St. Michael's College School

Infobox Education in Canada
name = St. Michael's College School


motto = Doce Me Bonitatem et Disciplinam et Scientiam
motto_translation = Teach Me Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge
established = 1852
schooltype = Private
affiliation = Roman Catholic
faculty = 79
viceprincipal_label=President
viceprincipal= Fr. Joseph Redican, C.S.B.
principal = Mr. Joseph Brisbois
student government president = Jonathan Mason
enrollment = 1080
streetaddress = 1515 Bathurst Street
city = Toronto
province = Ontario
postalcode = M5P 3H4
publictransit=Subway: St. Clair West
campus = Urban
colours = Light blue, navy blue (referred to as "double blue")
mascot = Bubba Lou
free_label_1=Affiliations
free_1=Conference of Independent
Schools of Ontario
url = [http://www.stmichaelscollegeschool.com/ St. Michael's College School]
footnotes=

St. Michael's College School is a private, all-boys Roman Catholic day school in Toronto, Canada. Currently administered by the Basilian Fathers, it is the largest school of its kind in Canada, with an enrolment of approximately 1,080 students from grades 7 to 12.

History

The Roman Catholics founded St Michael's at Toronto in 1852. [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/tlctd10.txt The Project Gutenberg EBook #6466 of 'The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People, A historical review' by John George Bourinot, House of Commons, Ottawa, February 17th, 1881 ] St. Michael's College was founded by the Roman Catholic Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel, who asked the Christian Brothers to run the school. Approximately two years later, the school was given to the Basilians.

A Basilian priest, Charbonnel arrived in Toronto from France to succeed Bishop Michael Power in 1850. In response to a growing demand for Catholic education in the city, the bishop sought to establish a minor seminary in Toronto. A group of four Basilian priests left France in July 1854 and arrived in Toronto in late August to provide assistance. In due course, St. Michael's College was established and housed in the bishop's house on Church Street.

The College soon outgrew its facilities and in 1856 it moved to a new campus outside the city at Clover Hill, a property donated to the Basilian Fathers by the Honourable John Elmsley, a Toronto politician. In 1902, a new wing was added to the original building and housed the growing high school programme until 1950. At this point, the high school and university programmes were separated, thus establishing the University of St. Michael's College and St. Michael's College School.

Campus

The school's campus is at Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue at the edge of Toronto's Forest Hill neighbourhood. The main school building was designed by well regarded Canadian architect Ernest Cormier and completed in 1950. Its most recognizable features are the distinctive chapel tower and yellow brickwork, similar to Cormier's earlier work at the Université de Montréal. The school's residence wing, originally built to accommodate boarding students, now functions as a Basilian house.

In the late 1990s, a major expansion programme was undertaken, with two major academic wings and a gymnasium extension added to the original building. The additions contain classrooms tailored to the science, art and music programmes, a substantial lecture hall, several computer laboratories, and a large library. An outdoor courtyard adjacent to the cafeteria overlooked by classrooms is popular for major school events.

There are a number of sports facilities located on campus. St. Michael's College School Arena was the home of the OHL's Toronto St. Michael's Majors. The Team has since moved to Mississauga, and is now known as the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors, playing out of the Hershey Centre. The school's basketball court is named after former vice-principal, teacher, and coach, Paul Dignan. In 2005, a major overhaul of the stadium was undertaken. Renamed in honour of its benefactor, alumnus Eugene Melnyk, it features an artificial turf field, a rubberized running track, and lighting for evening events. During winter, an inflatable dome covers part of the track and field to allow for use in adverse weather conditions. When the stadium reopened, it attracted substantial attention from the Toronto media. Plans are now in the works for construction of a theatre on campus, which would allow the burgeoning music and drama programs to have performances on site. Construction is set to begin in 2008, costing $25,000,000.

Academics

As a university preparatory school, St. Michael's maintains strict academic standards. The school offers university-level courses only (i.e., academic vs. applied) delivered according to the standards of the Ontario Curriculum programs. The school is not semestered, and therefore students often take eight courses throughout the entire year. The only half-year classes are Grade 10 Civics and Careers, taken separately, one in the fall, the other the next spring. The focus of the students' work is core subjects like Science, Math, and Social Science, with few electives beyond the traditional Art, Music, Design and Technology, Computer Science, Law, and Physical Education. All students are required to take at least one science course past Grade 10, consistent with the Ontario standard. More recently, Media Arts was introduced as an elective, operating from an impressive computer lab using 25 Apple Power Mac G5s. The school ranges from grade 7 to grade 12. According to the school administration, between 40% to 50% of the students are members of the school's Honour Roll Society, and more than 70% of the students have an academic average of at least 75%. [] Roughly 98% of graduating students attend one of the top three universities of their choice.

Students are commonly accepted into their choice of Science and Engineering programs, with Social Sciences, Humanities, Commerce or Business, and Arts programs also popular as well. Usually, the universities gaining the most graduates from the high school are the University of Toronto, McMaster University, Queen's University, York University, the University of Western Ontario, and McGill University. Various students are offered acceptance in out-of-province and U.S. colleges such as Harvard University and Cornell University.

Athletics

St. Michael's is well known for its athletic programme, and its extensive sports offerings prove consistently popular among students from year to year. The school has been particularly successful in Hockey, track and field, cross country, and football. Other programmes offered by the school include volleyball, golf, baseball, soccer, basketball, swimming, skiing, tennis, mountain biking, lacrosse, archery and wrestling. The school competes with other independent schools as well as Catholic and public schools in the Toronto area.

The school is perhaps best known as a producer of hockey players and [American] football players. Over 180 St. Michael's alumni have played in the NHLNational Hockey League, including Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Bobby Bauer, Gerry Cheevers, Red Kelly, Tim Horton, Dave Keon, Ted Lindsay, Frank Mahovlich, Reg Noble, and Joe Primeau. The standard of hockey exceeds others to a level that their Junior hockey team competes on the Senior Tier two stage. The school's flagship hockey team, the St. Michael's Majors, have won the Memorial Cup four times. The school also operates a team in a second level of junior hockey, Tier II Junior "A" known as the St. Michael's Buzzers.

The Blue Harrier cross country running team is arguably the most successful in North America, having won 25 consecutive Toronto District Colleges Athletic Association (TDCAA) team titles, and having fielded over 19 teams which have won the Ontario Championship. Coach Paul Barry was recently inducted into a local sports hall of fame for his work in maintaining this streak to date. The junior and senior football teams, known as the Kerry Blues (2006 CISAA champions), are considered among the best in Ontario. The Sr. Kerry Blues have recently (Dec 5, 2007) won their 6th Metro Bowl, making the St. Michael's Kerry Blues the most bowl winning team in Ontario. They have each won more than three Toronto Metro Bowls. National Football League players Glen Young, O.J. Santiago and Michael Labinjo, each of whom have competed in the Super Bowl, played football while attending St. Michael’s.

In addition, Leo Rautins, former All American, television basketball analyst and coach of Canada’s national basketball team, attended St. Michael’s. Rautins was the first Canadian to be selected in the first round of the National Basketball Association draft.

The school was featured on CBC's annual Hockey Day in Canada on January 13, 2007 since the school was celebrating 100 years of hockey at the school.

Notable faculty

*Michael Colle - Former Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
*Dr. Michael W. Higgins - Current President of St. Thomas University and former President of St. Jerome's University
*Emile John - Science teacher, Vice Principal, track and field coach, Commonwealth Games medalist
*Michael McGowan - Former English teacher, director of the Gemini-nominated movie Saint Ralph

See also

*Basilian Fathers
*University of St. Michael's College
*St. Michael's Majors
*St. Michael's College School Arena
*CISAA

References

External links

* [http://www.stmichaelscollegeschool.com/hm/ St. Michael's College School]
* [http://www.stmichaelscollegeschool.com/hm/inside.php?id=57 History of St. Michael's College School]
* [http://www.stmichaelsmajors.com/hm/ Toronto St. Michael's Majors]
* [http://www.kerrybluesfootball.com/ Kerry Blues Football]
* [http://www.cisontario.ca/ Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario]
* [http://ontarioplaques.com/Plaque_Toronto102.html Ontario Plaques - St. Michael's College]