This is another in the rural historical school signs in the MD of Foothills.
Skye Glen School was built about 1905, 12 miles SW of Okotoks. The name is of Scottish origin as indicated by the spelling of Skye.
In the early days of the school, the two oldest boys were responsible for lighting the fire and doing the janitor work. A local story is that the boys wanted a day off from school so destroyed the stove with a axe and claimed the stove “exploded” It was later discovered that the chimney had been stuff with gunny sacks and pieces of the stove pipe were discovered in the well. Must have been quite an “explosion”
One horse that was ridden to school was left out to graze in the ditches around the school. It would wander about a km or two away from the school but was always back at the school by dismissal time to carry his special cargo back home,
Another story is that one of the local lads who had a horse and buggy for getting to and from school, one day had the “bright idea” of getting the buggy up on the barn roof and ridding the buggy down the roof and dropping to the ground. The adventurer was not seriously harmed, but the buggy didn’t survive contact with the ground so well. NO reports as to the consequences once he got back home to report what happened to the buggy.
One winter day, it was snowing lightly as the children were making their way to school. As the day wore on the snow fell heavier and the wind started to blow. It was obvious that the children would not be allowed to go home in a blizzard and would have to spend the night at the school. The two oldest boys were sent to the neighbours to phone as many of the parents as possible. The boys walked by the fence so as not to get lost in the storm. Those parents that lived close to the school made their way through the storm and took their kids home. They would bring bread and jam for the remaining kids to eat. The school stove had a good supply of wood and coal so no one got cold. Kids thought it was great fun and got very little sleep. (Author guesses that this was the first recorded sleep-over) No reports as to how the teacher made out that night. By next morning the blizzard had blown itself out and everybody went home. No school that day, a true snow-day.
Skye Glen School was closed in 1946 and the building was moved into Okotoks and used as a classroom there. The building was later moved into downtown Okotoks and used later as a Doctors. office, then a grocery store and finally as a gift shop. It was later torn down and the wood used to build other buildings.
Information taken from: A Century of Memories: Okotoks and District, 1883-1983