KPS history by Lily Heinrich Chapman

This story was written by KPS student Lily Heinrich Chapman for a school speech assignment. Thanks to Lily and her family for giving us permission to include it on our website.

Keewatin Public School

By: Lily Heinrich Chapman

It’s moved once, it’s been burned down twice, and it has a history of 120 years. Hi, my name is Lily Heinrich Chapman and my speech is about Keewatin Public School.

The first school in Keewatin was a log building that opened in 1882 near the mill crossing and was attended by 25 students. Soon, this school became too small, because many new families were moving to Keewatin to work at the flour mills. In 1888, a new school, with two classrooms, was built here. This school was burned down completely in 1896. It was rebuilt as a senior school the following year. An addition was added in 1907 making it a 6 room school. In 1924 a junior school was built. There was a second fire in July of 1946. The school was rebuilt to look a little more modern.

The building we see today was built because the other school was too small for the increasing amount of students. It was built in 1959 and included 12 classrooms, a kindergarten room, an auditorium, staff room, an office, a library, and storage rooms. There were 14 full time teachers and 453 students.

There have been 17 different principals over the years. Mr. Adams was principal for 26 years. He started in 1918 and retired in 1944. He was the longest serving principal at KPS. Mr. Morrison was principal for 22 years from 1964 until 1986. When Mr. Morrison was principal there was something called “The Strap”. It was a leather strap that hung on the wall of the principal’s office. Children that did not follow the rules were hit on the hands with the strap. Mr. Morrison was the last principal at KPS to use the strap. The last time he used it was on his own two boys for throwing snowballs. Even then, you were not allowed to throw snowballs! Since I have been at KPS, I have had 4 different principals – Mrs. Koivukoski, Mrs. McAughey, Mrs. Mutch, Mr. Flynn and Mrs. Mutch again.

Did you know that we have not always been the Keewatin Cougars? Before the Keewatin Cougar and the school colours of burgundy and white, our school colours were blue and yellow. We didn’t have a school mascot before the year 2000 but we did have a giant loon. In 1987, Keewatin Public School had the Loon Project. This was a giant loon that sat on the roof and was made out of paper mache. All the students in the school were involved in the loon project. In 2000, Student Council had a contest to pick a school mascot. Students got to vote on which mascot they wanted and some of the other choices were a thunderbolt and the zebra cats. Students picked the cougar because it sounded the best. One of the students drew the first Keewatin cougar.

The number of students at KPS has gone up and down over the years. In the first year, only 25 students attended. According to records at the Lake of the Woods Museum, the highest number of students attending KPS was 607 in 1962. That would have made this a very busy school! In 1950, there was a flood in Winnipeg and some families moved to Keewatin. A special class was set up for the evacuated students. The first students from Laclu were bussed to Keewatin in 1950. In 1961, children from Rat Portage Indian Day School were invited to KPS.

Some things at KPS never changed. Students have always had to line up and snowballs were not allowed. Students have always enjoyed the bush at the back of KPS and they used to be able to go as far back as they wanted. As long as they could hear the bell there were “in bounds”. It would make the school more fun for the students today to be able to go into the bush again.

Thank you for listening to my speech about the history of Keewatin Public School. I hope our school will stand for many years to come. In 2009, this building is going to be 50 years old. I hope we can all get together to celebrate the latest milestone in Keewatin’s history.