Montreal West High School
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Montreal West High School was a school located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
It originally opened as the Aberdeen School in a two story school erected in 1894 that housed two hundred students on Easton Avenue in Montreal West. The official name for the school was the Aberdeen School of Coteau Saint-Pierre. This was later changed to Aberdeen Model School. The school was often used for social functions, public meetings, and council meetings until the Montreal West Town Hall was built in 1910. The name of the school was again changed in 1921 to Montreal West High School.
By the 1930s, there was a large increase in the school population. The school was becoming too crowded and the authorities were concerned that it was unsafe to house a large number of students. It was finally decided that the school would have to be demolished. This began on May 7, 1931. The cornerstone for a larger, more permanent building was laid on January 9, 1932, followed by the formal opening ceremony for the new school.
The School yearbook was entitled The Challenge.
In the early 1980s, declining student enrollment signaled the imminent closure of Montreal West High School and Royal Vale High School which shared the same building. Throughout 1982, students, parents, teachers, and administrators put forth a proposal to the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal or PSBGM (precursor to the English Montreal School Board) for an "alternative" high school offering programs similar to those of a private school. Limited enrollment, strict discipline, a dress code, fluency in English and French, computer literacy and compulsory extra-curricular activities were to be the main points of the curriculum. The School Board would fund the alternative school, the same as any other high school. But the School Committee had to raise money through donations, door-to-door donation requests, and a raffle to equip two new computer laboratories.
On January 26, 1983, the School Board accepted the proposal for the alternative school. Montreal West High School and Royal Vale High School were replaced in September 1983 by Royal West Academy. Most existing staff and students of both schools remained in the merged school.
