Business Education

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The boundaries of Trieste S.D. 4101 expanded as settlers requested to be included in the district boundaries so that their children might attend the school.  In fact, several families from northwest of Hylo petitioned the government to establish another school to serve the children from that area.  A document was filed on December 31, 1945, along with a petition, for the building of a new school on land owned by Carl Keehn.

At the same time, children endured the hardship of having to travel either by foot or by horse and buggy for many miles, often through cold winter months.

During this time, Venice School was finding it difficult to retain a teacher, with a shortage of teachers, while Hylo had two qualified teachers who lived in the community.  There were requests to have one of the two classrooms in Hylo closed and a teacher transferred to Venice.  However, neither teacher was willing to move to another community.  Consequently, a letter from the Minister of Education advises the reopening of both rooms in Hylo if the teachers were willing to instruct there.

The role of the school in Hylo expanded as its facilities were used for a variety of purposes.  In December 1947, Mr. Sawchuk was granted his request to the Minister of Education to use Hylo School for Protestant church services on Sundays while their church was being built.

In 1950, the Home & School Association sent a letter to the Minister of Education for an explanation as to why the Association was having to supplement bare essentials for the school, such as tissue paper for the school toilets, science equipment, refilling of fire extinguishers, etc.  A letter of explanation was forwarded although it did not adequately provide all the answers.  At that time, three teachers were teaching grades 1 to 9 at Hylo while high school students were conveyed to Lac La Biche for instruction.

With rumours of instruction being centralized in Lac La Biche, a petition signed by 130 ratepayers was submitted in April 1961, requesting that students attending Hylo School NOT be transferred to Lac La Biche.  Discussions continued and in 1964, a public meeting was held to discuss plans for centralization and the viability of continuing education in Hylo.

Finally, in 1964, the Lac La Biche School Division made the decision to close the Hylo School and have students transported to Lac La Biche.

Reprinted from "Hylo-Venice Harvest of Memories" by the Hylo-Venice History Book Committee, with permission from the editor.

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