The Allardville School
Besides a chapel, Father Allard was also keenly aware that the new settlement needed a school. Literacy and learning were keys to a brighter future for the settlers' children. Five acres of the 100-acre church lot had been reserved for a school and a playground, but construction of a schoolhouse was postponed as the settlement struggled to survive.
In December 1933, the first school district was established; a second district, Allardville South, was organized a year later, but no schoolhouse was built. Because most of the settlers had not yet received grants to their lots, they had no taxes to pay; consequently, no funds were available to build a school. Moreover, between clearing their lots, constructing their homes, planting, harvesting, and working on the roads, the settlers had little free time to raise a school. However, local children started attending classes in the chapel, in September 1935, with Mme. Eustache Dugay as teacher. The first school in Allardville opened its doors in December of that year and remained in use until 1944.