Peterborough Collegiate
PACE at Peterborough Collegiate, formerly Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School, is a public secondary school located in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and is a member of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. It is one of the oldest public schools in the country and was the only public high school in the city of Peterborough until the opening of Kenner Collegiate Vocational Institute in 1952. Regular student programming ended at Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School in June 2012. The building was renamed Peterborough Collegiate and in August 2012 opened as a re-purposed facility offering alternative and continuing education (ACE). Peterborough Collegiate was founded in 1827 as the Peterborough Government School on the former property of Central Public School. Since then it has been moved to different locations throughout the central part of the city with various names and types of programming. It reached its peak enrollment in 1959 with 1402 students and used additional buildings to accommodate the students of the baby boom. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the trend of declining enrollment had reduced the school student population to 800 students with approximately one third in the Integrated Arts and English Language Learners programs. History Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS) is one of the oldest schools in Ontario. Peterborough Government School Reverend Samuel Armour opened the first school in Peterborough on May 1, 1826. The school, originally known as the Peterborough Government School was first located in the back playground of present-day Central Public School on Murray Street in Peterborough. It functioned as a public elementary school and the early Victorian equivalent to a public high school. As the population of Peterborough increased, public school students moved into smaller schools while the Grammar School high school students stayed in the original school building. The Union School By 1854 the school trustees had leased an old church, on the corner of Hunter and Sheridan Streets, to hold the school but the student population soon grew too large. In 1855 plans to build a new school had begun. The new building was completed in 1859 and was intended to be used by both common and grammar school students. It was located where the present day Central School is built. The new school was known as the Union School. By 1868 the principal of the school asked that girls be allowed to attend grammar school. A new building was constructed west of the Union School to allow for the increased student population. Peterborough Collegiate Institute In 1871, with a government bill abolishing the term grammar school and replacing it with collegiate, the Union School became the Peterborough Collegiate Institute (PCI). Due to overcrowding and various moves within the buildings it soon came time for the Collegiate to have its own building, separate from the public school. On August 1, 1907, the cornerstone for the new school was laid. The new school opened in 1908 on the corner of Aylmer and McDonnel Streets near the Armouries. House System PCI implemented the four