The school that burned had been the property of the Stella Maris Parish; the district had been paying a rent for its use. The parish certainly could not afford to rebuild! They decided that they would build their own separate hall on part of the school grounds and deed the rest of the land over to the school district so that they could get government assistance to rebuild.

Sister St. Hildebert (Annie White) was soon making plans for the new Parish Hall. It was completed in time to hold the school closing on June 18, 1954. The 85’ x 40’ building was contracted by Aenaes Poirier and Francis Doiron with eight local men assisting. The hall had a seating capacity of 450 with 200 fixed seats, a stage 28’ x 14’, two dressing rooms, and a projection room for 15 mm films at the back. The basement was outfitted with a kitchen, dining hall and rest room facilities with provisions for two bowling alleys.

In 1954 the Board of Education agreed to make North Rustico a centre for the writing of Provincial Examinations. On June 24th forty students gathered to write in the temporary classrooms above the sacristy and in the sacristy with Mr. Wilson Ross presiding. The first grade XII class opened in September of 1954. It is interesting to note that in 1957 Lionel Gaudin led the Island in the grade X provincial examinations, obtaining the highest mark ever attained in these exams. In 1959, he repeated this feat by leading the Island in the grade XII provincial exams; his brother Urbain didthe same in 1960.

Sister St. Hildebert (Annie White) and Sister St. Mary Eugenia (Louise Gallant) spent long hours trying to come up with a design for the new school that would keep the costs down to a bare minimum. At one point the design included finishing classrooms in the basement but investigation convinced them that this was a poor solution to the problem. A comment is reported to have been made which went like this: “You’ll be six feet under long enough; try to keep above ground as long as possible?’

The final blueprints prepared by architects Downie, Baker and Ahearn of Halifax were ready on June 8, 1954. The business manager for this under- taking was Joseph Gaudin. The contractor, Mr. Earl Gallant, began work on July 7th of that year; costs were cut by the use of some voluntary labour. This modern one-storey building was made up of three divisions; the central division was flanked by two wings: a grade school wing with six classes each 31’ x 22’; a high school wing with four classes each 31’ x 22’. In addition to these ten regular classrooms, there was a science lab, a library, a music room, a home economics and domestic science room. The basement had a playroom and a lunchroom. A comment from the Guardian of October 6, 1955 is as follows:

“Not only were the people of the parish able to erect the most modern fourteen room school in the province but their being able to do so at a cost of only $75,000 (fully equipped) represents a stroke of finan- cial wizardry which has left builders and others dumbfounded to know how it was done?’

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