Unlike their English Protestant counterparts, in the late nineteenth century, French Catholic schools in the Eastern Townships became increasingly dominated by religious orders.
By the early 1900s, schools run by Catholic nuns and brothers were established in most towns of any significant size all across the Townships.
One of these schools was the convent of the Sœurs de la Présentation de Marie (right), built in Frelighsburg in 1914. With the ever-growing trend towards centralization in the school system, girls from several other schools were sent to this convent in the 1950s. By the 1960s, grades 1 through 13 were co-ed, and there were no more nuns on the teaching staff.