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Sister Sheila Christensen, RSM, remembers lugging a Commodore 64 computer from St. Madeleine Sophie School in Schenectady to her convent one Friday in the mid-1980s.

The following Monday, she brought it back, only to take it home again the next weekend.

The process repeated every weekend until Sister Sheila, then-vice principal at the school, and then-principal Sister Marilyn Hickey, RSM, felt confident they knew how to use the machine.

If they expected the students to use the computers, the sisters reasoned, they should expect the same of themselves.

More than two decades later, St. Madeleine Sophie School still stresses the importance of technology. About 16 modern computers sit in the lab the sisters established, plus a few in each classroom.

As the school celebrates its 50th anniversary, its history reveals many changes.

St. Madeleine Sophie parish was established as a mission of the Albany Diocese in 1938 before becoming a mission of St. Luke's in Schenectady. St. Madeleine Sophie became its own parish in 1947.

In 1959, the parish community started raising $349,000 to build the Carman Road school. The school opened in 1960 and served children in Kindergarten through fourth grade.

The first staff was made up of Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Rosary of Sparkill; they were succeeded by the Sisters of Mercy.

Sisters Sheila and Marilyn left in 1993 to head up the total faith formation department of the parish, which helped strengthen the relationship between the school, religious education program and parish.

Since then, the school has thrived under the leadership of principal Teresa Kovarovic, whom students and staff call "Miss K," and lay teachers.

Different grades were added and eliminated at different times in the school's history. Today, St. Madeleine Sophie serves three- and four-year-old preschoolers through fifth-graders. Even the youngest students study religion, math, reading and Spanish.

Adding a year-round preschool, as well as after-school and summer programs for older children, were perhaps the biggest shifts in recent years. At least 40 public school pupils take the bus to the after-school program, where children participate in activities like cooking and dancing.

Enrollment dropped three years ago after local public school districts added competing full-day Kindergarten programs and St. Madeleine Sophie dropped its sixth grade, but is on the rise again. Enrollment for this academic year is 158, an increase of about eight children from the previous year.

Most of the school's funds come from a parish subsidy, as well as yearly fundraisers. Tuition increases by about $100 every year, currently totaling $4,600. This year, a new tuition management system allowed families to pay using credit cards or bank account withdrawals, and helped to distribute $49,000 in financial aid.

"Miss K" summed up the spirit at St. Madeleine Sophie in its golden jubilee year: "It's a joy to come to work every day in an atmosphere where people respect each other, learn from each other and just plan and work together."

(10/28/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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