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1937: A Banner Year Grade 12 Full-Time Instruction Established<br />
Great Exam Results Main Street Paved & A Sidewalk<br />
Best Year Since 1919<br />
Main St. Paved<br />
Side Walks<br />
Grade 12<br />
Best Exam Marks In N.S.<br />
O. S. Joudrey, the Town Clerk<br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>School</strong> Board Secretary<br />
could hardly contain his joy in<br />
his annual message, [left], in The<br />
Record. And the previous year,<br />
1936, The new Post Office had<br />
been built!<br />
• Increased enrolment was a<br />
result of establishing grade 12.<br />
The figures for March, 1938<br />
were: Beginner/grade 1-27,<br />
grades 2/3-33, grades 4/5-28,<br />
grades<br />
• 5/6-27, grade 7-28, grades<br />
8/9-29, grade 10-14, grades<br />
11/12-33 =TOTAL 219<br />
• Good provincial exam results<br />
were a constant feature of the<br />
1930s. <strong>Mahone</strong> <strong>Bay</strong> students earned a high reputation. Teaching was solid throughout,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the principal <strong>and</strong> v.p. prepared the 10s, 11s <strong>and</strong> 12 extremely well.<br />
The Acquisition of The <strong>School</strong> Field, 1934<br />
• This was one of the great achievements of the Corkum era. He constantly prodded<br />
the Board in the direction of a sport field with playground <strong>and</strong> athletic space, <strong>and</strong> of a<br />
school auditorium-gymnasium. He was successful in the first <strong>and</strong> had a near miss in<br />
the second<br />
• Farmer Peter Westhaver’s pasture <strong>and</strong> woods stretched right from the back of the<br />
school to Fairmont Street. Could Mr. Westhaver be persuaded to sell? He could: The<br />
Depression was on <strong>and</strong> he needed cash. But where could the Board get the money:<br />
in such times raising a loan or asking for more in the budget was out of the question<br />
for folks who classed the project ‘nice to do, but hardly necessary…we’ve got along<br />
without one so far’.<br />
• The answer came in County <strong>School</strong> Board Grants negotiated by the Town Reps on<br />
the Board, Reg. Hyson <strong>and</strong> Warren Hirtle, both of whom had served as mayor <strong>and</strong><br />
school board chairman. The details of how they secured the grants are not known. But<br />
their skills in negotiating resulted in the commitment of grants of $50 per year until<br />
the amount, including 4% interest, was paid. Westhaver was willing to let the school<br />
use the l<strong>and</strong> on receiving the first $50 payment.<br />
• The Board proudly announced that the two acres had been added to school property<br />
“at no cost to the local ratepayers.”<br />
Reg. Hyson was shopkeeper, investment<br />
consultant, <strong>and</strong> president of the South<br />
Shore Publishing Company that printed<br />
the South Shore Record <strong>and</strong> sold magazine<br />
subscriptions. He was the father of student<br />
Herbie Hyson.<br />
He had served as mayor in 1922-23, <strong>and</strong> had<br />
been a school board member.<br />
Warren Hirtle, also a store owner, was<br />
mayor <strong>and</strong> board chair, 1928-29 <strong>and</strong> 1934-5.<br />
They <strong>and</strong> mayor Charlie Lohnes [the<br />
‘founding father’] formed a formidable trio<br />
in negotiating the purchase of the school<br />
field.<br />
• In his end of year report in December 1934 , H.V. Corkum recorded, ‘Our showing<br />
in [provincial examinations] the high school last year placed the school in the upper<br />
four of the province’<br />
Photo: South Shore Record, Dec.16/37<br />
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