50 Years and Going – Serving the needs of Catholic Education in Western Broome County

By: John Seward, Principal

When Our Lady of Sorrows-Seton campus opens its doors to students in the September 2006 it will mark the 50^th consecutive year that the school has served the needs of Catholic education in western Broome County. We are celebrating this historic milestone by looking back on our distinguished past and planning for another 50 years of operation.

In the Fall of 1956 the school, then know as Seton High School, opened the doors of the newly constructed building thanks to the hard work of the members of St. Ambrose parish in Endicott, New York. The school featured an auditorium-gym (which is still in daily use by students and members of our community), a combination cafeteria and assembly room, a library (our Elementary library), and 12 classrooms. In 1964 the capacity of the building was nearly doubled with the construction of an addition to the west side of the building. The 1964 addition provided the school with a larger library on the second floor, a separate cafeteria, expanded science labs, and chapel with stained glass windows on the second floor.

By the mid 1970’s the demographics of the region had changed and the school was converted from a high school to Seton Middle School. The school functioned under the name Seton Middle School until the end of the 1999-2000 school year. Changing demographics in the region again required our school to serve a new role in meeting the needs of Catholic education in western Broome County. In September 2000 the school opened its doors as Our Lady of Sorrows-Seton Campus (OLS-SC) to serve the needs of students in grades Kindergarten through 8^th.

Through the past six years we have continued to expand and upgrade the program offerings at OLS-SC. In 2002 we opened up an Early Kindergarten program. A Pre-Kindergarten program was added in 2004, and this past year we started offering programs for 2 and 3 year olds. Our Accelerated Mathematics program now extends to 6^th grade. The addition of laptop computers to our technology infrastructure has allowed greater integration of this technology into all of our classes. The faculty at all levels within the school is working together to align their classes with the ever-rising New York State standards, and within the Kindergarten to 8^th grades.

Over the past 50 years many things have changed within our school. The one constant throughout this past half-century has been the commitment to providing a quality Catholic education to every student who walks through our doors. This is a commitment we are as dedicated to today, as were the teachers and students who first walked these halls. This is a commitment that is as much a part of the school as the brick, concrete, and steel that makes up the school.

50 years of Catholic education and going strong into the future!