Historic Sites of Manitoba: Great Falls School No. 2011 (Great Falls, RM of Alexander)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Great Falls School District was established formally in September 1919 and $3,500 borrowed in April 1920 to purchase property and building a school at the southwest corner of SW27-17-11E within the Winnipeg Electric Company settlement of Great Falls. The school provided education for children of staff who serviced the nearby to the Great Falls Generating Station as well as families from the surrounding catchment area. The district was expanded in January 1953 with the transfer of the east half of 29-17-11E land from the Mud Falls School District No. 2281.

In 1954, a new four-room wooden frame and stucco schoolhouse built along Caton Street within the village, based on designs of Winnipeg architectal firm of Prain and Ward. Starting in Fall 1961, high school students were relocated to Powerview Collegiate and Lac du Bonnet Collegiate Institute. In January 1968, the district became part of the Agassiz School Division. The school closed in the summer of 1971.

Principals (Great Falls School)

Period

Principal

1938-1943

Jacob Bernard Warkentin (1884-1970)

1943-1944

Margaret Catherine Busch Wilson (1905-1986)

1944

Sheila Jones

1945

Margaret Catherine Busch Wilson (1905-1986)

1945-1946

Eva Menzies Lovatt Fallis (1914-1978)

1946-1955

Garnet Robson Harland (1914-1993)

1955-1957

Helen Hendrie Terry Jorgensen (1911-1990)

1957-1959

Frelan Loewen

1959-1960

Clarence Armen Koch

1960-1966

Frederick “Fred” Kalinowsky

1966-1967

Peter Mikolayenko

1967-1968

Dennis Herntier

1968-1970

Karen Adrene Dixon Sokalski (1942-2013)

1970-1971

Donald Walter Smith

Principals (Great Falls High School)

Period

Principal

1959-1960

Anthony Rempel

1960-1961

Julius George Toews (1893-1981)

Teachers

Period

Teachers

1938-1939

Benjamin Popeski (grades 9-11), Jacob Bernard Warkentin (grades 1-8)

1939-1940

Benjamin Popeski (grades 9-11), Jacob Bernard Warkentin (grades 1-8)

1940-1941

Benjamin Popeski (grades 9-11), Jacob Bernard Warkentin (grades 1-8)

1941-1942

Henry Benjamin Bees (grades 9-11), Jacob Bernard Warkentin (grades 1-8)

1942-1943

Margaret Catherine Busch (grades 9-11), Jacob Bernard Warkentin (grades 1-8)

1943-1944

Margaret Catherine Busch (grades 7-11), Lily May Nevin (grades 1-6, 1943; grades 1-3, 1944), Helen Maude Ortwein (grades 4-6, 1944)

1944-1945

Margaret Catherine Busch (grades 7-11, 1944 & 1945), Florence Bernetta Marie Cadigan (grades 1-6), Doris Rita Case (grades 1-6, 1945), Sheila Jones (grades 7-11, 1944)

1945-1946

Doris Rita Case (grades 1-6, 1945), Fern Castain (grades 1-6, 1956), Eva Menzies Fallis (grades 7-11)

1946-1947

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11), George Kroeker (grades 1-6)

1947-1948

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11), George Kroeker (grades 1-6)

1948-1949

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11), Rosemary Margaret Lyon (grades 1-6)

1949-1950

Nellie Doris Campbell (grades 1-6, 1950), Enid Laurie Causins? (grades 1-6, 1949), Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11)

1950-1951

Nellie Doris Campbell (grades 1-6), Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11)

1951-1952

Nellie Doris Campbell (grades 1-6), Garnet Robson Harland (grades 7-11)

1952-1953

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 8-11), Verda Johnson (grades 3-4, 1953), Ethel Kate Templin (grades 1-3, 1952; grades 1-2, 1953), Annie Elizabeth Warden (grades 4-7, 1952; grades 5-7, 1953)

1953-1954

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 9-11), Olga Jorgenson (grades 5-8), Arline Nancy Newman (grades 3-4), Ethel Kate Templin (grades 1-2)

1954-1955

Garnet Robson Harland (grades 8-11, 1954; grades 9-11, 1955), Arline Nancy Newman (grades 3-4, 1954; grades 3-5, 1955), Gwendoline Jessie Smith (grades 5-7, 1954; grades 6-8, 1955), Ethel Kate Templin (grades 1-2)

1955-1956

Naomi Clara Dyck (grades 1-2), Helen Hendrie Jorgensen (grades 9-11), Soren Bernhard Jorgensen (grades 3-5), Gwendoline Jessie Smith (grades 6-8)

1956-1957

Naomi Clara Dyck (grades 1-2), Helen Hendrie Jorgensen (grades 9-11), Soren Bernhard Jorgensen (grades 3-5), Gwendoline Jessie Smith (grades 6-8)

1957-1958

Naomi Clara Dyck (grades 1-2), Frelan Loewen (grades 9-11), Olga Loewen (grades 3-5, August-April), Freda Petterson (grades 3-5, April-June), Mrs. G. Smith (grades 6-8, August-October), Dave G. Wereschuk (grades 6-8, October-June)

1958-1959

Naomi Clara Dyck (grades 1-2), Clarence Armen Koch (grades 6-8), Frelan Loewen (grades 9-11), Freda Petterson (grades 3-5)

1959-1960

Mary Bueckert (grades 1-2), Heidi Jeanne Johannesson (grades 3-5), Clarence Armen Koch (grades 6-8), Anthony Rempel (grade 9-11)

1960-1961

Fred Kalinowsky (grades 6-8), Clara Jean Morran (grades 1-2), David Arnold Rosner (grades 3-5), Julius George Toews (grades 9-11)

1961-1962

Fred Kalinowsky (grades 6-8), Clara Jean Morran (grades 1-3), David Arnold Rosner (grades 3-5)

1962-1963

Sharon Ann Holding (grades 3-4), Fred Kalinowsky (grades 7-9), Clara Jean Morran (grades 1-2), David Arnold Rosner (grades 5-6)

1963-1964

Audrey Jean Bateman (grades 2-3), Fred Kalinowsky (grades 6-8), Faythe Marie Malarchuk (grade 1), David Arnold Rosner (grades 4-5)

1964-1965

Audrey Jean Bateman (grades 2-3), Fred Kalinowsky (grades 6-8), Catherine Wenski (grades 4-5), Clara Wilgosh (grade 1)

1965-1966

Jo-Anne G. Hirst (grades 1-2), Fred Kalinowsky (grades 6-8), Audrey Jean Bateman Lehmann (grades 3-4), Alice Marie Olson (ungraded), Catherine Wenski (grades 4-5)

1966-1967

Jo-Anne G. Hirst (grades 1-2), Audrey Jean Bateman Lehmann (grades 3-4), Peter Mikolayenko (grades 7-8), Alice Marie Olson (ungraded), Catherine Wenski (grades 5-6)

1967-1968

Jo-Anne G. Hirst (grades 1-2), Dennis Herntier (grades 7-8), Audrey Jean Bateman Lehmann (grades 3-4), Karen Adrene Sokalski (grades 5-6)

1968-1969

Audrey Jean Bateman Lehmann (grades 3-4), Karen Adrene Sokalski (grades 5-6), Hortense Marie Wilcott (grades 1-2)

1969-1970

Salorne? Desilets? (special education, 1970), Lynda Joan Kalynuik (grades 3-4, 1969), Bonnie Gail Lee (grades 3-4), Karen Adrene Sokalski (grades 5-6), Hortense Marie Wilcott (special education, 1969)

1970-1971

Florine Carol Campbell (grades 1-2), Joanne Elizabeth Clark (grades 3-4), Donald Walter Smith (grades 5-6), Hortense Marie Wilcott (special education)

Among the other teachers of Great Falls School were Cordelia Martel (Fall 1920), Frank Ryan (Spring - Fall 1921), Arthur A. Frye (Spring 1922), Roy Colter Arbuckle (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), William Fairbairn Currie Billyard (Fall 1923 - Spring 1928), Robert William Lightly (Fall 1928 - Spring 1931), Raphael Marion Sundt (Fall 1931 - Spring 1934), and Jacob Bernard Warkentin (Fall 1934 - Spring 1938).

Photos & Coordinates

Great Falls School

The first Great Falls School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 77.

Great Falls School

The second Great Falls School (November 1967)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba Local Government Boundaries Commission, File 118 Great Falls School.

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.45846, W96.01278
denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Manitoba Business: Prain and Ward / Ward and Macdonald / Macdonald, Cockburn, McLeod, and McFeetors / MCM Architects

Sources:

“Great Falls S.D. No. 2011 requires teacher [...],” Winnipeg Tribune, 14 June 1954, page 27.

“Tenders [Great Falls School],” Winnipeg Free Press, 15 June 1954, page 36.

“Great Falls,” Springfield Leader, 11 September 1956, page 1.

“Great Falls,” by Stan Gittins, Springfield Leader, 15 September 1959, page 6.

“Great Falls,” Springfield Leader, 4 July 1961, page 1.

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, Great Falls School District No. 2011 - Daily Registers, GR0565, Archives of Manitoba.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Great Falls School District No. 2011 - Cash Books, GR9480, Archives of Manitoba.

Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.

Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #20 School District of Great Falls, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.

School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Great Falls School District No. 2011, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

Manitoba Local Government Boundaries Commission, Schools in the Interlake - Manitoba - Volume 2, Great Falls School - File 118, March 1968, Archives of Manitoba.

This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 4 February 2023

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