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Isabel Simard summarized very nicely the happenings of Kingfisher and Hupel Schools from 1916 - 1965, a period of time that she taught school when classes were small, and moving from schoolhouse to schoolhouse was frequent.

As early as 1916, the first schoolhouse to appear in the community was located about one mile from Mabel Lake at Rohan-Peters Road. Hupel School was built next in 1922 by a homesteader, Mr. Potrie, with the help of Louis Simard, who was the efficient School Board Chairman for most of the years the school was in session. The third little log schoolhouse to spring up along the roadside was Kingfisher School, in 1927.

Usually only one of these schools (Kingfisher or Hupel) was open at a time, depending on where the population at that time was the most dense. If more children were coming from the Hupel end, then the teacher and students would be moved to Hupel School, and vice versa.

Mrs. Simard taught from grades one to eight in her early career, with the highest number of students in the classroom at one time being 32. The least number of students in the school was a mere eight, with four of these eight being in grade one. When asked what some of the difficulties of teaching back then were, Mrs. Simard stated that having no assistant or help with anything was tricky, especially when she had to keep things going smoothly all the time for those surprise visits from the superintendent.

For the most part, the school (Kingfisher) had no plumbing, so trips outside to the lavatory were necessary. There was also no electric lighting, and a box wood stove was used for heating the small room.

Every morning before classes started, they would have exercises - the "class sport", called drill. This was basically the only athletic activities which were taught by the teacher, but the children played baseball, soccer, etc. by themselves. This, however, was only a small fraction of any exercise they did. Most of the pupils had to walk at least one mile every day to school until 1948, when the first school bus appeared, with Wilfred Simard, Isabel's husband, driving it.

When asked what was different about education then and now, Mrs. Simard stated: "We felt the old education was more useful than what we have today."

Overall, Mrs. Simard really enjoyed teaching in the community. She found it very unstressful and exciting. She also found it kept her busy morning and night. But in 1960, the little old schoolhouse at Kingfisher where she began her teaching career, and where she taught for so many years, was set on fire; it had been replaced by a beautiful modern building, complete with running water, electric lights, oil heating and a telephone.

She taught for 11 more years in this new building - very fulfilling ones. She taught until 1971, when she handed the job of teacher over to someone new. The school has had numerous teachers over the years. , The facility built in 1960 still stands, and has children of those students Mrs. Simard once taught, eagerly and excitedly raising that Canadian flag.

Charlene Gray
ALF School 1989