Link to:
Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Iris School District was formally established in March 1918 and operated a one-room schoolhouse at the southeast corner of SW13-21-12 West in the Rural Municipality of Alonsa from 1918 to 1962. While the district was renamed the Alonsa School District in February 1936, this school remained operating as Iris School, largely for grades 1-8, with high school grades sent to Alonsa Village School / Alonsa Village High School.
The former school building is no longer present at the site. A monument erected in 1993 commemorates the school and local resident Edward Mozdzen.
Among the teachers of Iris School were Miss Margaret H. Bone (August 1918 - December 1919), Henry Benjamin Bees (May-July 1920), Henry George Mingay (December 1920 - March 1921, also Night School August 1920 - July 1921), did not operate (Fall 1921), Lucy Jean Mason (January-June 1922), D. Fyles (September 1922 - January 1923), Mrs. Edith Alywin (March-June 1923), E. Lois Strachan (September-December 1923), Miss M. M. Blowers (January-February 1924), L. Caners (March-May 1924), Mrs. S. L. Campbell (June 1924 substitute), Robert Halloway (Fall 1924 - Spring 1925), Mrs. Willard Waldon (Fall 1925), Grace L. Dolmage (Spring 1926, daughter of John Dolmage), Verna G. Robertson (Fall 1926 - Spring 1927, also night school September 1926 - March 1927), William Alexander Ellison (Fall 1927 - Spring 1929), Annie Eva Hill (Fall 1929 - Spring 1935), Arthur John Charles Starr (September-December 1935), Cecil Victor Gunn (January-June 1936, Fall 1936 - Spring 1939, & September-December 1939), Hazel Adelle Ogston Gunn (January-February 1940), Anna Dill Carson (March-June 1940, Fall 1940 - Spring 1948), Dorothy O. Sellman (September-October 1948, Fall 1952 - Spring 1954), Lena Gordon (November 1948 - June 1949), Annette Pasosky Turko (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), William Peter Christie (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), John Fostey (Fall 1951 - Spring 1952), Mary Elizabeth Armit (Fall 1954 - Spring 1956, Fall 1959 - Spring 1962), Eileen LaRocque (Fall 1956 - Spring 1958), and Alice Ruth Adeline Napper (Fall 1958 - Spring 1959).
Iris School and Teacherage (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 60.
Iris School commemorative monument (August 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Iris School commemorative monument (August 2021)
Source: George PennerSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.80170, W99.00831
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Birdina School No. 1915 (RM of Alonsa)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Alonsa School No. 1920 / Alex Robertson Museum / Alonsa War Memorial (Alonsa, RM of Alonsa)
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
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.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Iris School District No. 1920 - Daily Registers, GR2064, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Alonsa School District No. 1920 (Iris School) - Daily Registers, GR2064, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Iris School District #1920 - Cash Book, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
We thank George Penner for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 30 June 2024
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