sylvanessay4

ISSUES IN SYLVAN SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1739
1916 TO 1930

The persistent shortfall was undoubtedly a large burden to bear for Sylvan when the school was not in operation but doubly hard after its opening in 1921. In 1924, according to the correspondence "no local taxes paid with the exception of that from one farmer who has no family. And the farmers through low prices cannot pay"¹⁹

Problems with taxes were often exacerbated by the loss of portions of districts to those adjoining it. In 1916 two quarter-sections were removed from the southern boundary of Sylvan and given to Wabamun and in 1922 three paying quarters in the northwest corner were turned over to the Darwell District by the Department of Education despite the pleadings of an emotional Street:

We implored you not to make our struggling,
small District still smaller and begged you
not to take these farms away from us, unless
you gave us the equivalent. But our
beseechings were of no avail. The three Farms
were torn from us... When the Sylvan District
had no school it did not matter much. Now it
is a matter of "Life and Death" to us.²⁰

Given these ever-present shortages of funding how then did the School Board cope? There were two basic strategies as evidenced in the correspondence. The first was the acquisition of grants from the government and the second was to cut economic corners by such means as shortening the school year or lowering teachers salaries.
In every township section 11 and 29 were granted as endowments for the financing of schools (though this was not applicable to Sylvan since the southern half of section 11 which it held had not been sold). However, when a school began operations the district was usually entitled to receive a grant from the government to assist its funding. These grants were available to those districts showing need and varied depending on the number of children and the qualifications of the teacher. In Sylvan this grant amounted to one dollar per school day by way of assistance to the beleaguered taxpayers. Unfortunately the board lacked the additional money to run for more than six months in any of the years between 1921 and 1927 and as a result the grant (and admittedly the expense) was concomitantly reduced.
For many rural boards the teachers salary represented a large portion of a school's budget even at the modest level of the day. The regulation rate of pay in Alberta at this time was $840 per school year of 210 teaching days (or four dollars per day). But this amount was $120 more than the total tax levy for the Sylvan School District for 1930.²¹ As a result there was a strong temptation there and elsewhere in Alberta to hire non-certificated teachers at a lower rate. In 1922 Street wrote to the Deputy Minister asking him to grant a "permit" or letter of authority to teach to a local girl who had just finished Grade Ten and who was also, incidentally, the daughter of one of the trusteees. This scheme had two obvious advantages for the board; first; she was willing to accept a lower salary and, second, she could board at home, an important consideration since "no one will take (teachers) in their house and a young girl cannot bach alone."²² Street's chief hope then was to secure the governmental permit for this Miss Mudie and, to that end, he made some rather blatant attempts to dissuade qualified teachers from outside the area from applying. In a second letter to a Miss Miller in August of 1922 he expressed surprise that she was still insistent on seeking a position at Sylvan:

In my last letter I gave you the unvarnished
facts as to the loneliness of our Teachers
quarters... I did not think you would have the
courage to face it and expected you would
refuse the position... The main trail to Lac
Ste. Anne runs close by (the school)--all
sorts of men go along it.²³

He closes this sobering note with a veiled reference to the "late Teacher" Miss Walls who was hurried off to the Alexandra Hospital a few days before. "She was a splendid Teacher -- but delicate"; a statement which no doubt gave Miss Miller a rather fearsome view of teaching at Sylvan. Yet, in referring to this previous teacher's ailment in an earlier letter to another party he maintained that:

Ours is a particularly easy school which could
not possibly have impaired her health... She
herself once remarked to our lady Trustee "It
is just playing at School to teach Sylvan!"²⁴

This duplicity was to a large part due to Street's desire to save the board money at close to any cost. Basically, the Board's attitude was that it was their school, their children, and their choice as to who taught and they wanted nothing to do with "those supercilious, conceited, highly trained..." (and expensive) Normal School Teachers.²⁵ Besides, Street argued, there were only seven students and six of them were "half-breeds", though he did not elaborate as to why they should be any different to teach than white children. It should, however, be stated that the trustees were not alone in this view. The Department of Education was an accomplice in this little plan to shave expenses by not only granting Miss Mudie's permit, but also by suggesting that while she must sign an agreement stipulating a salary of four dollars per day she should return one dollar per day of that to the board. This was done and, as a result, the board had a new teacher for the discounted rate of $630 per year.
----------------------------------------------------------
¹⁹ Correspondence; p.120.
²⁰ Ibid; p.129-130
²¹ Tax Rolls; p. 36.
²² Correspondence; p.94.
²³ Ibid; p.95-96.
²⁴ Ibid; p.98.
²⁵ Ibid; p.117.

BACK

Sylvan School History