Garden Valley Collegiate Institute - Yearbook (Winkler, Manitoba Canada)

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rime a n cat a Garden Valley Oct. 7 , 1965 Prime Minister Pearson Visits Young Politicians Put Your Heads Together

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GARDEN VALLEY SCHOOL DIVISION, NO. 26 When the Manitoba Provincial Government advanced a plan for dividing the whole province into School Divisions at the high school level, the electors overwhelmingly defeated the original plan for this division on February 27, 1959. Subsequently, the second vote for this area on December 8, 1961, was also defeated when 853 electors voted FOR a larger division and 994 voted AGAINST it. However, the third vote carried when on July 12, 1963, there were 1,008 votes cast FOR and only 655 AGAINST the formation of the Garden Valley School Division. Following this vote, the first school trustees for the Division were elected on Friday, September 27, 1963. By January 1, 1964, the new Garden Valley Division was organized and the following trustees took office: Ward I, Mr. Isaac Warkentin; Ward II, Mr. John A. Walkof; Ward III, Mr. John H. Wiebe; and Ward IV, Mr. Henry F. Wiebe and Dr. B. J. Froese. At the organization meeting of the trustees, Mr. H. F. Wiebe was elected chairman, Mr. Isaac Warkentin, vice-chairman, and Mr. John H. Wiebe secretary-treas¬ urer. In 1964, Mr. John H. Wiebe resigned as trustee and assumed full time duties as secretary-treasurer for the Division. The office of the Division Board is now located on the second floor of the former Winkler Bible School on Eighth Street. In 1966, Mr. P. D. Labun was elected as trustee to fill the vacancy created when Dr. B. J. Froese resigned. Early in 1964 negotiations were started with the school boards of Plum Coulee, Reinland, and Winkler for rental of classroom space. Besides these classrooms, three temporary huts wer rented from Plum Coulee Building Supplies and three from the Country Lumber Yard at Winkler. To provide classroom space for the grade IX classes at Winkler, the old Bible School was rented. When all the students and staff of Garden Valley were united on one campus at Winkler with Mr. Henry Neufeld as principal, September 1, 1966, another three huts were added to accommodate the 435 students. The high school classroom at Reinland was discontinued in the spring of 1964. In June 1965, Garden Valley had a total of 1? classrooms, 20 teachers, and 444 students enrolled in the grades IX to XII. There were 5 teachers and 99 students at the Plum Coulee Collegiate, and 15 staff members and a student body of 345 at Winkler Collegiate. In 1964, two buses were required to bring in the rural students; today, six buses are operated by the division. Ever since the organization of Garden Valley School Division, the problem of accommodating a rapidly growing student body pro¬ gressively became more acute and difficult. To solve the problem of accommodation, a money by-law was submitted to the electors for the construction of a 56-classroom-count Collegiate. However, this money by-law was defeated on June 24, 1965, by a margin of 256 votes, when 917 electors voted AGAINST the by-law and only 661 cast their votes FOR it. Another vote for the construction of a school building rated at 58 classroom equivalent to cost just over $1,100,000 was held on March 31, 1966. This time a total of 1754 out of 3641 Garden Valley electors turned out at the polls voting 990 FOR the money by-law, and 752 AGAINST. Mr. L. R. Labossiere, Director of Administration for the Department of Education, and Mr. Henry F. Wiebe, chairman of the Garden Valley School Division, officially turned the sod at the new Garden Valley Collegiate construction site at Winkler, Friday, August 19, 1966. The new Col¬ legiate is to be ready for instruction on September 1, 1967. In the fall of 1966, the Manitoba Government instituted a plan for Single School District Divisions. On March 10, 1967, the electors of Garden Valley defeated this plan in no uncertain terms when 543 voted FOR and 1416 AGAINST the plan. Seen here turning the sod are Henry F. Wiebe, Board Chairman and L. R. Labossiere, Dept, of ISSBsssSmSR . mm [•I ]

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