Newport Catholic school celebrates 50 years
When Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic School in Newport Beach opened in 1964, Tracie Sullivan was enrolled in the first grade. She remembers her morning routine of putting on her uniform and polishing her saddle shoes for school.
Students these days still don the uniform but now throw on a pair of sneakers, no polishing required. Classrooms that once had blackboards now have Smart boards and school-issued iPads.
To commemorate those early years and the growth since, the school will celebrate its 50th anniversary by hosting a Golden Jubilee with a weekend of events for alumni, students, parents, faculty and parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church next door on Mar Vista Drive.
The event kicked off Friday night with an Alumni, Parent & Parishioner Reception at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.
A celebratory Mass will take place at noon Sunday at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church. The Mass will be led by the Most Rev. Kevin Vann, bishop of Orange, and the Rev. Kerry Beaulieu, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels.
After the Mass, guests may walk to the Jubilee’s Throwback Carnival at 1 p.m. on the school’s Carson Field, 2046 Mar Vista.
As a tribute to the ‘60s, the decade the school opened, the carnival will have the popular games of those years. This includes the tossing of rings on glass coke bottles and ping-pong balls into fish bowls.
When the school first opened in 1964, there were 140 students enrolled and four teachers. The school now educates 465 students with 52 teachers.
The original campus had just four classrooms. In 1991, the school’s first major expansion included a new library, art rooms and computer and science labs.
In 2008, a 41,000-square-foot expansion added 10 classrooms, allowing the student body to grow to its current size.
Eileen Ryan has served as the school’s principal for 28 years. Although she’s witnessed the school undergo this physical growth, she sees one important thing that remains the same.
“We have the same solid values,” Ryan said. “These values encourage each of our students to be a faithful catholic, a responsible citizen, an effective communicator and a lifelong learner.”
Sullivan was part of the first class to complete grades first through eighth at the school in 1972. She says she still carries positive memories from all those years ago.
“I remember I was in the seventh grade when my teacher gave us a creative writing exercise,” Sullivan said. “She said I showed a lot of potential and that gave me confidence as I went through school. I feel I received a good education for the future.”