The Debonair School District was organized in April 1880. A school building was constructed in the southwest quarter of 18-4-4 west of the Principal Meridian, in the Rural Municipality of Roland. The original building was replaced by one erected in 1899. The school closed in August 1965 and the present building, which replaced the one built in 1926, was moved to NW20-5-4W where it was used for storage.
Among the teachers of Debonair School were Ernest Coulter (1880), H. M. Parkinson (1910), Miss B. Ridyard (1917), Olive Johnston (1918), Mr. Craik (1919), G. Bell (1919), M. Coppinger (1920), Ethel Cruise (1922-1923), Christiana Johnson (1923), Emma Clarke (1924), M. H. Curtis (1924-1925), Esther Jickling (1926), Lena M. Adams (1927), Islay Parker (1927-1928), Edna Cruse Shore (1929-1930), E. M. McLaren (1930), Frank Alywin Anderson (1930-1931), Marjorie Ethel Sutton (1931-1932), Clarence Osborne Motheral (1932-1933), Jacob V. Neufeld (1933-1937), Dora Jamisena Lythe (1937-1938), Margaret Georgina Alexander (1938-1939), Edith Isabel Burnett (1939-1941), Edith Elizabeth Katherine Weber (1941-1944), Gladys Margaret Berry (1945-1946), Edith Jean Wood (1946-1949), Geraldine Norah Poersch (1949-1950), Jean Dudgeon (1950), Florence Jean Gall (1950-1951), Bernice Leona Morrow (1951-1953), Jacqueline Ann Stewart (1954-1955), Ragnheidur Evelyne Olafson (1955-1956), Elsie Anne Peters (1956-1958), Jean I. Elves (1958), Edith Winnifred Brown (1958, substitute; 1962-1963), Margaret Ann Peckett (1959), LaVerna Marie Mitchell (1959-1962), Mrs. Harry Janick (1963), and Jeanne Elizabeth Sutton (1964-1965).
Debonair School (no date) by A. J. Manning
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 29.
The former Debonair School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1146.
The former Debonair School building (June 2013)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Debonair School building (November 2023)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Debonair School commemorative sign (October 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Debonair School commemorative sign (November 2023)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.29624, W98.00123
denoted by symbol on the map above
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Roland & Myrtle Family Histories, Roland 4H, 1990, page 85.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Debonair School District No. 92 Daily Registers, GR1816, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 13 January 2024
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