School District 57 Prince George

School district in British Columbia, Canada

School District 57 Prince George (SD 57) is a school district in central British Columbia that encompasses urban Prince George, its surroundings, and the outlying communities of McBride and Valemount to the southeast, and Mackenzie to the north.

Land developers organized and sponsored the first schools within Prince George. By 1914, one high and three elementary schools existed. Within the area of what would become SD 57, the establishment of separate school districts (usually comprising a single school), totalled 9 in 1911–1920, 17 in 1921–1930, and 11 in 1931–1940. During the Great Depression, centralization increased because local boards abrogated their responsibilities, forcing the installation of official trustees and creating larger administrative units. Attracting and retaining qualified rural teachers proved difficult. Factors included salaries, scathing inspectors, isolation, community factions, no running water, no electricity, inadequate heat, teaching multiple grades, and sometimes an expectation to organize the various children's social activities for the community at large. Rural schools were dependent upon a smaller and volatile local tax base for funding. When an economic downturn, fire, or depleted accessible timber, closed a sawmill (the primary employer in most rural communities), workers relocated, student numbers dropped, and the tax base collapsed. Rural school buildings were usually rudimentary, and many in a poor state of repair. Equipment and supplies were limited. Consequently, rural students, receiving the barest elementary programs, lacked educational opportunities, and few progressed to a secondary school offered only by a main centre. The 1946 implementation of the 1945 Cameron Report into BC school financing and administration created centralized larger districts. Benefits to rural schools were a broader tax base, to Prince George schools an augmentation of existing infrastructure, and to all schools an increase in provincial funding from 30 to 50 percent. The earlier municipal districts provided no guidance as to setting boundaries, because many were quite small, and 90 percent of the province was unorganized. The new Prince George school district boundaries were equidistant between Quesnel southward, Vanderhoof westward, and at Penny southeastward. On the disbanding of local boards, the former Prince George one, comprising members of civic and economic stature, became the interim board. The elected 1948 board comprised four city and three rural representatives, reaffirming some degree of local control. The new board did not operate with complete autonomy, but had to avail itself of the experience, training, and knowledge of local inspectors of schools, who represented the province. The latter, who had been regarded as faultfinders by local trustees, became mentors aligned with the centralized trustees. The board became a buffer between local residents and the province, and the inspectors were freed from petty management issues. Burgeoning student numbers throughout the 1950s saw massive increases in teacher recruitment and classroom capacity. Many new schools served residential development along the new highways north and west. However by the mid 1950s, building remote rural schools rarely occurred because of maintenance challenges, and from the late 1950s, numerous schools closed as mills closed. In 1970, SD 58 McBride merged into SD 57, and its board dissolved. The new enlarged school district matches the boundaries of the Regional District of Fraser Fort George.

Chair Period Superintendent (formerly supervising principal) Period H. A. Moffat January 1946 – December 1946 Ray Williston January 1946 – June 1949 Gordon E. Styles January 1947 – December 1947 W. (William) Rees January 1948 – December 1949 Bob Anderson January 1950 – December 1950 Jack Beech June 1949 – September 1954? H. A. Moffat January 1951 – December 1951 Jack Nicholson January 1952 – December 1953 Robert Range January 1954 – December 1958 ? K. F. (Ken) Alexander mid 1956 – July 1961 R. G. (Ray) Atkinson January 1959 – December 1962 J. M. Phillipson August 1961 – July 1964 James Elliott January 1963 – December 1966 D. P. (Dave) Todd July 1964 – June 1976 Jean Kellett January 1967 – December 1970 Jim Lang January 1971 – November 1972 Joan MacLatchy November 1972 – December 1977 Bruce Strachan January 1978 – December 1979 Carl Daneliuk July 1976 – April 1979 Cliff Dezell January 1980 – December 1981 Alvin Myhre April 1979 – August 1984 Gordon Ingalls December 1981 – December 1996 Jim Imrich August 1984 – June 1995 Shirley Bond December 1996 – December 2000 Phil Redmond June 1995 – August 2001 Bill Christie December 2000 – June 2007 Dick Chambers August 2001 – July 2006 Lyn Hall June 2007 – December 2011 Brian Pepper July 2006 – December 2015 Sharel Warrington December 2011 – December 2014 Tony Cable December 2014 – December 2016 Tim Bennett December 2016 – Marilyn Marquis Forster August 2016 – May 2019 Anita Richardson January 2020 –