by Harry A. Kostash. Found in Our Legacy: History of Smoky Lake and Area. Used with permission.

Mission Schools

Smoky Lake begins with the establishment of a Hudson's Bay Post at the site known as Pakan. A Methodist Mission was established at this location by the McDougalls to serve the settlers of the area. A school was built to provide education for children. Mission schools like this one provided education until such time as public schools be organized.

SCHOOLS UNDER NORTH WEST TERRITORIES

GOVERNMENT

Before the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were organized in 1905, comprising what then was known as North West Territories, many settlers had arrived and settled at various points in, the area north, of the North Saskatchewan River. The Mission Schools could not cope with the situation. They could not accommodate the large number of children in the settlements. The Territorial Government began organizing schools in som the areas. In 1888 Victoria S.D. No. 75 was thus ganized at the present Pakan, or Victoria Settlement. Judging by the numbers of the school

districts, Lopstick S.D. No. 1433, South of Warspite in the Lobstick Settlement, Precvischenia S.D.

1476 and Bavilla S.D. No. 1477, were probably, organized prior to 1905.

ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE

GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF ALBERTA:

On assuming the government of the newly organized province, the government was faced with a backlog of requests for organization of schools. During the first decade from 100 to 200 schools were organized yearly. Since numbers given each district being organized followed a sequence the number of any district can roughly indicate at what period each district was organized. As soon as an area can provide a sufficient number of pupils (7 being considered a minimum) and the residents petitioned the government for an organization of a school, the district is formed and the ratepayers, permitted to build a school.

As first settlers coming to an area have a choice of establishing themselves on better land, earlier districts are fairly well scattered. Later settlers usually occupy lands within an established settlement, thus new school districts are organized proximity of the first districts. This is well illustrated in the organization of schools in the Smoky Lake area. Four periods can be clearly recognized.

Period 2 (from end of the war the coming the railway.)

Bellis S.D. No. 3185 (now north Bellis S.D. N, 31850), Warspite S.D. No. 3241 (formerly Ralston S.D.), Brighton S.D. No. 3245, Yuma S.D. No. 3384 (now Bellis S.D. No. 3384), Pakan S.D. No. 3530 (Victoria S.D. No 75 took territory north of the original settlement), Northern Moose S.D. No. 3581, and White Earth S.D. No. 3582.

Period 3 (from 1918 to 1930)

The coming of the railway gave rise to hamlet or village settlements. In some cases it became necessary to reorganize the boundaries of the existing districts to carve out a district for the hamlet or village. Smoky Lake S.D. No. 3880 is a good example this. Boundaries of Toporoutz, Ruthenia, Kotzand White Earth were changed to provide sufficient rural area for the Smoky Lake S.D. Vilna and Spedden were similarly carved out of the existing rural districts.

The rise of "towns" along the railway attracted new settlers to the area along the fringes. North Kotzman S.D. 3881, Volunteer S.D. No. 3933, Dickiebush S.D. No. 3984, and Low Level S.D. No. 4024 appeared during this period.

Period 4 (the Hungry Thirties)

Because of the depression settlers continued to settle on lands that were hardly suitable for profitable farming, but at least they provided a home. These are found on the northern fringe of the older settlements. Thus Cossack S.D. No. 4468, Mission S.D. No. 4585, and Winston S.D. No. 4888, appeared. The last one though organized never had a school built. The post WW II years attracted settlers out of the area and conveyance was provided for the few remaining children in the district.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

A study of the names of the districts listed interesting facts. When original organizers of districts are faced with a choice of name for the school they look about through various sources. Names of the schools in the Smoky Lake area may be divided into several groups:

1) Native: Indian Names: Waskatenau, Pakan, Lopstick, Wahstao (mission). 2) World Events: Victoria, Warspite, Yuma, Volunteer and Winston. 3) Imported: Names of places brought by settlers from their homelands: Bavilla, Kotzman, Toporoutz, Ruthenia, Brighton and Prosvischenia.

1) Topography: White Earth, Smoky Lake, Low Level, Mission Hill, Riverland, Irondale, White Mud Creek 2) Animals or Plants: Wild Deer, Northern Moose, Bear Lake, Sprucefield, Dickiebush.

DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL SYSTEMS Period I-"The Little Red School House"

The term is hardly appropriate to the schools in this area. The quotation refers to schools built of brick. A more appropriate term, especially during the "hungry thirties" would be the "Little Log School House". Fortunately most schools in this area were frame structures even when they were built during the 30's. Sawmills were plentiful, so the logs were sawn into lumber for the building of the schools through local effort.

Referring back to the original organization of schools in the sparsely settled districts, one-room schools proved adequate for some time. Distance was the main consideration, so an approximate district was four-mile square. One teacher could handle the operation of 15 to 30 pupils, most of them in the lower elementary grades.

Period 2-Graded Schools

As settlements became more populated, vacant homesteads of inferior quality being settled because a school is in operation in the district, school enrollments continued to increase. Besides, older pupils remained in school, desiring to obtain education at a higher grade level. It was not uncommon to have teachers in the one-room schools having enrollments between 50 and 60. This forced school boards to provide second room -and second teachers. In the Smoky Lake area covered in this survey, 19 out of 26 rural districts operated two-rooms by 1939. The only one-room schools at this time were Riverland, Irondale, Pakan, Volunteer, Low Level, and Cossack. Village schools, of course, had more than two rooms. In all but three of the rural districts second rooms were added onto the original one-room school, or new two-room structures replaced the original one-room structure. In the remaining three, Edwand, North Kotzman and Mission Hill, public halls were rented as classrooms.

With the two-room, two-teacher arrangement it was found possible to provide education beyond Grade 8. With Grades 9 and 10 of the High School in the two-room it was not long before a great demand arose for Grades 11 and 12. The two-room school could not possibly meet this demand and local boards were obliged to make arrangements with the village districts to make accommodation for their students at the village schools, and pay tuition fees for them.

Period 3-Organizaion of the Smoky Lake School Division No. 39

During the depression of the early 30's most of the local boards found it difficult or impossible to meet the costs of education in their areas. In the mid 30's the new government with Mr. Aberhart as Premier and Minister of Education introduced a system of centralized government for rural areas. Under this the educational burden would be distributed to all districts in the area equally. This was the organization of the school divisions. Smoky Lake Division No. 39 was so organized in 1939. Organized village and town districts were not included in the original organization of rural districts into divisions, but provision was made in the Act to have the village or town districts to join the divisional administration by mutual agreement. It was not long before Smoky Lake, Bellis, and Vilna joined the division. Waskatenau came in a few years later.

Before the village school districts joined the division the Divisional Board provided senior high school facilities in their own divisional schools, Warspite and Spedden (Warspite was organized as a village at a later date). As the other village districts joined the division the problem of providing high school education to all students was solved. It was not long before bus conveyance for the high school students to these schools was provided by the Divisional Board.

Period 4-Centralization of Rural Schools

The war requirements did not take long to deplete the teacher supply. It was not possible to fill all schools with qualified teachers. A makeshift device of providing pupils with correspondence lessons under supervisors comprised of Grade 11 and 12 students did not prove very effective. The Board was faced with the task of providing conveyance to rural pupils to the central village and hamlet schools, where married women were persuaded to go back to teaching.

To provide accommodation for the high school students in the central schools as well as the lower grade students of the closed rural schools classroom accommodation had to be provided. In 1947 a new high school was completed in Smoky Lake (H. A. Kostash) and a few years later one at Vilna and another one in Warspite. Waskatenau had provided two extra rooms before joining the division. Bellis had two two-room schools moved in from Prosvischenia and Dickiebush districts to provide the necessary accommodation there.

Later as demands arose to centralize all schools, not only the outlining schools where teachers were not available, additional accommodation was required. Victoria two-room, Lopstick one-room, and North Bellis two-room schools were moved in to Smoky Lake. Similar arrangements were made in Vilna. Riverland one-room school was moved to Waskatenau, and the Sprucefield two-room school to provide accommodation for Industrial Arts and Shop courses.

Period 5-Modernization of Schools

Period 6-Centralization of High Schools

Changes indicated in the previous period continued at a more rapid pace. It was found that the composite school considered during that period as adequate proved to be far short of the needs and requirements ten years later. Rapid technology advances requiring skilled technicians, in great demand at the time, showed that practical technical experience in various fields was of greater vi than simple theoretical knowledge with little experience in the field. This was first realized by the Federal government. As a consequence large grants of money were assigned to the various provinces that undertook to build and organize vocational schools. The conditions stipulated by the federal authorities having regard for the high cost of the technical schools made it impossible for small schools to take advantage of the new programs.

Other factors contributed to the Board's dilemma. During the post-war years many farmers moved to the cities where they could obtain employment at occupations that were more remunerative than their operation of their farms. In addition the families of the second generation were much smaller than those of the previous generation. School enrollments were greatly reduced. Programs arranged for the previous period could not be carried out in the smaller centers. It became necessary to centralize the smaller high schools at the large centres, Smoky Lake and Vilna.

In 1961 administration of schools was taken over by the newly formed County of Smoky Lake No. 13. In 1963 the School Committee of the County Council undertook a study of possibilities of centralization of the two small schools in the east of Vilna. In 1964 a beginning was made. Spedden high school students were conveyed to Vilna. In 1965 the other three small schools were centralized, despite the opposition of the rate payers of Waskatenau.

In 1964 Mr. H. A. Kostash, who had acted as Superintendent of Schools since 1939, retired. His successor, Mr. R. L. Tolman, continued the study. His studies, those by the officials of the Department of Education, and a special Committee appointed by the Minister of Education, all agreed that if a school capable of meeting the requirements of federal aid were to be organized in the County of Smoky Lake, it would have to be one, not two. One school taking in all the schools barely provided the necessary enrollments for a vocational school.

Opposition to the school plan arose both from the east and west. The selection of the site, centrally located out in a rural area south of Edwand, or one located in Smoky Lake, just five miles away, proved to be one problem. After two years of bargaining, the School Committee finally agreed on a school in Smoky Lake. Unfortunately when the project came to rate payers it was voted down. The project is now left for the second century of Canadian history to be resolved. It is hoped, however, that it will not take many years of this second century. Children have a habit of growing fast, and if one generation is barred from taking advantage of the best in education, Canada will feel the loss.