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Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
A school district was esablished formally in the village of High Bluff, in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie, in August 1893. Known originally as Aberdeen School, the name was already in use in southwest Manitoba and there was already a High Bluff School (which later adopted the name Old High Bluff School), so it became High Bluff Village School. Land was purchased for $140 from John Dilworth and a school building was erected by carpenter B. Whitmore at a cost of $810. On 1 November 1893, it opened for classes under teacher Miss M. Wallace, who was paid an annual salary of $480.
In 1903, the building was moved slightly on its lot and put onto a stone basement equipped with a furnace and pump, and the school yard was fenced. A bell, installed in the school belfry in 1907, was later moved to a commemorative cairn as a Canadian centennial project. To accommodate a growing number of high school students, an addition was made to the original classroom, and it opened in November 1916. A teacherage was added in 1938.
In 1963, the school merged with Old High Bluff School No. 13, Cochrane School No. 43, North High Bluff School No. 23, Flee Island School No. 527, and Portage Creek School No. 505 to form High Bluff Consolidated School No. 2418. In 1964, a new five-room school was built and it opened the next year. The district was dissolved in April 1967 and the school joined the Portage la Prairie School Division No. 24. It has now closed and students from the High Bluff area are now bussed to Portage la Prairie.
A commemorative monument, topped by the bell from the former school, was erected on the school grounds on 1 July 1967. A plaque providing a history of the school was affixed to it in 2001.
Period
Principal
1919-1920
H. E. Bowen
1920-1922
Thomas Patrick King (1873-1954)
1922-1924
George William Holmes
1924-1925
Dorothy Strachan
1925-1927
Albert Edward “Ted” Scrase (1901-1984)
1927-1928
Mary Ethel Simms (c1895-1947)
1928-1931
Alfred James Struthers (1889-1979)
1931-1933
John Blain Stewart (1882-?)
1933-1943
Peter Renwick Stewart (1902-1974)
1943-1944
Harvey Willis Ferrier (1873-1957)
1944-1947
Peter Renwick Stewart (1902-1974)
1947-1948
Nastia Kolodzinski “Nettie” Stadnyk (?-2017)
1948
George Kroeker
1949
Marjorie May Williams Muirhead
1949-1950
George Kroeker
1950-1953
Ernest Nakka (1913-1970)
1953
Doreen E. Blight
1954
Alice Emma Schultz
1954-1959
Franz Julius Solmundson (1907-1989)
1959-1960
George Wesley Denstedt (1896-1979)
1960-1962
Leonard Goodman
1962-1967
Margaret Amelia Creighton (1911-1979)
Period
Teachers
1947-1948
Sally Winnifred Hicks (grades 1-8), Nastia “Nettie” Kolodzinski (grades 9-11)
1948-1949
George Kroeker (grades 9-11, August-December), Marjorie May Williams Muirhead (grades 1-8, August-December; grades 9-11, January-June), ? (grades 1-8, January-June)
1949-1950
David Kroeker (grades 1-8), George Kroeker (grades 9-12)
1950-1951
Ernest Nakka (grades 9-11, August-December; grades 7-11, January-June), Juanita Matilda Morrison (grades 1-8, August-December; grades 1-6, January-June)
1951-1952
Gladys MacKinlay (grades 1-6), Ernest Nakka (grades 7-11)
1952-1953
Edith Myrtle Hokanson (grades 1-8), Ernest Nakka (grades 9-11)
1953-1954
Doreen E. Blight (grades 9-11, August-December), Dawn Alayne Miller (grades 5-8), Alice Emma Schultz (grades 9-11, January-June), Margaret Elaine Webster (grades 1-4)
High Bluff Village School before addition of a second classroom (circa 1911)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspector Photos GR2664, C65.
High Bluff Village School (no date) by A. B. Fallis
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 123.
High Bluff Village School commemorative monument (April 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
High Bluff Village School commemorative monument (July 2019)
Source: George PennerSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.01898, W98.14858
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Aberdeen School No. 761 (Municipality of Louise)
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.
Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Nathan Kramer and George Penner for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 October 2023
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