MOOSE JAW — For students and staff at Sacred Heart School, the final bell on June 26 marked the end of a deeply memorable chapter in their lives.
, alongside Westmount Elementary School, Empire School, and St. Mary School. Most students will transition to the new joint-use school in the fall, with others moving to high school as Sacred Heart’s last graduating class.
For Rhyley, a Grade 8 graduate who has attended Sacred Heart for more than a decade, the moment carried weight. Rhyley said he feels sad to learn that Sacred Heart is closing, and will miss the school where he made so many memories. “I liked gym class the best,” he said.
Rhyley is off to Riverview Collegiate in the fall to start Grade 9, where he looks forward to playing basketball and adjusting to high school life.
Sacred Heart staff members — many of whom have spent years working in the building — said the day was full of mixed emotions. Educational assistants Tara Cathcart, Jocelynn Steeves, and Susan Umana all described it as bittersweet.
“As we put it the other day, it’s kind of like grandma’s house,” Cathcart said. “When grandma passes away, and you’re cleaning out her house, you go through all the memorabilia, and you get to look back on all the years that you’ve had there.”
While it’s hard to say goodbye to a place filled with so many memories, staff said the transition feels more like turning a page than closing the book entirely. There’s comfort in knowing that many of them will be making the move to the new school together this fall.
“We’re upgrading from grandma’s house to a new house,” Steeves added with a smile.
All three said they’re excited for the move to Our Lady of Hope — but the sense of family, tradition, and connection at Sacred Heart will be hard to leave behind.
“We’ve been here for quite a few years — six, seven, eight years for some of us. My kid has been here for two years of pre-K, so it’s 10 years at this school,” Steeves said. “And my daughter came here too, so yeah, it’s a huge part of our life.”
Umana also shared her personal connection to the school. “My daughter was just in here, reminiscing with some of her teachers from previous years. When we first came from Nova Scotia, and when we first moved here, it was these teachers who made a difference in her life. They made it so that she wasn’t as homesick coming here to a new school, and they have been her favourite people because of that. I feel like we are a family here.”
The moment was also one to reflect on the many happy memories made at Sacred Heart, like the time a teacher shaved his head in front of the school after a surprisingly successful school fundraiser, or the year the entire school made and wore matching tie-dyed shirts. “Everyone was in tie-dye. That was fun, and I still have mine,” Umana said.
For the three educational assistants, it was witnessing their students’ milestones that stood out the most.
“Those successes are even bigger successes when it’s something they’ve worked so hard for,” Cathcart said. “We love the kids like our own.”
, is located at 1700 Vermont Road and is set to open on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
