IRMA SCHOOL DISTRICT No.2345

1. The Irma Public School opened in 1910. The first teacher was Miss Ursala
2. Flett who taught for a short time before her sister Margerite came from
3. New Brunswick to take over. There were only five pupils, and as six were
4. needed to keep the school open, Edward Swailes was paid a nickel a day to
5. attend until another family moved in. School was held in a room in the
6. hotel until it burned in 1911, when classes were then held in the
7. Methodist Church and remained there until a proper school was built. In
8. 1912 the cottage school was erected. Miss Bessie Brickman was one of
9. the teachers, while Burkholder and Renwick children were among the first
10. pupils.
11.  
12. In 1917, a special ratepayers’ meeting was held to replace H. Burkholder
13. who had resigned as trustee. Twenty-four residents entitled to vote
14. attended and the first lad trustee was elected — E.T. McDowell.
15.  
16. Previous to 1921, high school students had attended elsewhere. The first
17. consolidated rural high school in Alberta was opened in 1921. It was
18. made up of Alma Mater, Sunny Brae, Strawberry Plains, Ross, Glenholm and
19. Irma School Districts. Mr. John Hollinshead was the first high school
20. teacher, and held classes in the Methodist church. Another public school
21. was built in 1921, and high school classes were moved into the
22. cottage school. Other high school teachers were: Mrs. Hammer Jackson
23. (who taught only two weeks), Mr. Fowler (1922-23) and Miss Broadridge
24. (1923-24). In 1924 Mr. I.S. Reeds came to Irma, and taught continuously
25. until 1953. The school building was quite inadequate as there was no
26. place for science equipment and during the winter the pupils’ lunches
27. froze in the unheated porch.
28.  
29. A barn in the northeast corner of the school yard housed the mounts of
30. country pupils.
31.  
32. Simmons and Sutherland built the new one-roomed high school north of the
33. elementary school. It had a spacious classroom, cloak rooms, a small
34. laboratory, but no flush toilets. An event each year was the visit of the
35. inspector. In those days he travelled by train—only one inspector for the
36. whole of Alberta. He would arrive in Irma at noon, and go on to
37. Wainwright the next day. Mr. J. Smith was Inspector until 1927, when Mr.
38. Fuller took over. When grade twelve was added to the high school, a
39. second room was opened in the basement and was known as “the dungeon.”
40. Mr. Olaf Larson became assistant principal and remained in Irma until
41. 1940. Later another room was added and subsequently the whole building
42. was moved to Passchendale. Mr. Donald Gunn came in 1943 and was
43. principal until 1972.
44.  
45. After the Wainwright School Division was formed, more country schools
46. were closed and the children bussed in to Irma. In 1947, the Sunny Brae
47. school was moved to the school yard; then in 1950 a new eight-roomed
48. school was built to house both elementary and high school students.
49.  
50. During the 1960s a maximum school population of 360 was reached with a
51. teaching staff of 18.
52.  
53. Caretakers have been: R.L. Simmemon, Pryce Jones, & Mrs. L. Guiltner,
54. Mr. & Mrs. G. Hockett, Mr. & Mrs. C. McBurney, Mr. R. Lewis and Susan
55. MacDonald.

Irma School District No. 2345
from “Down Memory Lane”

16-17