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A mission school operated in the vicinity of Westbourne as early as 1859. The Westbourne School District was organized in July 1871. A second school building was constructed in 1874, being replaced in 1903 by a third school that operated until 1954. The present building operated from 1955 to 2000. Through the 1970s, the older grades were moved to schools in Portage la Prairie until, by 1971, only elementary grades were being taught at Westbourne. In 2000, with declining student enrollment, the school was closed and its building was sold by the Portage la Prairie School Division to what is now the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone for one dollar. It was later sold to a private individual and, as of 2012, is being used as a music recording studio.
On the former school grounds is a monument commemorating the rural schools which operated in the vicinity of Westbourne: Adelaide School No. 32, Longburn School No. 93, The Landing School No. 951, Dundonald School No. 1322, and Nora School No. 1551.
Period
Principal
1908-1926
John Dawson Evelyn (1862-1942)
1926-1927
Jonathan Hughes Arnett (1879-1953)
1927-1928
Frederick Donald MacKenzie (1882-1970)
1928-1929
Hugh Francis Reed (1874-1932)
1929
John Cunningham Anderson (1862-1929)
1929-1931
Alfred Blakely Gillespie (1870-1939)
1931-1936
Jacob Truthwaite Norquay (1884-1976)
1936-1938
C. C. Coleman
1938-1939
John Leslie “Jack” Morrow (1896-1989)
1939-1941
Claude Amnesty Joyce (1908-1997)
1941-1942
Walter George Crane (1906-1979)
1942-1944
?
1944-1945
Mary J. Perry
1945-1946
Emmanuel Victor Edmond “Ed” Emond (1917-2000)
1946-1950
?
1950-1952
Michael Richard Firman (1909-1977)
1952-1954
Alex Sabeski (c1923-2014)
1954-1955
Leo Priebe Barkman (1925-2015)
1955-1956
Douglas V. Birch
1956-1957
F. L. Davey
1957-1958
Douglas Birch
1958-1964
1964-1966
D. A. Porter
Among the early teachers of Westbourne School was William Edgar Pye (1901).
School Year
Teachers
1954-1955
Miss Helen Bates (junior), Mrs. Vincent Munro (intermediate), Leo P. Barkman (high school)
Westbourne School (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 5.
Westbourne School (circa 1913)
Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library.
Westbourne School teacherage (circa 1913)
Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library.
The former Westbourne School building (September 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Westbourne area schools commemorative monument (September 2010)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.13105, W98.58523
denoted by symbol on the map above
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
“Teacher’s home is classroom at Westbourne,” Winnipeg Free Press, 3 September 1954, page 12.
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.
Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.
“School closure chance for city hall to act,” Portage Daily Graphic, 2007.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 January 2022
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