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

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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 upon designs of Winnipeg architectal partnership of Prain & 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

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. 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

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: 19 October 2022

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