The congregation assigned four sisters to the school in Kinkora, three

of them teachers and one sister who served as housekeeper for the convent. Bishop O’Leary had hoped that the congregation would become engaged in teaching in a number of rural schools in predominately Roman Catholic areas of the province. However, since the Sisters of St. Martha were also responsible for running a hospital and orphanage, the resources of the congregation were stretched. Kinkora was the only school in the province they would fully staff. Although the school was staffed completely by members of a religious order, it was considered to be a public school where students of all religious affiliations could attend.

The quality of education was exemplary. In 1930, five students from Kinkora passed the provincial Grade 10 examinations. One of those, Dorothy Cullen, a Charlottetown resident who went to Kinkora to attend high school and who was then just age 14, led the province when the results were posted. The year before, Dorothy’s sister Bernice Cullen, who would become a future Sister of St. Martha and one of Kathleen’s teachers, won a provincial award for her high marks. Bernice Cullen (Sister Mary Peter) was the first woman to graduate from Saint Dunstans University. She also led her graduation class at St. Dunstans, but because she was a female and a member of a religious order, the achievement was not recognized during the graduation ceremony. (It was some years later before she actually saw her marks; her transcript was sent to her mother superior who did not share the results with her.) By the time Kathleen entered St. Dunstans, attitudes to females attending university had changed significantly.

In 1939, Sister Mary Henry became the principal at the Kinkora school. Together with Father Mathias Smith and the four school trustees, including Kathleen’s father John, they began plans to expand the school to include Grade 11. There was, however, opposition from local residents who feared their taxes would go up, and from the provincial Department of Education which placed a number of conditions on a school before it would be approved. These conditions included the provision of a suitable classroom, a teacher holding a valid license and a university degree and appropriate textbooks. Another condition appeared to be too formidable: there had to be a minimum of 20 students. Since there were only eight

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