Chalkboard  hidden  for 25 years discovered – photo courtesy Pat Russman

Prince George, B.C.- It has been a year of  celebration in Prince George  as the City marks its centennial.  Those celebrations  included the opening of a time capsule that had been sealed 25 years ago.   But no one  expected to find  a snapshot in time  during  a minor renovation of a long closed  elementary school.

Hart Highway Elementary  was closed in 2002,  a victim of declining enrolment.   Twelve years before that  closure,   a new  blackboard had been placed in  at least one of the classrooms.  It was  placed over top of a built in green chalkboard.

The school   is now home to the Crown Banquet Hall and a  market place which includes an antiques shop called “Past and Present”  a name that seems  fitting to what was to be discovered.

A  recent  minor  renovation required the removal of the old blackboard  in one of the classrooms.  When the  black board was removed, it revealed a green chalk board that  still  bore the names of the teacher and some of her students,  names written on that board  on June 12 of 1990.

Past and Present owner Pat Russman says there are often  visitors to the  former school  who wander through to  visit the past and  some have special memories about  the room in which her shop is located.  “I am  in the old ‘office’ of the school,  and  there are many young men who come into the shop and say  they spent a lot of time  in that office,  which means it  probably  wasn’t  a good thing”  chuckles Russman.

But   when the board was discovered,  she  snapped a photo.  “I don’t know what they will do  with  it now,  it’s a solid  single piece”.

The board  reveals  the  writing was done on June 12th 1990, and that it was a rainy  12 degree day, still,  there was joy in that room,  student drawn  stick people are wearing smiles and  the message to  all is “School is cool…. Have a Happy Day”.