St. Thomas Aquinas School was built in 1961 and opened for students in the fall of 1962. This “new” school replaced an existing St. Thomas School that was located in the old army barracks along the Red Deer River.
The core building of the school has gone through two major renovations; one in 1988 after a fire and the most recent completed in 2009. While the outward school footprint has changed minimally since 1961, the interior would be unrecognizable to many of its former graduates.
St. Thomas Aquinas Middle School is named after St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Catholic Church, patron of all universities and of students. His feast day is January 28 and he was born toward the end of the year 1226. St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time and as a tribute to him a statue was built the middle of the school’s courtyard.