School History
The Saint Adalbert's Polish Language School was founded in October 1953 by members of the Polish Army Veterans Association. The children had classes every Saturday while adults met every Wednesday. The first teachers at the school were Aleksander Chojecki and Tadeusz Rosicki. Thanks to the huge help and support of Monsignor Franciszek Pałęcki and nuns who served as teachers in St. Adalbert's Catholic School, the Polish Language School overcame many obstacles and survived its first year.
In 1958, the Polish School was only financially supported by parents who established the school committee, led by chairman Zbigniew Karpiński. Unfortunately, this situation didn’t last long and Father Pałęcki once again gave the school to the Nazareth Sisters. A short while later, after some restorations to the school building, Pastor Pałęcki gave back three classrooms to the Polish School and allowed secular persons to become teachers. In the following year, Władysław Szmid became the new chairman. He fulfilled his duty until his death in 1996. In the same year, Maria Kolęda, a former student and teacher, was nominated as the new principle. At that time, the school consisted of 40 students and four major learning levels.
The Polish School greatly developed as the years passed. Every year, more and more students joined the school and after a few years, the small basement of St. Adalbert's Catholic School was not enough. In 2008, principal Maria Kolęda accepted the proposal of then Monsignor Francis Feret about moving the school to a different building. Around 100 students of elementary school and high school received a new place for learning — the school building of Our Lady Help of Christians parish. The building is located at the intersection of Allegheny Ave. and Chatham St. and stood empty after the school got closed. At the new building more and more classes were created such as preschool for 3 and 4-year olds, kindergarten, high school and classes for adults in English and Polish.
In May of 2012 more changes occurred at Polish School. After 16 years of hard work as a principal Maria Koleda resigned. Being a committed teacher, Agnieszka Dziedzic ran and was elected as the new principal. At the same time, St. Adalbert's Parish receives a new pastor: Jan Palkowski. The Polish Language School has been participating in the life of St. Adalbert's Parish as well as the life of Polish people. Our students perform at many events of Polish – American Congress, Pulaski Day Parade, etc.
In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the school switched to remote learning. In the school year 2020/2021, due to restrictions on the use of diocesan school buildings, our school continued classes in the parish building 2657 E. Allegheny Ave.