The first morning of school brought the familiar sights and sounds back to St. Mary’s Academy in Glen Falls, New York: students filing in with backpacks, classrooms filling and school year routines beginning once again.
But this year, there was something — or rather, someone — new at the door.
Sister of the Resurrection Laurie-Marie Parisi greeted students as they arrived for the first day on Sept. 10, welcoming them into the pre-K-to-8 academy where she now serves as principal. For St. Mary’s, the sight of a religious sister greeting students on the first day was more than a new school-year tradition.
It marked the return of something St. Mary’s has not seen in more than three decades: religious sisters living and serving in the school and parish.
Sister Laurie-Marie is joined at St. Mary’s, which serves more than 200 students, by two other Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Angela Marie Leo and Sister Mary Lucille Borowski. The three sisters live at a newly established convent on the parish’s property.
And so far, the sisters seem to be getting high marks.
“My daughter came home from school so excited after seeing the sisters,” said Jan VanSchaick, a St. Mary’s
