About Us
North Elmsley Public School was built in 1965 and is a rural elementary school in the Upper Canada District School Board, located between Perth and Smiths Falls, Ontario. For many years, NEPS was a kindergarten to grade 8 school. Currently, we serve Kindergarten to Grade 6. Students who finish with us attend grade at either Perth District Collegiate Institute in Perth or Chimo Elementary School in Smiths Falls
Our school vision is: “Learning for Today and Tomorrow”. We are committed to providing programs that prepare our students to meet their present and future needs.
For a taste of the rich history of our school and community, please
read the story below, written by a local resident, Bill MacPherson (1952-2025), who
attended North Elmsley when it was first opened.
1965
In 1965, the Montreal Canadians were Stanley Cup champs, Lester Bowles
Pearson was Prime Minister of Canada – The Canadian Flag was born and a
new public school opened in Port Elmsley Ontario. Indoor plumbing had
finally arrived in the public school system in North Elmsley Township.
Our principal and grade 8 teacher was Mrs. Ruby Imeson.
At some point during the winter months of that year I was grounded
for a week by Mrs. Imeson for some long forgotten transgression. I
figured on using the time to catch up on my reading. Biggles over Borneo
comes to mind, even now. But Ruby had other plans –
The first warning came with the rapid tapping of her yardstick upon
the floor beside my desk, bearing in mind that Ruby was scarcely taller
than her yardstick. Then came the warning shot with a sharp slap of the
yardstick across my desk. Ruby’s yardstick would have been more than a
match for Darth Vader’s light saber, long before he faced off with Luke
Skywalker. Little did I know then about faraway galaxies. But that was
about to change.
She then gave me a lecture about idle hands and idle minds. The walls
of our classroom were bare, Ruby hated voids in her classroom, spending
her career filling empty minds and empty spaces. And she had a plan –
and 49 pounds of dark blue Bristol board plus 1.78 miles of invisible
sticky tape, and let us not forget the 5 gallon drum of that white
school paste that strangely smelled like peppermints.
What we created on the rear wall of our grade eight classroom was a
mural of the winter night sky – six and half feet high and 14 feet long,
featuring the stars and constellations of the northern hemisphere. In a
sense “galaxies far, far away”.
Our first few days of celestial creativity were often accompanied by
snickers of ” teacher’s pet”, silenced quickly by a look from Ruby. Bits
of tissue paper soaked in glue became the stars and constellations of
our night sky, all in equal proportion for it would not do to have
the Orion outshone by a lesser star. However our project soon took on
the atmosphere of Tom Sawyer’s fence as more of my classmates joined in
and it soon became a class effort.
What we created went far beyond a class project in a small rural
school. It became a memory and also a reminder of the impact and
influence that one person who cared could have on another’s life. For to
this day I cannot look at the night sky without thinking about Ruby
Imeson and those magical days in 1965.
Bill MacPherson
Former Trustee of the UCDSB and student at North Elmsley PS