The Story of Margaree's Fight to Save Its School

Nestled in the valleys of a beautiful river system in western Cape Breton, Margaree is comprised of a number of small communities which were established by French, Irish and Scottish settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Other smaller settlements emerged along the main brooks of the watershed until the population peaked in the 1890's. At this time and in the decades that followed community schools were focal points of every settlement. By the middle of the 20th century the employment opportunities of industry had attracted a significant number of Margaree people away from the land and many of the remote settlements were abandoned. The population of the eleven villages along the river had declined and the viability of village schools decreased. School consolidation was the dominant solution to declining enrollment and increasing demands for enhanced education programs.

The small community schools in Margaree all disappeared in the 1960's, 70's and 80's; the most recent consolidation occurring in 1987 when "Option 4" closed the schools in East Margaree and Belle Cote. People living throughout the Margaree River system were left with two schools: a Primary to Grade 6 in North East Margaree and a 7-12 school in Margaree Forks. These two schools drew students from a radius of twenty-five kilometres, from Big Intervale to Terre Noire to Upper Margaree. Then at the end of the 1990-1991 school year the Inverness District School Board released a proposal to send the high school students from Margaree to Inverness, approximately twenty-eight kilometres away. Parents in Margaree vowed to fight the School Board's proposal and the Margaree school trustees held a series of public meetings to decide what to do.

Margaree S.O.S. (Save Our Schools)

Following these meetings the Margaree Save Our Schools Committee (S.O.S.) was formed and S.O.S. road signs and bumper stickers appeared throughout the community. S.O.S. staged a demonstration of five hundred protesters and coordinated a two-day county-wide student strike. In the October school board election they campaigned successfully to elect to the Inverness District School Board (IDSB) five of the six rural candidates who were committed to preserving the community-based education system. For the next five years, the Margaree S.O.S. maintained a high profile in education in Inverness County, with many briefs and presentations to the provincial government and the School Board; awareness-building, fundraising and advocacy within the Margaree community; and dozens of media "spots" to spread the word about community-based education.⁷ Out of this activism emerged a pride in the Margaree community-based schools, which galvanized the resolve of the small communities along the Margaree watershed to educate their children in Margaree.