School Name History
Location
3060 Old Clayburn Road, Abbotsford, BC
Opened
1964
The School
The original one-room Margaret Stenersen Elementary School housed grades one to three. In 1966 the school was enlarged to two classrooms and a second teacher hired. In 1967 the school was enlarged to four rooms with additional teachers hired and a principal appointed. In 1976 the school had thirteen classrooms for grades up to grade 7, the original gym was enlarged, and a library had been added.
By 1994, Margaret Stenersen was one of five schools in the district offering an early French Immersion program. In 1999, it became the only school offering a late French Immersion program which students could enter in grade six.
When middle school were introduced to the district in the early 2000s, the school became a grades K-5 school.
Origin of the Name
Margaret Stenersen Elementary is named after a teacher and principal who served for forty-three years in the Abbotsford School District. Margaret Stenersen was highly respected for her abilities as a teacher and an administrator.
Margaret (Margith) Charlotte Stenersen (1901-1975)
Born in Tonsberg, Norway, Margaret Charlotte Stenersen arrived in Canada as a two-year-old, accompanied by her mother Nelly and her brother Stener. They came to Matsqui in 1904 to meet Margaret’s father Hans Stenersen who had been mining in the Yukon and Alaska.
The family made their home in Ridgedale where Margaret attended elementary school. She wrote her departmental exams in Abbotsford and went to high school in Matsqui. She studied education at Vancouver Normal School and enjoyed extra-curricular activities such as basketball, tennis and drama.
Margaret, or Miss Stenersen as her students called her, began her first job at North Poplar in the fall after her graduation in 1919. The class was made up of fourteen students but within four years had grown to forty-five. A second teacher was hired but since there were no funds available for a larger school, a partition was placed down the middle of the single room so the teachers could lead separate classes.
After four years at North Poplar, Margaret took over the Ridgedale School. Two years later in 1925, she became the vice-principal at Abbotsford Public School. At this time, Abbotsford Public School had seven elementary classes and two high school classes. In 1929 she became the acting principal after the previous principal died suddenly.
During the flood of 1948, she acted as the supervising principal at the Airport Elementary School. She became the principal of Alexander School from 1951 to 1962 when it operated as an annex of Abbotsford Elementary. She was appointed principal of Philip Sheffield Elementary in 1955, after it changed from a high school to an elementary school.
In 1962 Margaret retired and moved to Vancouver to care for her parents, but not before receiving an honorary associate life membership to the British Columbia Teachers Federation. Margaret worked hard at promoting a combination of academic excellence and personal development in her students. She truly left her mark as a role model to follow.
The Abbotsford School District graciously acknowledges the Abbotsford Retired Teachers Association for collecting the histories and stories of our schools as part of their "What's in a name?" 50th-anniversary project.