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HISTORY
During
the 1950's Fraser Lake school was granted
superior school status and a new
schoolhouse was constructed. The old
schoolhouse was also being used in
1952-1953. Mr. Henry Wiebe,
the teacher in the schoolhouse for that
year, gave a good description of the old
schoolhouse in a letter he wrote in
1988. In the letter he made the
following comments: " I taught
in the older building. Before winter
set in -- during the Thanksgiving weekend,
I believe -- carpenters installed two
windows, one on either side of the rear
end of the older building, to improve the
blackboard illumination. " Mr.
Wiebe went on to say that " for the
first week at least we had no seats in my
classroom. The other building had a
coal-fired furnace. Ours had a
wood-burning barrel heater that glows red
hot in the -45 degree Fahrenheit and worse
temperatures that we enjoyed for a short
spell. "
The
picture below shows the old schoolhouse
and the new building. The new
building had many, very large windows for
improved illumination, it also had a
different kind of chimney, because the
building was heated by a coal furnace.
In 1954, the new school was expanded into
a four-room schoolhouse which resulted in
the closure of the old one-room
school. Later on, this four-room
structure became the elementary wing of
Fraser Lake Elementary Secondary School,
as this school expanded. The floor
plan (on the last page) of the school highlights this area that was built in
1954.
The Fraser Lake school was not recognized
as having the facilities of a senior
secondary school. The population in
Fraser Lake was not large enough to
support a senior secondary school.
Therefore, Fraser Lake students of senior
secondary school status had to attend the
nearest senior secondary school. In
1955, Vanderhoof school became a secondary
school with dormitory facilities.
Students from Fraser Lake boarded at the
school in Vanderhoof during the week and
visited home on the weekend.
The opening of
the Endako mines on June 8, 1965 brought
about changes to the community of Fraser
Lake. The population was growing
because the mines attracted many families
into the area. This growth in
population affected the school in Fraser
Lake. The school facilities needed
to be increased, and the grade levels
provided needed to be extended so that
junior secondary would be included.
In 1966, Fraser Lake school became an
elementary junior secondary school.
When Mr. Oscar Bedard
came to Fraser Lake in 1967 to be the
principal, the four-room schoolhouse that
had been expanded in the 1950's was still
being used. However, a trailer was
being used for the grade one class, two
classes were being held in the banquet
room at the hotel and one class was being
held in the Catholic church. After
six months of this disjoint situation that
the nine teachers endured, four portables
arrived at the school.
By 1968 a much needed
addition had been completed on the
school. The floor plan (below) of
the school shows the addition made to the
four-room schoolhouse. The need for
this addition can be illustrated by the
conditions in 1970 when Mr. Bedard left
the school. Fraser Lake school had
grown to 23 teachers on staff.
In 1974-75, the north
wing was added on to Fraser Lake school
and the school became senior
secondary. The students would no
longer have to be boarded in Vanderhoof to
complete grade eleven and twelve.
The floor plan of the school highlights
which area of had been added on to for the
existing structure of the school.
Since this addition, there has not been
any major structural changes to the
school: the building is still the same
size.
Two major events
occurred in Fraser Lake in 1976. One
big event was the first graduation class
of Fraser Lake Elementary Secondary
School. This was significant because
the people in he community no longer had
to rely on the school in Vanderhoof to
educate their children. The second
major event was the closing of the Native
Indian Residential school at Lejac in
June. The result was seen in
September, when 120 Native Indian
students from the Lejac school were in
attendance at Fraser Lake school.
The town of Fraser Lake has
seen quite a few changes to the public
schools between 1922 and 1976. To
begin with, the area was dotted with
one-room schoolhouses, which were not
consistently open to the students.
Progress was made in the late 1940's when
there was consolidation of the one-room
school houses
into a larger central school. This
consolidation was a result of the
recommendation of the Cameron Commission
to consolidate the province into 75 school
districts. The idea of having a
larger school was more economical than
maintaining several small schools.
As the population of Fraser Lake increased
over the years due to the opening of
mines, the expansion of the school was a
necessary endeavor. The present
structure of the school is a result of
many different additions over the years
and a reflection of the history of education
in the Fraser Lake area.
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