The Shaw School District was organized formally in April 1901. A wood frame school building was erected on an acre of heavily-forested land donated by J. K. Shaw, on the southwest quarter of 27-35-27 west of the Principal Meridian in what is now the Municipality of Swan Valley West. The land was cleared of trees and, in 1915, two additional acres of land were purchased from Shaw. Two years later, the building was put on a concrete foundation and a chimney and porch were added. A teacherage was built on the site in 1951 and both buildings were wired for electricity in 1952. A new furnace replaced the former wood-burning stove.
The school closed in 1962 due to declining enrollment. For a year, a group of mentally handicapped children were transported to the site by bus from Swan River to use the building as a classroom. The school building is no longer present at the site but a monument, surrounded by the former school shelterbelt, commemorates it.
Among the teachers of Shaw School were Mrs. Hunt (1901), Bert Hall (1902), Miss Shabits (1951), and M. Greenley (1962).
Shaw School (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 59.
Shaw School commemorative monument (July 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N52.02729, W101.25131
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.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 February 2021
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