Tisdale Public

Tisdale School District # 916 - Tisdale Public School

Tisdale School in 1905 - teacher Moot Fritshaw on the right

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The first school district was organized in 1903 shortly after the first settlers arrived. It was named Lucille School District but, after the village was incorporated in 1905, it was renamed the Tisdale School District.

Mr. Moot Fritshaw was the first teacher, followed by Miss Maxwell. An addition was added to the school in 1910 when enrolment increased. Miss Fickes and Miss Mann (Mrs. J.A. Pearce) were the first teachers in this enlargedbuilding. For many years Tisdale’s first school stood at the corner of 100A Street and 98th Avenue. It was used as the Orange Lodge and then was occupied by the North East Rehabilitation Center. Unfortunately, this century old building was demolished in late April, 2005 just before the celebration of Tisdale’s one hundredth anniversary.

As enrolment increased, a new four-roomed brick school was built slightly farther east, in 1913. The first high school classes were begun that year. A locomotive bell donated by the C.P.R. was mounted on the roof. This bell has been preserved and is now mounted in front of the Tisdale Elementary School.
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TPS - 1913

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In 1917, with a continued increase in enrolment, the Trustees had to build the Cottage School. This school had indoor toilets! The gas heater would occasionally blow up and shoot soot all over everything. In 1918 this school became so crowded that a room was rented in the Methodist Church.

A fully modern school, to house the high school, was built in 1920. By 1928 the student population in Tisdale had risen to nearly four hundred. In order to accommodate the increasing enrollment a second story was added to this school in 1929. This handsome structure was burned to the ground on December 13th, 1948 compelling the students to finish the term in various churches and halls in the town.
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At the left is the eight room school constructed in 1920. A second floor was added in 1929. To the right is the four room brick school built in 1913. The 1917 Cottage School is just visible at the extreme right of the photo.

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Unfortunately, on February 3rd, 1950, one of the partially reconstructed buildings burned a second time. By September the two building sere completed, housing both public and high school in seventeen rooms. The older brick school was condemned and had to be demolished.

In 1950, the two-roomed school from Eldersley was brought in and placed on the west side of town next to the location of what would become TUCS.

Increasing enrolment as well as financial reasons caused Tisdale S.D. to join the Larger School Unit in 1953.
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As a result the Tisdale Unit Composite School (TUCS) was built in 1954 on the west side of town. The two older buildings, referred to as the North Building (grades 5-8) and the South Building (grades 1-4), now became the Tisdale Public School.

Tisdale High School after the 2nd story addition.

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The two buildings at T.P.S. were joined by an east-west hallway-entrance. From this hallway the rope to the C.P.R. bell (moved from the old brick school), was accessible. The students felt very privileged when the teacher on supervision chose one of them to ring the bell. Some years earlier, before the above ground hallway was built, a tunnel had been dug to join the buildings. Though now boarded up at the north end, it was used as a storage area and was commonly called the Rat Run.

The basement of the North Building now housed a library and an auditorium, a kindergarten program begun in 1969-70 by Mrs. Evelyn Conran, and a room for teaching mentally handicapped children begun in 1968 with Mrs. Ann Drader as the first teacher. In 1974-87 a dental room was also incorporated where the old home-economics kitchen had been. Here the students’ teeth were examined and minor repairs made by the government dental health nurses.

The very wide hallways of the South Building were sometimes used for assemblies or to view a 16mm motion picture or, in later years, a school broadcast on the television. The large landings at the end of each hallway were used for “seminar rooms” for class projects. The walls of classrooms and hallways were covered with an inexpensive particle board that was great for posting student work with thumb tacks or staples. At the back of each room were closets for the students coats and lunches. This same particle board was very easy for mice to chew through, and students who brought their lunches in paper bags often found a little furry fellow had chewed his way in and out of their lunch behind the closed closet doors. The school was very hot in summer and classes were often held outdoors in the shade . The school was heated by steam but the radiators were not easy to control. In the winter storm windows were added to help keep out the cold.

The playground was quite large and accommodated ball diamonds in summer and soccer fields in the winter. The younger children favoured games of Red Rover or Run Sheep Run, or Anti-I-Over around the rebound wall. For the little ones there were swings, teeter-totters and a slide. Each spring the uneven playgrounds were filled with melting snow and water and every recess someone fell in. A change of clothes was a regular part of a student’s book bag throughout the spring season.

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The Old TPS (North Building and South Building) eventually had to be replaced. The new Tisdale Public School was completed in the fall of 1979 at a cost of 1.3 million dollars. In the fall of 1979 students and teachers carried their own desks and books (little ones were helped by older ones) across a cardboard sidewalk out the south fire door of Old TPS into the north door of the New TPS and a new era began.

In the new school the students had a real gymnasium/auditorium. The school walls were painted in bright colours and everything was on one floor. There was a library with a reading corner and a science/art/music room. Throughout the years they attended this school, the elementary students raised money to buy playground equipment, swimming pool equipment and to provide landscaping. TPS had seen the changes from a multi-grade schoolroom to multi-classrooms, from the old Grade System to the new Division System, dozens of changes in curricula, changes in teacher qualifications from a one year to a four year degree program and changes in program offerings. The technology had changed drastically from 1905 to 1997, most notable, perhaps, the changes from slates to blackboards to hectographs to gestetners to spirit duplicators to copying machines and computers.

In 1997, when the old TUCS was demolished, the Recplex facility housing TPS became the High School while Tisdale Elementary School (K-5) was created in the former Centennial Junior High School.

The Teachers: (Old) Tisdale High School and Tisdale Public School (using 1997 as the end of TPS and start of TES)

Principals:
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Hugh Stevenson	1940	Eric Chappell	1949
Walter Addison		John Muir
?		Alan Squire	1959
Ron Eremko	1978	Cliff Chutskoff	1990
Jim Weseen	1994

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Teachers : (* denotes Tisdale High School Teachers)

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Anderson, Linda		Burgess, Bob
Brockman, Colleen		Brownridge, Jean	1986
Brunning (Andrusiak), Carol	1989-97	Chutskoff, Cliff	1990-94
Clarke, Doreen		Clarke, Leann
Clarke, Victor		Cleary (Franklin), Shirley	1958-60
Conron, Evelyn		Cooke, Gerald
Cooke, Edna		Cowell (Beuker), Audrey	1976-87
Dahlsjo, Audrey		Daynes,Norma
Degenstein, Gwenne	1997	Derkatz-Olson, Bonnie	1995
Dinsmore (Krowchenko), Barbara		Donald, Maureen	1967-93
Drader, Ann		Duncan, Russ	1985-86
Dyck (Spencer), Carol	1973-80	Elliot, Meryl
Eremko, Ron	1960-90	Fargey , Marion	1969-83
Fast, Geraldine		Fiderko, Iris
Foraie, Louis		Fritshaw, Moot	1905-06
George, Terri	1983-85	Giffin, Lorraine	1960-
Gustufson (Miller), LoriAnn	1960-	Haldorson (Ratusniak),Lorna	1984-97
Hambleton ,Verna		Hanson , Marjorie	19 -89
Hartman, Mr.		Healey, T. Alf
Helloffs, Mary		Huber, Fritz
Hoffart, Alice	1987-97	Hoffart, Jim
Hollingshead, Ivan		Homer, Ross
Hopper. Jack		Jeffries, Leonard	1983-85
Johnston, Lila		Jones (Galipeau), Ingrid
Kowal, Selena	1982-97	Krowchenko, David	1971-97
Larson, Jeanette	1985-	Lemon, Grace
Lloyd, Ellen	1991-96	Loft, Alf
Lomas, (Wilson) Linda	1969-76	Luck, Ruth
Mahusier, Therese	1989-	Malinowski, Rose	1954 -79
Martinson, Dianna	1989-95	McCorriston, Jean	1981-82
McCullough, Darlene		McFarlane, Lenore	1980-85
McGill, Lois	1986-89	McGill, Ralph
McKague, Carol		McMahon, Brian	1982-84
McRae, Darlene	1997	Mehler , Margaret	1979-81
Dyck (Spencer), Carol	1997	Mehler , Margaret	1983-97
Mehler, Morley	1989-97	Miller, Marilyn	1980-83
Mooney, Rose	1983	Murray, Donalda	1989-97
Nagel, Jacqueline	1988-90	Newman, Alice	1968-69
Newman, Lorraine	1981-97	Nicholl, Denise
Normand, Rita	1978-89	Parmentier, Netha	1988
Penny, Jacqueline	1985	Peterson, Mrs.
Pick, (Hesje) Jan		Pokal (Schaff ), Irene
Popp, Myron		Prete, Florence
Reid, Emma		Riou, Fran
Robertson, Les		Rongrave, Warren
Rooke, Leila	1960-81	Schmidt Tannis	1990-91
Scott, Bev		Scott, Ron	1971-76
Scraper, Cathy	1986-87	Shomlunski (Kowal), Kathy
Slipiec (Gulka), Roselin	1988	Stobbe, Sandra	1986-88
Sullivan, Linda		Weenk, Cheryl	1979-80
		Weenk, Cheryl	1983-97
Weinmaster, Jackie		Wright, Mary
Zacharias (Dyck), Clarice		Zwarych, Jim	1985-86

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Librarians:

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Rooke, Leila	1962-81	McCrady, Audrey	1981-86
Mc Phee, Joyce	1986-93	Kehrig, Kathy	1993-97

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Teacher Assistants:

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Trembley (Murton), Marie		People,s Solveig
Brownridge, Mick		Hankins, Sharon

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Secretaries:

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Peters, Colleen		Johnston, Effie
Woolley, Linda		DeMarsh, Terry
LaJoie ?, Brenda

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Caretakers: (Longterm)

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Williams, Reg		Holmes, Lorne & Myrtle
Aden, Therese & Conrad

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Article by Maureen Donald

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Article by Maureen Donald with some information from 50 Years Along the Doghide

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The School Districts Tisdale School Division a compiled history