the school board, they managed to repair, paint and fix all the anomalies. in the school. The media was invited to see all the repairs.
This spurred the quest to build a school that would match the comprehensive high school of the French-speaking community. It is the belief of many that attended the first years at the Metropolitan facilities that their determination was to be the voice of defiance that led to the awakening of the necessity for better school facilities.
A debt of gratitude is owed to Joseph Lalla for directing the students on the eve of the strike, with the use of his political savviness and knowledge of using the media as a propaganda tool and the use of his telephone in his office to contact the media.
The school board then decided to extend a small elementary school, École Sir George-Étienne-Cartier, at the corner of
Jean-Talon
Jean-Talon is a provincial electoral riding in the Capitale-Nationale region of Quebec, Canada. It consists of part of the Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge borough of Quebec City.
It was named after former French colonial administrator of New ...
Pointe-aux-Trembles
Pointe-aux-Trembles was a municipality, founded in 1674, that was annexed by Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1982. This was the last city to be merged into Montreal until the 2002 municipal reorganization.
On January 1, 2002 this neighbourhood a ...
was closed and the students were transferred to the new Laurier Macdonald for the 1983–4 school year.
Laurier Macdonald was a comprehensive high school from 1983 (or in French, ''école polyvalente'') until that distinction was abolished provincially in the early 1990s. These schools offered high school students the possibility of
vocational training
Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...
in the last cycle of secondary education. Until September 2020 it was school the only remaining English-language senior high school on the island of Montreal, serving only Secondary III, IV, and V students. It has been non-confessional since the school board reorganization of 1998. Previously, public schools in the province of Quebec had been organized along confessional lines (Protestant or Catholic) instead of linguistic lines (English or French).
Past staff and alumni
Louis Balena served as the second principal of Laurier Macdonald, succeeding Miss T. Arbour, from the early 1970s until the late 1980s. Frank Vatrano and Tony Cambria succeeded him but both had short tenures, with Vatrano passing away shortly after becoming principal. Renzo Orsi (1991–1993) followed. He organized the ''Honours Plus'' Programme, the forerunner of today's IB Programme, and supported the expansion of the school's
Communication Arts
''Communication Arts'' is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.A ...
programme. Other principals included Joseph Lalla (1993–1996), Mario Tirelli (1996–2000), Pasquale Buttino (2000–2007), Eileen Kelly (2007–2011), and Luigi Santamaria (2011-2020).
Notable graduates of Laurier Macdonald include multiple, award-winning IMAX producer and filmmaker Pietro L. Serapiglia (class of 1973) – ''
Titanica
''Titanica'' is a 1992 IMAX documentary film about the RMS ''Titanic''. The film was directed by Stephen Low and narrated by Cedric Smith, Anatoly Sagalevich and Ralph White. The film mostly focuses on footage taken at the wreck of the RMS ''Ti ...
'', ''
Super Speedway
''Super Speedway'' is a 1997 documentary racing film chronicling one man's quest to get his new Champ Car Lola chassis up to speed, and another's goal of rebuilding an old 1964 roadster once driven by the legendary Mario Andretti. The film was ...
'', ''
Rocky Mountain Express
''Rocky Mountain Express'' is a 45-minute IMAX film released in the fall of 2011. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Stephen Low, it features the Canadian Pacific Railway’s restored 4-6-4 H1b Hudson steam locomotive 2816. Shooting began in 200 ...
'', Grey Cup winners
Randy Chevrier
Randy Robert Chevrier (born June 6, 1976) is a Canadian football long snapper for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He has also played for the Edmonton Eskimos and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He also was a member of t ...
and
Danny Maciocia
Danny Maciocia (born May 26, 1967) is the head coach and general manager of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was previously head coach of the Université de Montréal Carabins football team. He is also the former ...
, former head coach of the
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...
in the Canadian Football League,
Frank Zampino
Frank Zampino is a former Montreal politician and is a chartered accountant. He served as the Chairman of the executive committee of the Ville de Montréal and was the city's second-ranking official.
Early life
In 1976, Zampino graduated from L ...
(1976),Colombo, Carmen. Laurier Macdonald High School Class of 1976 - 25th Anniversary Reunion - Then and Now. ' Accessed August 23, 2007. former Chairman of the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal, and Hussain Yoosuf, a former member of the Juno Award-winning Canadian hip-hop pioneers Dream Warriors who went on to a career as a solo artist under the stage name of " Spek".
The school named its pastoral centre (now referred to as the Spiritual and Community Life Center) after Father Gagné, a former pastoral animator at Laurier Macdonald, its sports complex after Canadian runner and activist,
Terry Fox
Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958 June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated due to cancer, he embarked on an east-to-west cross-Canada run to raise money ...
, its auditorium after Ralph Iadeluca, a former school commissioner at Jérôme-Le Royer, and one of its lounges after Marguerite McKee, a former French teacher. All designations were made posthumously.
Laurier Macdonald High School is one of the few public high schools in the Montreal area to have an alumni association. It was founded by Francis Scardera (Class of '84) and is a registered non-profit association. The association helps organize 10, 20, and 25-year reunions. All proceeds go to special projects in the school. The association has a website. Alumni can register their email addresses there. Facebook groups are created for reunions as needed.
Today
The reorganization of the school boards in 1998 opened up Laurier Macdonald to students from throughout the Island of Montreal, allowing anyone who lives (roughly) east of the
Décarie Autoroute
Autoroute 15 (also called the Décarie Expressway (English) or Autoroute Décarie (French) between the Turcot and Décarie Interchanges in Montreal and the Laurentian Autoroute (English) or Autoroute des Laurentides (French) north of Autorout ...
(A-15) to attend. Nevertheless, most students still come from Saint-Léonard and
Anjou Anjou may refer to:
Geography and titles France
* County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou
**Count of Anjou, title of nobility
*Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France
**Duk ...
Laval
Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of:
People
* House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne
* Laval (surname)
Places Belgium
* Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...
and
Montréal-Nord
Montreal North (french: Montréal-Nord) is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city of Montréal-Nord on Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. It was amalgamated into t ...
. The student body is overwhelmingly Italian, Catholic and
middle-class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...
, reflecting the generally homogeneous make-up of Saint-Léonard's English-speaking population. John Paul I Junior High School (secondary I and II) used to be the main feeder school for Laurier Macdonald. John Paul l was closed by the Government of Quebec in June 2019 all students and staff were transferred to Laurier Macdonald. For the 2019-2020 school year, John Paul l still operated as a separate school only sharing the building with Laurier Macdonald. However, as of September 2020 John Paul l was fully integrated into Laurier Macdonald and it became a secondary l to V High School. This erased Laurier Macdonald's distinction as one of the last remaining high schools to only offer secondary lll to V in English, in Montreal. The English elementary schools of St. Leonard (Dante, Honoré-Mercier and Pierre-de-Coubertin) are the main feeder schools for Laurier Macdonald High School.
Laurier Macdonald is not a 240 school (named for the corresponding section of the provincial ''Education Act'') and therefore accepts any student eligible by law to receive English instruction in a Quebec public school. While the school's performance in the controversial Fraser Institute rankings has improved slowly over the past several years, Principal Pasquale Buttino commented in local newspapers in 2005 that he felt the school's academic record was being misrepresented. Buttino observed that Laurier Macdonald has always boasted a graduation rate of over ninety percent since it opened in 1969 and that many avant-garde projects, specifically those of the Communication Arts department, are not considered by the Fraser Institute during the preparation of school rankings.
Athletics
Laurier Macdonald was traditionally strong in basketball and football. During the 1980s, the school also won titles in swimming and volleyball. Since the 1990s, the school's strongest showings, including several championships, have been in soccer, track and field and flag football. During the 2003 outdoor season a milestone was achieved when Coach Sam Longo led both the senior and junior men's team to the
GMAA The Graduate Management Association of Australia (GMAA) is the nationally recognised umbrella Professional Association for graduates having MBA, DBA and other postgraduate business management qualifications in Australia.The Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
''. Greats from the senior teams included Brian Ceterina, goalie. Several players from the squad have played for Quebec's provincial team including
Massimo Di Ioia
Massimo Di Ioia (born June 18, 1987 in Saint-Léonard, Quebec) is a Canadian former soccer player. Di Ioia was part of the Canadian National Under 20 team and Olympic Under 23 team. He played the majority of his career in the Canadian province of ...
who played for the Canadian U20 national team and signed a pro contract with the Montreal Impact for the 2007 season. He led the team in scoring with an outstanding 27 goals in 12 regular season games and was named MVP for the men's soccer team. Many of the championship teams are honoured with mosaics in the school's sports complex. Championship banners hang in the gymnasium.
Publications
The school regularly published several newspapers and magazines until they were all discontinued over the past several years. ''OPUS'', a quarterly school newspaper, won the ''Montreal Gazettes award for excellence in student journalism several times during the 1990s. Circulation peaked at over 5000 copies when the newspaper was distributed not only to students at Laurier Macdonald but also to those at its feeder schools in Saint-Léonard, Anjou and Pointe-aux-Trembles. Other publications included: ''Inkblot'' (student artwork), the ''Laureate'' (student creative writing and poetry), ''Mediascape'' (student photography) and ''Wrap-Up'', a daily school newsletter.
The Communication Arts department at Laurier Macdonald has become especially renowned over the past several years for its innovative curriculum. Students have published award-winning books on the Canadian immigrant experience which have received praise both at home and abroad.
Laurier Macdonald RadioClub
Radio Laurier Macdonald began regular broadcasts in May 2006. The station broadcasts throughout the campus via carrier current on 560 AM.
Radio RUNTS existed in the old Laurier Macdonald on Metropolitan. It was a 15-minute radio show that was broadcast over the intercom system once every 2 weeks at the end of the last period on Friday afternoons. When the move was made to new building, it became a lunchtime broadcast in the cafeteria.
In 2007 it was re-opened by former students; Gino Gentile, Michele Infante and Giuseppe Baldino until their graduating year of 2008. Unfortunately, the lack of funds and neglect of equipment caused it to forgotten and left behind ever since.