The History of St. Ambrose School

The first faculty consisted of Sister Dosithea O'Connor, the principal, Sister Zita Murphy and Miss Dorothy Castellion. The Sisters of St. Joseph have been the teaching order associated with St. Ambrose since it began. For years these generous religious donated their services to the Parish, receiving no salary.

During its first year, 122 boys and girls attended St. Ambrose School. By the 1940's, class sizes frequently exceeded 60 students per class, and following World War II, registration soared even further. In 1950, there were 820 students enrolled in a school built for only 700. It was decided to build a new church, and convert the space occupied by the present one into six additional classrooms. In October, 1960, following a successful three-year fund drive, the new St. Ambrose Church was dedicated by Bishop James E. Kearney. But plans to begin remodeling were halted unexpectedly on Easter Sunday, April 29, 1962, when the original school building was destroyed by fire.

Within two days, students from Grades 1 – 4 were able to attend school in the Annex. The community generously offered aid, and the remaining DPs [Displaced Pupils] attended class at St. Rita's, Annunciation, and Corpus Christi . In the following school year, 400 students and eight teachers used the third floor of Immaculate Conception School for Grades 5-8.

Exactly eighteen months after the fire, the present St. Ambrose School was ready to open, with eighteen carpeted classrooms, a new and innovative idea at the time.

The neighboring school of St. James, which is now part of the Peace or Christ Parish, closed in June of 1990. Many of those students and several of their teachers as well, became an asset to the St. Ambrose School community.

The St. Ambrose School from 1962 to 2006 was a living Christian community. It embraced the future from a solid continuity of tradition. The students and the parish saw the Church and the School as a family, an ideal the St. Ambrose founders began eighty years ago and would be proud to see sustained and enriched today.

The History of St. John Neumann School

In the fall of 2005, due to declining enrollments across the diocese, Bishop Matthew Clark, announced that seven schools would merge into 3 schools. This meant that St. Ambrose School and St. John the Evangelist School on Humboldt Street would become one school. The new school was to hold sessions in the old St. Ambrose School building and the school was renamed St. John Neumann School . The name is appropriate as Bishop Neumann established the first diocesan school system in the United States in 1852. The new St. John Neumann School opened its doors in the fall of 2006 under the leadership of Ms. Marie Arcuri, with many new teachers on the staff as well as many new students who quickly became good friends establishing a solid new school community.

As diocesan school enrollments continued to decline, the Bishop again was forced to announce in the spring of 2008 that 10 additional schools would be forced to close their doors across the diocese and St. John Neumann School again saw many additional changes. It went from having 1 of every grade level, preschool through sixth grade, to having 2 of every level except 3 and 6. Students from all across the diocese, from Gates to Greece to Webster and Fairport joined together to once again form a warm and caring community. Many new and exciting traditions have been established which students look forward to every year. Many service projects are done to help the community outside the school's walls.

In 2011 the Diocese again decided to revise the format of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Rochester, and the formerly diocesan schools once again reverted to the parishes starting in the fall of 2011. Peace of Christ Parish welcomed the St. John Neumann School into its community with open arms and another new era begins for the Neumann students.