page_title: Waterloo, Nova Scotia
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Waterloo, Nova Scotia / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of the Waterloo Community Hall where it has stood for over 100 years. The picture was taken from where the photographer stood when taking the St. Michael's church picture in this article.
context_page_description: Waterloo, Nova Scotia is a small rural community in western Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. The community extends approximately 10 kilometers from Route 210 to the Queens County line and is 20 kilometers from the commercial hub of Bridgewater. The Waterloo Road runs through the community providing a picturesque alternative to Route 210 when travelling between Newcombville and Greenfield.
context_section_description: George "Michael" Wile spoke to the beginnings of education in Waterloo Settlement. A Mr. James Dowling's father taught school in Michael's house for a couple of winters, periodically walking the 70-kilometre round trip from his home in Lunenburg. The need to have a real school building for the few students that lived in the settlement was solved with quick action; a new 18 × 20-foot (6.1 m) school building was erected in eight days and on the ninth "the teacher and scholars met in it and commenced the school". (Desbrisay, 1895) The project was entirely community built from the sawing of the lumber to the framing and interior preparations.
  By the Act of 1864, Nova Scotia was divided into local school sections (Woods, 1936).  As early as 1894, the Waterloo School was one of those sections known as Waterloo School Section No. 92 (Waterloo, 1894).  School board meeting minutes from 1895–97 speak to the deliberations over whether to enforce the Compulsory School Act. The motion to enforce the Act was defeated at each of these three annual meetings. Generally during those early years, most of the resolutions put forward involved the school building and maintenance; the letting of contracts for "fire making" and provision of firewood were common themes (Waterloo, 1894–98). Each year considerable meeting time was spent in the nomination of board members and trustees. Students travelled by foot to school. For those from Montreal Settlement, the four kilometer round trip was difficult in the winter (Hubley, 2002). The last year the Waterloo School operated was 1959–60. After that, Grade 1–8 students were bussed to the Wileville School and Grades 8–12 to Hebbville School. Some teachers who served over the years were Maggie Herman from 1893–1895; Blanche Whitman, 1896–97; D. Marie Sarty, 1929–1931; Roger Sarty, 1934–35; Cora Wile, 1935–36; and Shirley Fraser, 1950-?). School salaries ranged from $100 a year in 1896 to $325 by 1936. In the early 1960s, a K-6 school was built in Newcombville for area students including children from Waterloo.
  Another education entity in the community was the Department of Agriculture organization known as 4-H.  A club was started in the early 1950s in the Waterloo school, mostly as a garden club with approximately five members. In the 1960s, the club amalgamated with the Lapland 4-H Garden Club. Finally in 1971, the clubs separated and the Waterloo 4-H Club was reestablished with 13 members.  The members were required to write and make public speeches; enter agricultural exhibits in the South Shore Exhibition; compete in judging events of agricultural products; and show the handling of cattle and horses in the exhibition rings.
caption: This building has served as school and now community center since it was first built in the c. 1860s.
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