Yount School: A Short History  

By Carolyn Prellwitz, CHS Director

 

The 22 April 2021 issue of the Cowichan Valley Citizen reported on the aims of a local group to repurpose the  old Yount School into a new facility for local  community and visitor use. Thus, the opportunity to  share some background about the history of this  school and its predecessor.  

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The first Yount School opened in 1925 at Mile 83 on the Canadian National Railway line to serve the children of the employees of a combined sawmill and logging camp. The first teacher was 18-year-old Eleanor Redhead. She was first given a room with an  adjoining bathroom in the home of Charles Clarence Yount, the general manager of the mill and then housed with Mr. Lemma, the mill superintendent and his family.  

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The school was at the east end of a former bunkhouse; the west end was the community hall where meetings, card games, dances and Sunday School were held. New windows installed on the south side of the school gave a lovely view of  Cowichan Lake while the two smaller windows on the north side gave a view of the logged off mountain in behind. Two new outdoor toilets stood 25 yards east of the vestibule and door to the school. Inside the school was a new blackboard, along with desks for the students and teacher and a set of shelves for supplies.  There was no paint on the school, inside or out, just bare boards. Miss Redhead had 13 students,  including three from Sweden who had no knowledge of English.

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The students were used to seeing freight cars loaded with logs going right past the school which was built right beside the rail line. It might have been very scary if a log or two had come loose but fortunately that did not happen and the school was situated a little higher up a bank beside the line. 

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The students’ and teacher’s feet were always cold in the winter as the building was built on posts on its south side leaving a space for the wind to blow under and up through the cracks in the floor. The little ones sat on their feet at their desks and the older students got blocks of wood to use as stools to keep their feet off the floor.  

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By 1931 there were 31 students in the former bunkhouse school. Closure of the logging operation at Nixon Creek a year later brought the total up to 38 students. A larger school was sorely needed.  

Property was secured across the road and opposite the new Community Hall about 200 yards from the lake. A new two roomed building 70’ x 30’ in size with a large vestibule and 8’ basement was built.

 

Each  classroom had six large windows on the south side.  The new school, named Yount School, after Charles Clarence Yount, Vice-President of the Empire Logging  Company, opened in September 1935.  

The first principal in the new facility was Charles Herbert Christopher. He taught the senior grades and had 16 students in his class. Miss Addie Mitzie Thicke taught the 26 junior students in the other classroom.  

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By the end of March 1939, the school was filled to  capacity with 80 students indicating that a third classroom was needed. The new addition opened in January 1940, along with added toilet facilities and improved lighting. Another two classrooms were added in 1942.

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In 1945 Yount School was recognized as “one of the most modern and best equipped schools in the country”. In 1946 it became part of the newly created School District #66 (Lake Cowichan). In 1947 it enrolled a kindergarten class, the first school in School District #66 to do so.  

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Annual May Day festivities were long a feature of the community with the chief feature the parade which culminated on the school grounds.  

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By 1948 there were 167 children in Grades 1 to 8,and 47 in the kindergarten. Another two-room addition was added that same year along with a radio and inter-com system. The improvements and new wind added to the school received considerable attention during the Education Week open house held in March  1950. Many old timers were heard reminiscing about what the school used to be like 10, 15 and 20 years  before.  

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The 50th anniversary of the school was celebrated in August 1985. Renovations costing more than $120,000 were completed in 1987. This included removing a section that had been added to the school in the 1940’s and bringing the whole school up to modern standards.  

The Youbou mill constructed in 1927 closed in 2001. It was probably the oldest freshwater mill in the  province and its closure marked the end of an era for  the region. The resultant declining enrollment at the school threatened its closure in June 2002. Final  closure came at the end of June 2007 after the enrollment plunged to 13 students, six years after the  sawmill went silent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yount school re-opened in 2008 to take in A.B. Greenwell School students and staff after their school closed due to mold contamination. Yount School permanently closed June 30, 2013 after 77 years in operation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Youbou Community Association started looking at various initiatives for the school back in 2015. The preliminary plan outlined in the Cowichan Valley Citizen on April 22nd, 2021 includes a day care, affordable housing on the former school field for Youbou residents seeking to age in place rather than  leave the community as well as a café and overnight accommodation for visitors heading to west coast trails. It will be interesting to see if the new concept  for the former school comes to fruition.