Sumner School celebrates 75th

When the doors close in June and the students head off to their glorious summer vacation in parts near and far, the Charles Sumner School in Roslindale will quietly and humbly take its place in the rich company of other great schools in the history of Boston that have lasted more than 75 years.

The Sumner School, which was originally constructed in 1872 on Cummins Highway and moved to its current location on Basile Street in 1931, has much to celebrate this year and much to look forward to in the years to come.

As a way of bringing its 75th year to a close, however, the staff, students and community gathered last Saturday night at the Knights of Columbus Hall for a gala dinner, and will also invite the entire city to help it celebrate on June 9 in what is being called “Super Saturday.”

Laura Gang, a community member and longtime supporter of the school, coordinated last Saturday’s evening event.

“I’ve always been a booster of the school,” said Gang, “but I became captivated with the idea of finding alumni who could help celebrate this anniversary.”

Gang and others began to solicit feedback and stories from alumni over the past year, as well as inviting alumni who had not been back to the school in some time to join in the festivities.

“It’s been a wonderful journey, learning about our neighborhood, connecting with the immigrant community of the past and with the immigrant community of the present,” Gang said. “Over the past few weeks, we held two coffees with alumni to bring together over 60 years of memories.”

For Gang, a highlight of the evening was a presentation of one of the school’s ceremonial drums to Michael Contompasis, the superintendent of Boston Public Schools, who was a graduate of the Sumner Class of 1951 before he went on to Boston Latin School and Harvard. Contompasis earned the National Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation in 1997 and became superintendent in 2006.

“[Michael] has been such a role model and leader to the young people of Boston,” Gang said. “And it’s such an important time for the school, which is becoming transformed into an arts integrated elementary school, where both students and teachers are learning how the arts can help inform the rest of the curriculum.”

Ruth Bodian, who also helped coordinate the anniversary events, also believes that this event is giving the school time to reflect on its legacy, looking both forward and back.

“It’s been interesting and exciting, to see so many people come back to the school, and seeing the past and present connect,” Bodian said.

Bodian credited Gang’s devotion in putting forth so much work to help the celebration come off as successfully as it did.

Others who helped put Saturday’s dinner together, as well as helped plan for the June 9 festival, include Berta Rosa Berriz, Debbi Brown, Frances Toscano Campbell, Ruben Dario Carrizosa, Lisa Connor, Juan Antonio Gil, Jeff Holland, Kate Klein, Susan Leary and Theresa Lee. More than 50 businesses and individuals were listed as donors, sponsors and partners of the event.

In a letter to the school community, Principal Lourdes Santiago spoke of the Sumner Schoo’s strengths.

“The Sumner of today has embraced new groups of students who reflect the population changes of the city and neighborhood,” said Lourdes.

Santiago called upon alumni and boosters in the school community to help support the growth of the school into becoming a “full-service arts integrated school. We need kind and committed people to support us through our goal of providing quality education for all children. This is a new beginning for our wonderful school,” she said.

Also at Saturday’s dinner were alumni, ranging in age from 13 to 89, including Bill Lannon, who works in an insurance agency in Roslindale Square and went to the Sumner School when it was still at its Cummins Highway location. Awards were given to him and to several others. There was even award presented to the largest family delegation in attendance.

A silent auction and 50/50 raffle raised more than $10,000 in funds for the school. Students and teachers also made gifts for everyone in attendance — cardboard cutout magnets with a picture and a poem on them. A slideshow at the event showed pictures from the past and present alumni as well as enrollment pictures from many of the thousands of students who have attended the school over the years.

Charles Sumner was one of Massachusetts’ most beloved statesmen in his day. Later in his life, he spent much of his energy working toward abolition and supporting Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. He died in 1874, just two years after the school was dedicated in his name. Clearly, his legacy and his name still live on within and outside of the school’s walls.

All about Charles

Here’s some information about Charles Sumner from www.wikipedia.org:

Charles Sumner (Jan. 6, 1811-March 11, 1874 was an American politician and statesman from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction along with Thaddeus Stevens.

He jumped from party to party, gaining fame as a Republican. One of the most learned statesmen of the era, he specialized in foreign affairs, working closely with Abraham Lincoln.

He devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power, that is the conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. His severe beating in 1856 by South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks on the floor of the United States Senate (Sumner-Brooks affair) helped escalate the tensions that led to war.

After years of therapy, Sumner returned to the Senate to help lead the Civil War. Sumner was a leading proponent of abolishing slavery to weaken the Confederacy. Although he kept on good terms with Lincoln, he was a leader of the hard-line Radical Republicans.

As a Radical Republican leader in the Senate during Reconstruction, 1865-1871, Sumner fought hard to provide equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen, and to block ex-Confederates from power.

Sumner, teaming with House leader Stevens defeated Andrew Jackson, and imposed their hard-line views on the South. In 1871, however, he broke with President Ulysses Grant; Grant’s Senate supporters then took away Sumner’s power base, his committee chairmanship. Sumner supported the Liberal Republicans candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 and lost his power inside the Republican Party.

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