Built on a solid foundation
Bruno Zuccala has seen Butler Catholic School from every angle — from the last seat of classroom's eighth row, standing at the chalkboard teaching and, in the last seven years, as a volunteer.
He says the school was his foundation for success.
“It's really exciting because it's a great place to be. The history has so much impact on what the future's going to be because it was setup by three pastors that had foresight that consolidated the school,” said Zuccala, a co-chairman of the school's 50th anniversary celebration.
“With the 50th anniversary, it's the perfect opportunity to share the knowledge and history I have as someone who was here from the very beginning,” he said.
Butler Catholic School, a pre-kindergarten to eighth grade school with an enrollment of about 275 students, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Alumni, current families and friends will be welcomed this weekend to mark the milestone.
The Rev. Arthur Garbin at St. Michael, the Rev. Eloy Grundler at St. Peter and Monsignor Francis Glenn at St. Paul parishes founded the school in 1969.
The school is the first and oldest consolidated school in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
St. Peter school was opened in the mid-1850s; St. Paul school opened in 1888. St. Michael the Archangel school opened in 1921 in the church basement and its building was completed in 1922.
In the late 1950s, the three parish schools, which were less than a mile apart, decided to merge.
Ross Martin of Butler graduated from St. Paul School in 1947 before the merger.
Martin recalled the church announced the merger in Easter Sunday's bulletin in April 1969, which he still has a copy of laying around, he said.
That is when Martin was on the St. Paul church committee which set the guidelines for the merger with the three pastors and lay people from each parish.
About five months later, the school was open in September 1969 with 1,200 students.
“You could imagine it was pretty quick,” Martin said. “Everything went right ahead, ready to go.”
Some people were apprehensive to change, he said, adding each parish operated its own school for years.
“I think we proved them wrong,” he said about the upcoming anniversary. “It was a good thing, absolutely.”
Butler Catholic is housed in the original St. Paul school building that was constructed in 1949 on East Locust Street, said Kathy Dudley, director of development. In 1952, the convent was added. Construction continued with the Fatima wing in 1955, and the auditorium and gymnasium were completed by 1961.In 1969, three parishes merged their schools and created Butler Catholic School.“This was an unprecedented decision at the time to merge three large and thriving parish schools,” said Dudley, a 1986 graduate of Butler Catholic.Butler Catholic School separated students between first, second and third grades at St. Michael building and fourth to eighth grades at St. Paul building, she said. Initially, the St. Peter building was used for kindergarten.In the late 1970s, St. Andrew and St. Fidelis parishes also joined to support Butler Catholic.In 2002, St. Michael closed as a school and all the students moved to a central location, Dudley said.At its founding in 1969, Butler Catholic School was staffed by three congregations of nuns — the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Cresson, Pa; the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Hamden, Conn.; and the Sisters of Saint Francis of Millvale, Pa — as well as lay teachers.Both the Sisters of St. Francis and the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus withdrew from Butler in the summer of 1990. The Sisters of Mercy departed in 2001, ending 113 years of service to the community.
Uniting studentsAs a boy, Zuccala started at St. Michael, the elementary school, which was one of the merger schools, he said.“It's always hard when there's a change,” he said. “Because we were three separate schools, there was a lot of uncertainty about bringing everybody together.”Zuccala said it was scary to transition to Butler Catholic School in 1969 when the schools merged.“It was a matter of getting used to a bigger building and different order of Sisters,” Zuccala said. “It was challenging just because it was new. Anything that was new has always had that little bit of anxiety, but it worked out great.”Zuccala, who comes from an Italian background, lived on Butler's South Side and attended St. Michael, while St. Peter and St. Paul were Irish and German.“Even though we all came from different backgrounds, we became a very strong united community when we came to Butler Catholic,” he said. “Back then, people were still territorial. As kids, we just picked up and kept right on going.”
After college, he was hired to be a teacher, Zuccala said. He taught at the school for two years before he went to public schools.He retired from the Seneca Valley School District after a 35 years as an educator and has since helped at Butler Catholic School in the classroom and at special activities since 2012.“I always contributed in some way, volunteered or helped out at the school and parish,” he said. “I was always fortunate to give back.”Over the years, Zuccala was on the education committee, parish council and diocesan school board.His parents were committed and knew the value of a Catholic education.“I would have never of been the teacher I was if it wasn't for those Sisters giving me my start,” he said. “I think you have to have it in you to be a teacher. They saw that in me and brought it out even more.”Students from the first class he taught at the school keep in touch with him, Zuccala said.“As a beginning teacher it was amazing to work with people that just wanted to help mentor you the right way and steer you in the right direction and give you their insight and their experience,” he said. “I never would have been the teacher I was, or administrator I was without the foundation here.”
David Dorcy of Butler graduated Butler Catholic in 1973.“All of us never realized back then what was actually going on,” he said about the smooth transition.Even after 50 years, some of the children he went to school with keep in touch periodically, he said.Dorcy said he gained a sense of family — a connection that was like an extension to his immediate family.“Since its smaller, you seem to know everybody,” he said.The longevity of his connection to the school not only extends to his own children and grandchildren, but to his uncle, Harry Leyland, who coached at the school for over 30 years. The school's gymnasium is named in his honor.His wife has taught at the school for 30 years. Dorcy's mother worked in the cafeteria from the 1960s to the 1990s, he said, adding people often remember the delicious food she served.“It's like going home all the time,” he said about the school.The anniversary celebration will rekindle old friends and show former students how far the school has come with the dedication of its predecessors, Dorcy said.“We would like to see everyone come back, as many as possible, to show what like minds can do when willing to sit down and do the work,” he said.
