A little known fact is that the very first class was not even held on St. Albert’s grounds, but in a room behind the gym at Pardee school that St. Albert’s used as a Sacristy while masses were being held at the Pardee school gymnasium. Father DePlaunty, who was the Pastor at this time, had to share this room with students which created more than one “humorous interlude” as the paths of the students and teachers would sometimes cross with the Pastor. This was a temporary situation until the Church was completed in 1956. Another little known fact is that for the first couple weeks this class was not taught by nuns but by civilian teachers who held down the fort, so to speak, until the nuns arrived from Ireland. Once the Church was completed the first class was moved out of the temporary Sacristy at Pardee school and onto St. Albert’s ground – not the Junior Building but rather what is most well known as the Church Crying Room. After the first year was completed and the second year began, that first class, now second graders, had to share the crying room with the new first graders. The room was separated by a chalk board in the middle of the room. A year later St. Albert’s would host first, second, and third grade in this same room, now separated into thirds with two chalk boards.

The chalkboards did create a visual separation of these early class rooms but they did not fully restrict the sound from traveling from one room to another. This was especially true when discipline was being administered as children would hear the “whack”, followed by the obligatory “owwww” as the sound traveled freely throughout the crying room. This always produced a round of giggles from the other classes who’s students were not receiving the discipline. Students from this first class recalled that whenever the nuns wanted to speak in private, they would speak in Gaelic, which the students did not understand.