The Birch Lake School District was organized formally in April 1914 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at the northwest corner of NW10-23-5W in the Rural Municipality of Woodlea, in what later became the Rural Municipality of Grahamdale. In 1936, the district became part of the Woodlea Municipal School District. The school closed in the 1940s, due to a lack of students, and the building later burned. In 1955, the then-closed Agriculture School was moved to NE5-23-5W ((about N50.96369, W98.12078)) to become the new Birch Lake School. Its catchment area was added to the Lakeshore School Division in 1967.
Among the teachers at Birch Lake School were Evelyn Townsin (1941-1942), Abe Penner (1942-1943), Joyce Eleanor Barnett (1943-1944), Stella Audrey Starkell (1955-1956), Elaine Margaret Georgina Neely (1956-1957), Susan M. Reimer (1957-1958), and Harry James Warwick (1958-1967).
Birch Lake School (no date) by J. H. Plewes
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 27.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.97830, W98.09213
denoted by symbol on the map above
School District Formation Files [Birch Lake School District No. 1743], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.
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, Birch Lake School District #1743 - Daily Registers, GR3613, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Woodlea Municipal School District #1589 - Birch Lake School (Woolsery School) Daily Registers, GR11220, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Woodlea Municipal School District #1589 - Birch Lake School Daily Registers, GR11220, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 1589 - Woodlea (General) - Permanent, GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
School District Formation Files [Birch Lake School District No. 1743], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.
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, Birch Lake School District #1743 - Daily Registers, GR3613, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Woodlea Municipal School District #1589 - Birch Lake School (Woolsery School) Daily Registers, GR11220, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 1589 - Woodlea (General) - Permanent, GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 23 January 2021
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