Randy Rennie started kindergarten at Huntingdon High School in 1959.
During a walking tour of Heritage Elementary School, Mr. Rennie talked about the many changes to the building from when he was a student. For example, the current pre-kindergarten room used to be a home economics classroom for sewing and cooking and a wood shop. The music room was once used as a science laboratory, and his Grade 4 classroom is now being used to store gym equipment.
The cafeteria and the washrooms have not been moved.
Believe it or not, this school didn’t always just go to Grade 6. From 1852-1967, Heritage Elementary went up to Grade 11. There were enough students for two classes of each grade level!
Teachers around that time were said to be nice but they were permitted to spank students and hit them with rulers. Other punishments for bad behavior could include standing with their hands in the air at lunchtime or writing lines.
Students had to line up to move between classes, keep their belongings neat, and were not allowed in hallways during class time. The principal walked around the hallways and would be very upset if he found students who had been kicked out of class.
During lunch hour students played tag, and on rainy days they played board games like snakes and ladders and cards, checkers, or chess.
“We used to play a sort of a strange version of soccer using a little tiny sponge ball. It was almost a combination of hockey and soccer. We put a couple of stones down for nets. And we would play at lunchtime sometimes,” he said. There was also a hockey rink in the school yard, where students played hockey or broomball in gym class.
Mr. Rennie moved to the new regional school in Ormstown called Chateauguay Valley Regional High School (CVR) when it opened in 1967. The school was a work in progress and wasn’t finished when students first started to arrive. “Our phys. ed classes were held at the Ormstown fairgrounds because the gym wasn’t ready yet,” he said.
Teachers who taught older grades at the Huntingdon High School moved to CVR when it was opened, including one teacher who competed at the Olympics in gymnastics for Sweden. He taught gym and wood shop classes.
CVR was very crowded at first with 1,350 students compared to around 650 students today. The classrooms were very full. There were not always enough seats. By the end of 8th grade, CVR was fully built.
Mr. Rennie went on to get a teaching degree from McGill University. He began teaching in Montreal in 1976 and then came back to teach at CVR the next year in 1977.
He was inspired to become a teacher by his time at school in Huntingdon and at CVR. “Teachers who were enthusiastic and who enjoyed their jobs and being around kids made me think it would be a good career,” he said.
*This article was written by students in Grade 5-6/A at Heritage Elementary as part of a partnership between the New Frontiers School Board, the Montérégie West Community Network, and The Gleaner.