San Isidro High School

Dear Alumni, Faculty Members, Parents, Students:

Remember the parable of the mustard seed? How one of the tiniest seeds, it became a big tree where the birds nests?

I thought of this during the ordination last November of Fr. Felimon William, the second priest from Abatan Catholic Mission.

As for many years, there was no mission station between La Trinidad and Sabangan – a stretch of 120 kms of theMountain Trail.

Bishop William Brasseur appointed me in 1961 to start the “Mission o f the Mountain Trail”. I took up residence on June 1,1961 in the small sacristy of Sinipsip chapel. This mission covered the area from the Km. 60 –Kalasipan, to Km. 102, including Madaymen, Bakun and Buguias municipalities.

As at that time there were few rides and as Sinipsip was too much at one end of the mission area, I scouted for a long time for a new mission site in or around Abatan.

When Mr. Gavino Bay-an was willing to donate a lot for a chapel and the bishop approved the office and a small meeting place below and the chapel up.

But when we started the foundation for the posts on the present parking place, in front of the convent, the district Engineer Baltazar Aquino called me up to his office Baguio Office and told me in very stern terms to move farther away from the National road. So everything had then to be changed.

The Bayoyo people “contracted” for one overcoat each, to excavate the site for a three story building.

After altering the plans, ordering more materials and finding room in one of the 9 houses at Abatan at that time, I moved there in December, 1962 to supervise the construction works.

Meanwhile, I have been thinking about the youth in this wide area. Plenty of public elementary schools but for higher education all had to go La Trinidad or Baguio, which was every expensive for most parents. Would there not be a possibility of opening up a school for them?

After discussing this with the Bishop, he told me to try applying for a permit to open a high school. But everything was kept secret for we were far from sure if we could be ready by the opening of the new school year.

To my great surprise I heard somebody in the market one day asking me when would we open the high school, because everybody – except me, knew that there was a letter in the Post Office addressed to “The Director of San Isidro High School, Abatan, Buguias, Benguet”.

So plans had to be changed again for the classrooms would be under the chapel and a place had to be found for the convent.

That is why the buildings in Abatan Mission are nothing else but annexes, additions, no subtractions.

As I did not have any experience with the Philippine School System, Fr. Roger Tjolle, Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Vicariate, sent me one day a young man, Mr. Leopoldo Oyco, to be the first Principal of San Isidro High School.

There were no books, no desks, no blackboards, but when classes started on July 1, 1963 with 130 students (72 boys and 58 girls), everything was ready except for some students who sat on empty boxes and used plane boards as desks.

115 students finished the first year, there were plenty of improvisations for things not yet available like dorms, kitchens, etc,

But the pioneers of that time were proud that they could study in a school of their own. That is how it started, how it grew, just like the mustard seed.

Thanks to my successors, Fr, Hubert Declerck, Fr. Herman Sneyers, Fr. Staf Lambrechts and Fr. Vicente Bongabong, the different principal and teachers, the cooperation of parents, but especially the hard work of the pioneers who moved to the mountainside to allow all those buildings to be constructed.

All of you can be proud of your Alma Mater, especially those pioneers deserve rightly some praise as they toiled gladly for THEIR school, for THEIR playground , and all also for the generations of students coming after them.

Is it not this what every father and mother is doing for their children for their future?

Let us all therefore join hands and work not just for today but for the future, for all the youth of this wide Abatan Mission.

Like the mustard seed that grew into a big tree spreading its branches to all sides, may you too, alumni of San Isidro High School, like the yeast in the bread, through your Christian education, permeate the life of your communities, be a light that shines in the darkness to enlighten the less fortunate brothers and sisters who were not able to study further like you.

May all of you realize in your life, the emblem on the shield of San Isidro High School: the light of the cross shining over the crossroads or junction of Abatan, spreading far and near your light and hope for a better life for ALL, not just for yourself!

To that end, let all of us continue working hard together and thanking the Lord, asking him to bless all our benefactors who made all these possible.

And may San Isidro, Patron Saint of the school, continue guarding your school and all of you. God bless you!

- Fr. Jose Waterschoot