When Jerry Storie would travel throughout northern Manitoba as an MLA and, later, school superintendent, three letters would inevitably come up in conversation.
FCI, or Frontier Collegiate Institute, has welcomed thousands of northern high school students over the decades, fostering warm memories and bright futures.
“It’s a remarkable success story that no one knows anything about,” says Storie.
Now Storie is shining a much-deserved light on FCI. He has authored a new book on the Cranberry Portage-based school, Becoming Family: Living and Learning at Frontier Collegiate.
Just in time for the school’s 50th anniversary this year, the book is the first full-length chronicle of FCI and the challenges its students face in uprooting themselves for the sake of an education.
Interviewing former students spanning the decades, Storie says the accounts consistently painted FCI as a cozy, supportive home away from home.
“Story after story of kids who said, ‘I couldn’t wait to get back to see my friends,’” he says.
Such sentiments have contributed to the regional school’s track record of producing successful graduates.
Among the former students featured in the 308-page book is Marlyn Cook, who left Grand Rapids as a youth to attend FCI. She went on to become one of the first female aboriginal medical doctors in Manitoba.
Edwin Jebb is another compelling case. He was one of the first aboriginal graduates of the University of Manitoba and spent 19 years as head of the school system in his home community, Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN).
But back when Jebb was a teen, OCN did not have a high school. OCN students went to Margaret Barbour Collegiate in neighbouring The Pas, often experiencing little success.
Even though he had not registered to attend school outside of his jurisdiction, Jebb hopped on a bus with a buddy and headed north to attend FCI. School was well underway when officials learned he wasn’t supposed to be there, but, citing his academic success, decided to let him stay.
Jebb’s buddy on the bus that fateful day was none other than the late Oscar Lathlin, whose story is also included in Becoming Family.
Perhaps the best-known FCI graduate, Lathlin would go on to become chief of OCN and a provincial cabinet minister. He was a strong ambassador for the school, routinely mentioning FCI during ministerial speeches in northern Manitoba and elsewhere.
While Lathlin tirelessly promoted FCI, Storie says credit for turning the school from concept to reality goes to the late Scott Bateman.
Bateman was a prominent figure in northern Manitoba education in the 1940s, having served as a school principal in The Pas and then school inspector for northern Manitoba.
By 1964-65, Bateman was Manitoba’s deputy minister of education. At the time, of the 2,000 or 3,000 students in the future Frontier School Division district – basically northern Manitoba minus larger centres such as Flin Flon and Thompson – only four were in high school.
Storie says the provincial government of the day did not grasp the need for a regional school or school division. Having lived and worked in northern Manitoba, Bateman certainly did.
“If it hadn’t been for him and his diligence, it probably never would have been created the way it was,” says Storie.
When Bateman learned Cranberry Portage’s sprawling air force radar base had closed in 1964, he drove to the community from Winnipeg on a Sunday. After surveying the base, he decided it could – indeed would – serve as a regional school.
Bateman – who also has a school in The Pas named in his honour – spent the next seven months fervently attempting to sell the politicians on the idea.
He found an ally in then-education minister George Johnson, who defended the idea in the legislature by calling it unacceptable that a region so vast had only four high school students.
Lawmakers approved an act spelling out the formation of FCI and the Frontier School Division, which would govern most northern Manitoba schools, in March of 1965. FCI opened in September of that year.
In some ways, the shuttered radar base in Cranberry Portage was the perfect location for a regional school. Already equipped with dorms, shops and offices, the facilities required only a $700,000 overhaul, according to a Reminder report of the day.
“It all happened very quickly but I don’t think, relatively, it was that expensive,” says Storie.
Storie estimates 10,000 pupils have likely attended FCI since that first crop of students. Today, students continue to enroll at the school from across northern Manitoba.
While it is often believed that FCI serves students whose home communities lack a high school, that is often not the case.
“FCI is a choice,” says Storie. “Many of the students who come to FCI have high schools in their communities, but for whatever reasons the parents and students decide that that’s best for them. FCI isn’t much different than many of the private, independent boarding schools that are in Winnipeg and other centres. They offer a different approach. They offer a kind of structure that’s conducive to success. [At] Frontier Collegiate, there’s no skipping school when you’re in residence. Counsellors get you up, they know where you are. There’s a structure – after-school activities, all kinds of supports. It’s a very personal relationship they have with their students.”
He believes FCI has a bright future, citing last year’s opening of a new 200-bed dorm and four-bay power-mechanic shop.
“I think the need is there and it will serve a purpose going forward,” says Storie.
Becoming Family: Living and Learning at Frontier Collegiate is published by, and available at, McNally Robinson. After the first 200 books are sold, covering his expenses, Storie will donate all profits to FCI.
Storie-teller
Originally from Baldur, Manitoba, outside Brandon, Jerry Storie became familiar with Frontier Collegiate Institute during his years as a teacher in Flin Flon between 1975 and 1981.
From 1981 to 1994, he represented Cranberry Portage as MLA for the Flin Flon constituency. He also spent time as education minister.
Storie returned to education in 1994 when he began a five-year stint as Area 4 superintendent for Frontier School Division, with Cranberry Portage among the communities in his jurisdiction.
He later became superintendent of Turtle Mountain School Division in southern Manitoba, and spent time as an associate professor and dean in Brandon University’s Faculty of Education before retiring in 2010.
Now 65 and residing in Winnipeg, Storie started writing Becoming Family: Living and Learning at Frontier Collegiate about a year and a half later, mindful of completing it in time for FCI’s 50th anniversary this year.
