CONSOLIDATION

As Alberta grew in population during the 1910s and 1920s the rural areas began to fill up and consequently more small districts were formed. Because of differences in size, land values, and numbers of ratepayers these districts were in varying states of solvency and the quality of education fluctuated accordingly. As early as 1913 legislation permitting the establishment of consolidated school districts was passed by the Liberal government. It allowed, upon ratification by the ratepayers in the affected area, the creation of a joint administration and the building of a common school with facilities such as laboratories and libraries which the smaller districts could not afford to provide. The provincial government obviously favoured this arrangement since it was easier and more efficient to monitor a few large districts than many small ones. The boards, on the other hand, generally preferred the local control of schools and taxes possible in the School District System, arguing that small regions were more responsive to local conditions.
The events of this period tended to force the boards in the direction of consolidation, however. In the late 1910s and 1920s there were increasing numbers of students in most areas as settlement proceeded and those students needed more and better facilities than the one-room school could offer. In addition, the depressed commodity prices which heralded the Grain Exchange collapse caused a shortage of funds in farming districts and an increasing number of school boards were forced to amalgamate in order to pare expenses.
In Sylvan consolidation was not the major issue it was in some areas. While the joining of Wabamun, Rexboro and Sylvan was bruited by the Inspector of Schools as early as September of 1918, evidently no such action was taken by either the government or the trustees and the matter subsided. The only other reference to consolidation came in 1919 when Street lists it as one possible option to Sylvan's financial dilemma:

Sylvan School District is now too small and
poor to run a School; and... the only two ways
out of the difficulty are, either to have
returned to the district the Farms which
were... taken from the District; or to split
the district and consolidate with Wabamun and
Lac Ste. Anne respectively.²⁷

LATER YEARS

By the mid-Twenties the Sylvan Distrct began to have a more stable student population. According to student records, enrolment went from nine in 1923 to a high of thirteen in 1926 while the teachers, during these years, were not only paid the regular salary but were also given the option of being lodged and boarded by one of the trustees. This was in contrast to Street's refusal in the early twenties to hire any teacher that could not bach in the residence or have someone live with them there. In fact, in 1928 Street could boast that "Sylvan School will be operated as long as any other School - ie 10 months", as opposed to the five and six months which was the norm of previous years. This state of affairs was short-lived however. In 1929 enrolment was down to seven and by June of 1930 the number had dwindled to five, three of which were from the same family living on the extreme western boundary of the district. As a result, the school was closed at the end of that year for the last time and in 1931 arrangements were made with the Rexboro district to the west for the schooling of Sylvan's students at a cost of twenty cents per day. Sylvan existed as a taxation district until 1936 when it was subsumed into the Municipal District of Stony Plain.

CONCLUSION

The local rural districts, Sylvan in particular, seldom had an easy time in their attempts to educate their children. Beset by problems of their own making and some imposed from without, the trustees tried to respond as best they could with the limited funds available. But since the local district was, in essence, a product of the need for some form of administration in areas which had barely been cleared, as problems became more external their limitations became evident. A shortage of money and the demand for more centralization to allow for better facilities marked the beginning of the end for local districts by the end of the 1916 to 1930 period.
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²⁶ Teacher-Pupil Records for Sylvan School.
²⁷ Correspondence; p. 42.

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Sylvan School History