An Oconto Falls Catholic school wrote a new chapter in its 100-year history last week. St. Anthony School, closed since February 2012 following an arson fire, reopened Sept. 3 for students and staff.
“It’s just amazing from the ashes what we’ve received. It’s just a beautiful building,” teacher Sue Beschta said.
“It’s the best school ever!” fifth-grader Adam Haines said.
Principal Rosie Marifke said everyone is happy to be “back home.” Students attended class in the Sunday School classrooms at Grace Lutheran Church after the fire, then portable units on the Jefferson School site on Sherman Street for the 2012-13 school year.
“It’s nice to be able to get the kids up. We can make a circle without bumping into walls,” teacher Pam Beschta said.
On Friday morning she asked the fifth-grade students to journal about “being home again” and returning to St. Anthony School on Franklin Street.
For Morgan Kowalczyk, the new paint scheme made the biggest impression.
“I like the colors of all the classrooms. It really brightens up the rooms a lot more,” she said. Sunlight from the new, large windows adds to the cheery atmosphere.
“It’s so bright and welcoming and open. It’s wonderful,” Pam Beschta said.
But the classrooms weren’t the only areas receiving a facelift. Other upgrades in the $2.5 million project included new fixtures and flooring in the bathrooms, new lockers, a new parish/school office and an elevator that provides access to the basement cafeteria and upstairs meeting rooms.
“The bathrooms are so nice. The basement just looks amazing,” fifth-grader Eden Witt said. “Everything is so much brighter. It looks so nice.”
Students accustomed to how the school looked before the fire returned to a much different environment.
“I think they’re just really fascinated with how the school looks, and they just want to take such good care of it,” Sue Beschta said.
She said students quickly adapted to their surroundings at Grace Lutheran, St. Anthony West and now the remodeled school without ever losing their identity as a school community.
“I think it was amazing for them to see what they have now for a new school, but they were a school no matter where they were,” she said.
The school has an enrollment of 49 students in 4-year-old kindergarten to fifth grade.
The school received $94,533 in donations from the community, plus a generous amount of educational materials and furnishings, according to St. Anthony’s pastor, the Rev. Joel Sember. Monetary donations were used for upgrades not provided by insurance, such as the sprinkler system and secure access for the classrooms.
“We’ve been really blessed with prayers and contributions and volunteers,” Marifke said.
The tragedy of the fire brought out the generosity of the area, she said.
“It wasn’t just the Catholics, it was everybody. We live in a great community — and beyond Oconto Falls. It was really northeast Wisconsin, with all the schools that helped us with furniture and books and everything,” Marifke said.
The faith community continues to raise funds to pay for its elevator and materials for its computer lab and library. Cash and pledges for the elevator have grown to $105,000 of the $205,000 total cost, Sember said.
This fall, St. Anthony’s has more to celebrate than a return to the renovated school. It will hold a centennial celebration Oct. 5.
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