|
The first public school in Metcalfe was a 15 foot square shanty built in the 1840s on the north side of Victoria Street, just east of the cemetery. No trace exists of this school or the Catholic school built sometime around 1850, south of the Catholic church, on Albert Street [ now 8th Line Road]. In 1867 Metcalfe was reported to have a grammar school and a good common school. The Catholic school was closed by the turn of the century. In 1884 the first brick building in the village, a two-room school, was built where Metcalfe Public stands today. This ... building is no longer standing. It was torn down by 1949 and replaced by the existing schools.
In 1900 the Metcalfe School was administered by a local board, elected at an annual meeting by the taxpayers. Chairmen and members - always men in those days - were usually prominent village businessmen, and in 1901 the secretary treasurer was J. L. Rolston...who served nineteen years on the board. The school hired three teachers for its 100 students: Mr. McGurril taught the continuation class for $425 a year, and Miss Ferguson and Miss Urquhart, taught the senior and junior classes for $300 and $225. The only other major expenses were the caretaker's $50 salary and firewood to fuel the basement furnace. The budget was balanced at under $1000 for the year with $600 of that coming directly from the local taxpayers. School fees from non-resident students (from outside the section, a mile or two away) at $1 per month contributed $60. The rest came from the Provincial and County grants.
Metcalfe Continuation School, S. S. No. 11, c. 1915
In 1901 Metcalfe was particularly proud to have recently started a 'continuation' class to provide the equivalent of high school education. At a 1902 special meeting of 50 taxpayers, the board decided to borrow $1500 over 20 years to build an addition for this class. In 1905 the board bought chemistry apparatus, and in 1906 a new slate black board was ordered all the way from Toronto. Coal burning stoves were installed in 1909 and the school yard was expanded in 1911. The additional acre of land cost $140.
In 1914, after the department threatened to withdraw their funding for the continuation class, a second story was added to the school for $1500 (raised through 10 year debentures). In 1917 agriculture was added as a subject. By 1925 the school budget had grown to $6000 a year with the salaries for four teachers consuming $5000 of that. The Metcalfe Continuation School [S. S. No. 11] served most of Osgoode Township and sent students forward to higher education at the Teachers College in Ottawa, and colleges and universities in Ontario, until it was replaced by Osgoode Township High School in 1954. Metcalfe Public was built in 1950 and St. Catherine's was built in 1960. The Community Christian School was opened in Metcalfe in 1985.
Metcalfe High School, Collection #7D3C60
Quoted from A Historical Tour of Turn of the Century Metcalfe, Ontario
Produced by the Metcalfe Women's Institute@1996
ISBN 0-9680882-0-1
with the permission of the Osgoode Township Historical Society and Museum
|
