O’Leary Public School

To meet the needs of the growing school population a four-room school to be known as O’Leary Public School was built in 1947 on the same site as the two-room school - the building now occupied by McKenna’s Furniture Store. The old school was sold to Claude MacNeill who had it moved near the railroad tracks and used it as a feed warehouse until it burned in 1960.

In 1953, because of the continued increase in village school pop- ulation plus more pupils coming in from rural areas, a new wing was added which provided two more classrooms and an office shared by the principal and staff. In the same year, Grade eleven was added to the curriculum.

A short time later the board began to press the Department of Education to provide Grade Twelve or full matriculation. In spite of repeated requests and a formal brief from the board to the Minister of Education requesting that a Regional High School be established in O’Leary with full laboratory and classroom accommodation, no action was taken. In 1959 Grade Twelve was finally established in the O’Leary District. However, promotional efforts to establish a district high school were continued by Supervisor Merritt E. Callaghan, Earle Jlelley and Lewis Mackenzie.

O’Leury Regional High School

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