St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School (Oakville)
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- For other schools of the same name, see St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School or St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School is a high school located in the western part of Old Oakville in Oakville. There are approximately 850 students attending grades 9 through 12, making it the smallest high school in Halton (of either the Catholic or public boards). St. Thomas Aquinas is a member of the Halton Catholic District School Board and the current principal of St. Thomas Aquinas is Mr. Colin McGillicuddy. The previous vice-principal is Mr. Dave DeSantis (now at Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Burlington), and the new vice-principal is Mr. Greg Picone (formerly of Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School in River Oaks).
The school offers academic programs for university-bound students, applied programs for college-bound students, and essential programs for the learning challenged; it also offers co-op apprenticeship and workplace programs in computer engineering and cosmetology. St. Thomas Aquinas School also offers various extracurricular activities, including (but not limited to): boys' football, girls' and boys' basketball, girls' Field Hockey, girls' rugby, girls' and boys' soccer and volleyball (the senior girls' soccer team won gold at OFSAA in 2006), cross-country, track and field, boys' baseball, girls' softball, the Aquinas Concert Band (which won a bronze at the Atlantic Band Festival in Halifax in May 2006), a Jazz Band, and a choir. Several leadership and school community groups exist, including the Student Council, the STA Prefects, the Athletic Council and the Peace and Justice Club (the "PJ's").
The school building itself has been in existence since the 1960s, when it was first opened as Gordon E. Purdue Public High School. In 1990, the school became a Catholic high school when it was transferred from the public board to the Catholic board for the sum of $1. Today, after the opening of Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School, the feeder schools for St. Thomas Aquinas are St. Dominic's, St. Joseph's, St. James', St. Vincent's and St. Luke's Catholic Elementary schools.
[edit] School Building
St. Thomas Aquinas School is composed of five floors; three in the south end of the building and two in the north. The floors are offset by about 1/2 a storey at a point just north of the school's main lobby.
The floors to the south (bottom to top) are the 100s, 200s and 300s. The 100s comprise classrooms for English, Modern Languages, History, Geography, Religion, Philosophy, Law and Politics. The 200s houses only one general-use classroom, but also houses the main office, the Chapel and Chaplain's office, the Guidance office, the Special Education department, the library and the main foyer/lobby. The 300s are comprised of Mathematics, Business and Computer Science classrooms, in addition to several offices.
In the north end of the building lie the 500s (ground-level) and atop them, the 400s. The 400s houses two classrooms, the Cafeteria and the staff room. The 500s include the Gymnasium, the weight room, Science classrooms, the co-op classrooms, several Religion classrooms and the Art, Drama and Music rooms.
St. Thomas Aquinas used to have a number of portables in the late 1990s. These have since been removed as the school's population has decreased dramatically (from over 1200 to about 850) due to the removal of the OAC year and the opening of Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School in North Oakville.
[edit] External links
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