The Craig Siding School District was organized formally in September 1919 and, in December 1920, a $4,000 debenture was issued to pay for a school site as well as to build and equip a one-room schoolhouse at the southeast corner of SW4-11-9E in what would later be the Rural Municipality of Reynolds. The district began operating a second one-room school in the fall of 1958, with the structures being designated School No. 1 and School No. 2. The original Craig Siding School (School No. 1) was relocated to the western boundary of the same quarter-section as part of the district’s two-school model and the new School No. 2 was located on a 200 feet by 280 feet property in 33-10-9E. Two years later, they were respectively changed to Craig Siding School (formerly School No. 1) and Ste. Rita School (formerly School No. 2).
The district was dissolved in 1967 and its catchment area became part of the Anola Consolidated School District No. 2429 and later the Transcona-Springfield School Division. Both schools ceased operations in the summer of 1968 and, by September of that year, the Division had posted sale notices on both schoolhouses and their respective grounds. Within a year, the Ste. Rita schoolhouse had been purchased by a realty company and was marketed as a summer cottage. The Craig Siding School, still upon its last school site, had been renovated into a private residence as of a 2019 site visit.
Among the teachers of Craig Siding School were Miss Eggertson (Fall 1922), Mis Donald (Spring 1923), G. G. Stonehouse (Spring 1923), Aileen M. Donald (Fall 1924), Kathleen Aird (Fall 1924), Lena Goodman (Fall 1926 - Spring 1927 & September 1927), Lillian Hoover (October 1927 - June 1928), Julia Nellie Markiewicz (Fall 1928 - Spring 1929), Nita Romanche (Fall 1929 - Spring 1930), Ann Gertrude Kitteringham (Fall 1930 - Spring 1931), Betty Frances Redmond (Fall 1931 - Spring 1933), Beatrice Elizabeth Greschuk (Fall 1933 - Spring 1935), Ernest Lloyd Cooke (Fall 1935 - Spring 1936), Ida A. Beaudette (Fall 1936 - Spring 1937), George Lloyd Marsh (Fall 1937 - Spring 1940 & August 1942 - June 1943), Evert? Hakka (Fall 1940 - Spring 1941), George Basham (1941-1942), Marguerite E. Brunet (August 1942), Louise Gauthier (August-September 1943), Rose-Anna Wolfe (October 1943 - June 1944 & Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), Ernest Lorne Moffat (1945-1949), Hermine Coulter (Fall 1949 - Spring 1952), Lorroaine Celeste Moffat (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953), Lorraine Aurore Cormier (Fall 1953 - Spring 1954), Joseph O. Laveryn? (Fall 1954 - Spring 1955), Agnes Alice Gravelin (Fall 1955), Isabelle Rohl (Spring 1956), and Isabelle Marie Hadden (Fall 1957 - Spring 1958).
Period
Teachers
1958-1959
Alfred Laurencille (grades 1-7, at School No. 2), Michel Rocan (grads 1-9, at School No. 1)
1959-1960
Gilbert U. Gariepy (grades 1-8, at School No. 1), Alexina Manaigre? (grades 1-8, at School No. 2)
1960-1961
Ernest Norman Bonin (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Alexina Manaigre? (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1961-1962
Ernest Norman Bonin (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Patricia Cecile Gauthier (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1962-1963
Wasyl “William” Danylchuk (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Patricia Cecile Gauthier (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1963-1964
Wasyl “William” Danylchuk (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Patricia Cecile Gauthier (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1964-1965
Wasyl “William” Danylchuk (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Irma Josephine Jolicoeur (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1965-1966
Wasyl “William” Danylchuk (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Florent Nicholas (grades 1-8, at Ste. Rita School)
1966-1967
Wasyl “William” Danylchuk (grades 1-8, at Craig Siding School), Aldea Noella Gauthier (grades 1-7, at Ste. Rita School)
1967-1968
Isabelle Marie Hadden (grades 1-6, at Ste. Rita School), Lorne David Park (grades 2-6, at Craig Siding School)
Craig Siding School (no date) by R. Goulet
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 80.
The former Craig Siding School building (September 2019)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.89137, W96.31368
denoted by symbol on the map above
Vivian West topographic map, 62H/16 West, Edition 2, Series A743 [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.
“Transcona-Springfield School Division No. 12 school sites for sale,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 September 1968, page 48.
“Scott Realty Ltd.” Winnipeg Free Press, 19 May 1969, page 35.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #47 - School District of Craig Siding, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 2031 - Craig Siding, GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 2031 - Craig Siding - Permanent , GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Craig Siding School District #2031, 1937-1938, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Craig Siding School District #2031, 1935-1936, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Craig Siding School District #2031, 1925, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Craig Siding School District #2031, 1923, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Craig Siding SD #2031 - Daily Registers, GR9480, Archives of Manitoba.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 August 2020
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