The students, faculty, and parish members of St. Robert’s school and church recently celebrated an important birthday: the 100th birthday for the community. The school honored the celebration with cake at lunch for students, a picture to commemorate the school’s milestone, and mass with the archbishop.

In the past 100 years, the school has changed so much. In 1915 there were four classrooms with 43 students and two teachers. The teachers were nuns, and they taught grades one through four. One of the four nuns was the principal, and the other nuns were teachers. Also, the school architecture changed. The current first floor used to be the church and above the church was the school. Over the years, the way in which education was tackled in the school began to change. St. Robert began to provide science classes, dedicated a room to art lessons, and built a computer lab. Eventually, the school’s former 9th grade disappeared and kindergarten classes emerged. Amid these vast changes, some remnants of the past remain. For example, Ms. Lesjak’s office is one of the oldest rooms in the building, and the two chairs in the office were the teachers’ chairs in 1915. The small wooden chairs found in the kindergarten and first grade rooms today were the students’ desk chairs when the school opened.  Students have  nostalgia from the first classrooms of Saint Robert.

At school, students were excited to celebrate the 100th birthday. Saint Robert School commemorated the birthday by eating cake at lunch and taking a picture in the position of the number, 100. At lunch, a lot of students looked forward to eating cake, especially since St.Robert doesn’t offer desserts often. Students could either choose chocolate or vanilla. On the cake there were yellow flowers placed decoratively in frosting, and on the center of  the cake it read, Happy 100th Birthday Saint Robert School. Before indulging in cake, students lined up outside in their white shirts to capture the picture of the momentous number: 100. All 309 students smiled in the parking lot for the many pictures that were taken. Now there will be a picture to remember the special day.

On the Friday of the 100th birthday, all the students and faculty members celebrated mass. Archbishop Listecki, Father Dennis, Father Peter Patrick, Father Cierpich, Deacon Andrew Linn – a St. Robert graduate -, and Deacon Gary Nosacek all presided over the mass. After the mass, the students, parish members, and staff joined the archbishop in a reception in the gym for snacks and mingling. At the reception some students even had the chance to meet the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

In the end, it was a birthday well celebrated. Maybe, in another 100 years, the community will celebrate the birthday with a treat at lunch or a mass with all the current, future, and past priests and the archbishop once again.