In 1873 a parcel of land was purchased from Mr. James Sullivan for the purpose of building a schoolhouse for the children of Carlisle and further north to the 11th Concession. A wood structure was built on the corner of the 10th Concession and Centre Road in the summer of 1873, but soon succumbed to a fire on October 19th. A one-room stone school was quickly constructed, and was opened to the local children by December. A Social was held on the 31st of December to raise money for a bell and clock for the school. In 1878, a well was drilled on the property and a pump installed. The building contained no indoor facilities, with a pail of fresh water being brought into the classroom, a wood shed at the back of school where blocks of wood were stored during the summer to be later brought inside for the stove during cold weather, and two outhouses also behind the schoolhouse. The school’s enclosed entrance contained a wood box for the stove wood in the winter, and a storage area for the children’s coats and lunches. The stove itself was shielded for safety precautions.
Miss Annie Chapman, the school’s teacher in 1889, was active in the Carlisle Methodist Church and when she left the school to marry Mr. George H. Horning in 1896, she donated the church bell that hangs in Carlisle United Church and is still in use one hundred years later.
Grades One through Eight were taught in the single room of the school, with graduates of the Entrance Class often moving onto High School. The Eighth Grade students took examinations at the end of the year, with many from Balaclava earning Honours standing. During the 1920s, when Ms. Isabel McLellan served as teacher, at least one pupil earned this coveted position every year.
Very few improvements were made to the aging schoolhouse over the following decades; however, a health nurse was hired for the school in 1944 with a salary of $45.00 while the teacher earned $1,087.50. In 1946, Mr. Lloyd Oakes, grandson of Ms. Chapman, came to the school to teach music, with vocals being his specialty. An addition of one room, costing $18 000, was added in 1952 as the population of Carlisle began to grow. By 1956, the three-person Board of Trustees administrating Balaclava School decided that the original school classroom was no longer fit for instruction and should be demolished to make way for a larger and new school.
A modern four-room building that faced onto Centre Road was constructed in 1957 at a cost of $40 000. A reunion was held in September 1958 with more than five hundred past students in attendance to celebrate the official opening of the new schoolhouse. The old school bell was taken from the demolished building and mounted on the front lawn of the new building in 1960.
In 1961 two more classrooms, an office, and a stock room were added to the structure for $56 000. School administration on January 1, 1964 passed to the Wentworth County Board of Education from a board of local Trustees. When nearby Mountsberg School closed in 1966, Balaclava absorbed the students and created room for them by adding another five classrooms. At this time, the school contained nine classrooms, one of which was a kindergarten room.
By the late 1980s, the thirty year old building was showing signs of deterioration. Balaclava had become part of a school unit with the nearby Victoria School, acting only as a primary school to the children in the area. The Balaclava-Victoria Parent Group petitioned the Board to update the schools or construct a replacement in order to accommodate all local students in a modern and safe facility. The Wentworth County Board of Education decided to construct a single new school on the Balaclava lot for all Carlisle students and carried the cost of the project without provincial government assistance.
Balaclava School was demolished in the summer on 1989 as the new structure was being built further back on the property for over three million dollars. The decision was made to name the new facility Balaclava, thereby preserving the local history of the area. Students began at the new seventeen-room school in September of that year and an official opening ceremony was held on October 25 with principal Bob Vardy hosting and former teacher Ms. McLellan, then Mrs. Buttenham, in attendance. The new building also contained a state-of-the-art heating system, library, computer room, two kindergarten classrooms, and a full-sized gymnasium.
By the early 1990s, a six-room portapak with two washrooms was added to the side of the building as Carlisle continued to expand. The early 2000s saw a new play structure added to the primary side of the school’s playground, complete with slides and monkey bars. During this time a rock garden was added to the landscaping of the school grounds as well as a soccer pitch and basketball nets for use during Nutrition Breaks. The purpose of two of the school’s rooms was changed to accommodate a music classroom for students in Grade Six and above as well as a computer lab for pupils of all ages.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2009, 2020
