Riverway West School Parent-Teachers Association subseries
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription110
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1923-1967
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Description Level
- Subseries
- Physical Description
- 1 scrapbook.
- Scope and Content
- Subseries consists of a Riverway West School PTA scrapbook and photographs.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1923-1967
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Physical Description
- 1 scrapbook.
- Description Level
- Subseries
- Accession Number
- BHS1992-03
- Scope and Content
- Subseries consists of a Riverway West School PTA scrapbook and photographs.
- History
- The original Riverway West School was a one room school house built in 1923 just west of the ravine at Sussex Avenue and Marine Drive. Miss Marion Swanson was the first teacher at the school ande Mr. Morrison its first custodian. Miss Carrie Kidd taught from 1924 to 1935, with the enrolment increasing from 18 in 1924 to 42 pupils in 1929, and including grades one to seven. In 1930 grades one to four were at Riverway while the older students went to Nelson. It continued on as a one-room school of four grades until 1952. As the school was seen by parents to be “greatly lacking” for students and teachers “in comfortable accommodations and vital equipment necessary for their extra curricular and recreational needs, such as were enjoyed by children in the larger schools” they formed a parent-teacher association in September 1951 to remedy the situation. From the beginning the PTA was very active in making its desires known to the School Board and “the school was very fortunate to have an organisation which put forth such a united effort on behalf of the children”. Their first bazaar fundraiser allowed the PTA to purchase a hot plate and the necessary utensils to provide the students with soup and cocoa during the cold weather. At their request, the School Board improved the electrical wiring in the school and built a roof over the stairs to the basement and provided more sports equipment for the children. Art classes and piano classes were started through the efforts of the members and in 1953 a cub pack and a brownie pack with PTA members as Cub Leaders and Brownie Leaders was created. A ditto machine and school library were the direct results of successful bazaars held by the PTA. The PTA also made a survey of the school district in 1951 to analyse the future school population and presented the results to the School Board. Following this, a portable unit was erected beside the existing school house for use the following September. It was in use until 1958. In the late 1950s, the PTA approached the School Board and the Burnaby Parks and Recreation Commission and proposed a park on the grounds adjacent to their school to relieve a playfield deficiency. The creation of Riverway West Park was the direct result of this proposal. As Parks Planner Paul Stocksted pointed out in 1961, “All of this would not have been possible had not the people associated with the PTA insisted on the solution to the problem of inadequate play areas.” In 1957 the first unit of the new Riverway West School underwent construction. Designed by Carlberg and Jackson with Remigio Maniaga as the contractor, it was completed in September of 1957 and consisted of four classrooms, an activity room and administration facilities. A two classroom addition, also designed by Carlberg and Jackson. was completed on the last day of 1959, three months after its construction began.
- Media Type
- Textual Record
- Photograph
- Notes
- PC273, MSS068
- Title based on creator and contents of subseries