Park School is located on Main Street near Bartlett Avenue. It is a wonderful older school that was beautifully restored by the District School Board of Niagara in 2006. In October of 2009 we celebrated 100 years of educating Grimsby students. Currently, Park is home to over 110 students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade Six.
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The History of Park Public School
Park School students and staff are part of a heritage that dates back nearly 200 years. In 1805, School Section (S.S.) No. 1 North Grimsby Township was built of logs on what is now known as Park Road (referred to as Beach Road, Beach Mountain Road and Park Mountain Road in various archives). A frame building was erected on the southeast corner of Park Rd. and what is now Regional Road 81 in1825. This land was deeded to the School Section by Jacob Book for $40.00 This building served as the school until 1865, when a one room red brick schoolhouse was built.
The first teacher was Walter H. Nelles. Other teachers of this period were Mary Sommers, Israel Terryberry, Miss Davis, Miss Zimmerman, Miss Geddes, Miss Boughner, Robert Cruickshank, William Godwin, T. Marshall and D. E. Cesner.
In those early days, the teacher customarily boarded with a nearby family. The teacher's board paid for the tuition for the children in the family. Fifty cents a week was paid to the family responsible for starting the fire in the school every morning, and another fifty cents went to those who swept and dusted the school.
In 1867, Mary Sommers, who was the teacher at that time, received a letter from one of the trustees suggesting that she ought to return some of her $150 a year salary to the board since she was living at home with her parents!
By 1909, a larger school was required because of the growing number of people living in the Grimsby Beach area to the north of the school. A four-room brick building, costing $13,000 was constructed on the present site (1/4 mile further west of the earlier building) on a 2 acre parcel of land which cost $6,000. There was no government assistance in the building of the school. The people of School Section 1 paid the cost entirely through their taxes.
As the school board had decided in 1909 to build the school much larger than needed, it wasn't until 195l that expansion was necessary. Two classrooms were added, and modern flush toilets and heating were installed.
Further expansion took place in 1954, with the addition of two classrooms, a principal's office, a staff room and the conversion of two storage rooms into classrooms, bringing the school to its present size. At the same time, a further 2/3 acre of land was added. The strip fronts on Marilyn Street behind the school. In the 1990's the property to the west of the school was acquired.
The last board of S.S.1 was chosen in 1960, and consisted of Hugh Tisdall, S. Lipsitt and A. Sherwood. In 1965, S. S.1 became North Grimsby Township School Area. Five years later, it became Lincoln County Board. With the provincial government's sweeping changes in the late 1990's, the Lincoln and Niagara South Boards were amalgamated to form the District School Board of Niagara.
Park School has operated at capacity since the last expansion. By modern standards, Park's gym may leave a lot to be desired, but the staff and students through the years have used ingenuity to use it to its full potential and extend our physical education program by taking advantage of community facilities.
Principals of Park School since the 1930's have been: Flora Aiton, Gladys Bateman, M. A. Barber, Deta Cole, Ann Monk, W. H. Morris, E. Metcalfe, Bert Lindsay, Ron McChesney, William Beattie, Doug Ransom, John Ripley, George Brooks, Bruce Herbeson, Joyce Richardson, Doug Walls, Kathy Siamro, Judy Fuzzen, Wayne Bobinski, Pam Voth, and Hollyce Nunnenmacher.
We look forward confidently to the future. We draw knowledge and strength from our rich history and encourage past students, staff and community supporters to continue to bring their memories to us. We shall continue to document and archive the events of our past in order to proudly pass on our heritage to the school community of the future.
**Our thanks to Dorothy Turcotte, local historian, and Peggy Robertson, former Park School staff member, for their help with this history.