In 1909, Public Meetings and private consultations were held to discuss the desirability and to devise means for carrying out consolidation. Since the St. Peters School had been established in 1906/ 1907, Inspectors had immediately suggested it consolidate with the school on the north side of the bay. This vision of the School Inspectors would take fifty-nine years to become a reality in St. Peters.

For years debates and arguments occurred concerning where this school should be built: on the north or south side of the Bay. Island Historian Robert C. Tuck has described Cardigan as a “Village Made by a bridge.” (13) Only the opposite could be said about St. Peters where‘the bridge became a very visible barrier, especially when it pertained to the issue of which side of the Bay a consolidated school should be built. The debate was an ongoing one, which led some residents, such as Joseph “Joe Ramie" MacKinnon of Southampton to suggest an interesting compromise. Joe, who had two children in school at the time of consolidation in the 1960s, and was happy about the new consolidated school being built, suggested that “if we had a great big float, we could build the school on it. We could float it across to the North side of the Bay for a month, and then float it across to the south side for a month." (14] Many members of the community suggest that St. Peters would have had the high school built here, instead of Morell, if it could have been decided which side of the Bay the school was to be built.

The education system continued to develop during the years that these debates took place. In 1913 a 25% pay increase was granted to teachers, the distribution of report cards were initiated, the teaching age was raised from sixteen to a minimum of eighteen years, and uniform school hours were established from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. (15) The following year semi annual school examinations became mandatory and efforts were made to establish a school library in every district. (16) In 1915 summer vacations became uniform with the students having six weeks during the months of July and August, two weeks in October, and one week at Christmas. (17)

It was also around this time that a woman’s organization was becoming established on the Island. Present within many of the communities in the St. Peters area by the 1920s, many Women’s Institute Branches were devoted to the improvement of the one- room schools in their communities.

THE WOMEN'S INSTITUTES:

The Women’s Institutes on PEI devoted a great deal of their time. energy, and money to the improvement of education and were instrumental in the upkeep of the schools in their district. The indifference of the school boards and ratepayers of rural communities spurred the Institute women to become involved in the education of the young members of their communities.

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