Historic Sites of Manitoba: Birchlawn School No. 2111 (RM of Piney)

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As student overcrowding at Menisino School occurred in the early 1920s, there was demand for another school in the area. The Birchlawn School District was established in October 1924 and a schoolhouse operated at NE23-2-10E, on land provided by Anskar Johnson, in what would later become the Rural Municipality of Piney. The school became part of the Piney Municipal School District in 1936. The building was destroyed by fire in 1951 and a replacement school was promptly constructed. A teacherage was added in 1958. The school closed in June 1966, after which students from this area went to Pine Creek School.

The teachers who worked at Birchlawn School through the years were Josephine L. Halldorson (1924-1926), Amy Nesbitt (1926-1927), Elsie Anderson (1927-1928), Kathleen Moore (1928-1929), Ruth Young (1929-1931), Miss Hutney (1931-1932), William Kirbyson (1932-1936), Samuel Lewis (1938-1940), Abram Funk (1940-1941), Margret Freeman (1941-1942), Katie Peters (1942-1943), John Giesbrecht (1943-1944), Daphne Nystrom (1944-1945), Miss Holloway (1945-1946), Olga Demaniuk (1946-1947), Anne Boychuk (1947-1948), Adolph Schmidt (1948-1949), Anne Ostrowski (1949-1950), Julius Watsyk (1950-1951), Annette Vautrin (1951-1952), Hilda Bergen (1952-1953), Jean Derewianchuk (1953-1954), Miss Unger (1954-1955), Steve Semeniuk (1955-1956), Jean Shaw (1956-1957), Sonya Bozyk (1957-1958), Vicky Stadnyk (1958-1959), Miss Wasminty (1958-1959), Marion Thibodeau (1959-1960), Anne Fosty (1960-1961), Anthony Mallnuik (1961-1962), Helen Kozachenko (1962-1963), and John Giesbrecht (1963-1966).

Birchlawn School (no date) by Clarence Moore Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 96. Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.14818, W96.14214 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

Pine Valley Echoes: A History of Badger, Menisino and Piney by Piney Area History Book Committee, 1988. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.P55Pin]

We thank Doris Hovorka (Sprague and District Historical Museum) for providing information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 26 March 2021

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