St. Matthew’s Parish School in Kalispell opened the academic year with special recognition for a returning eighth grader and has two teachers new to the faculty.

Gavin Pirrie, one of 13 students who returned for eighth grade, is the first recipient of the Barb and Gene Boyle Scholarship for Leadership and Academic Excellence. The Boyles fund the annual financial award. Gene Boyle retired as the St. Matthew’s principal two years ago, and Barb Boyle used to be the school secretary.

School administrators said Gavin’s conduct is a model for other students. He is an altar server, and his school activities include playing football and basketball. He has represented St. Matthew’s Parish School in the Montana Geography Bee.

In other student news, seventh graders Molly Lavin and Marisa Postovit attended the weeklong Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., during the summer. The conference helps young scholars develop leadership skills by examining leaders of the past and by encouraging positive social contributions.

The new teachers are music and band instructor Theresa Colvin, and Colleen St. Pierre, who teaches English to students in grades 5-8. Colvin graduated from the University of Great Falls following deployment to Iraq and Kuwait. St. Pierre has 28 years of experience as a teacher.

St. Matthew’s has a fall enrollment of 224 in preschool through eighth grade. The Sisters of Mercy opened St. Matthew’s in 1917 as a convent and as a school that boarded students in grades 1-9.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 9, September 17, 2010.