The Gilbert School District was organized formally in November 1929. A school building (built of privately donated hand-hewn logs, with roof shingles and windows provided by the municipality) operated from September 1930 on the northeast quarter of 28-25-26 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of Roblin, on three acres of land donated by Mr. Andrew Fisher. Over its 37-year period of operation, an estimated 250 students in grades 1 through 8 were educated by 24 teachers. The school closed in 1967 and students were thereafter transported by bus to schools at Roblin.
The original school building, now covered in an exterior layer of stucco, remains at the site, surrounded by its shelterbelt of trees. The building and grounds (with the barn in which students stabled their horses during the school day) are still maintained. A nearby fieldstone monument, erected in 2000, commemorates the pioneers, students and teachers of Gilbert School, as well as local veterans of the First World War and Second World War.
Among the teachers who worked at Gilbert School were R. Fletcher, W. Cutforth, J. Oliver, Peter F. Kutcher (1937-1939), R. Mayes, I. Pakulak, Hazel Ellis (1940-1945), Margaret Robertson (1945-1946), Edna Funk (1946-1947), William Chuhay (1947-1948), W. Kobluk, H. McGregor, A. Korzeniowski, O. Misko, A. Wileman, D. Stephanson, J. Sobkow, T. Yurey, E. Sebulki, F. Osika, I. Evans, G. Skomorowski, V. Chotka, and I. Fisher.
Gilbert School (no date) by H. L. Albright
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 11.
Gilbert School building with shelterbelt and commemorative monument (June 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Gilbert School building (June 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Interior of former Gilbert School building (June 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Wood-burning stove inside the former Gilbert School building (June 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Gilbert School commemorative monument (June 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N51.19340, W101.04781
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: F. W. Gilbert Elementary School (33 Massey Avenue, Pinawa)
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.
We thank Audrey Blommaert and Will Tishinski for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 30 January 2021
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