July 24, 1947: Principal demoted over Daylight time spat with school board
A Camrose-area school teacher was demoted after a difference of opinion with the school board over Daylight time.
Rosa Wolters was removed as principal of Kingman school, in the central Alberta community of Kingman, after the Camrose school division said “no” to Daylight time, but Wolters changed the clock in the school anyway.
Daylight time, often referred to as “Summer Time” or “DST,” is a way of making better use of daylight in the evenings by setting clocks forward one hour during the longer days of summer, and back again in the fall.
Wolters was demoted to a teaching position, which she appealed under the school act.
Board members said the squabble over DST was not the primary reason for their decision, but it strengthened their original decision, they told the Journal.
During a hearing before Judge Angus MacDonald, four school trustees testified their main reason for deciding on the change in principals was that a new room was being added to the former two-room school and they believed a male principal would be more efficient in matters of discipline and school supervision.
Regarding the DST issue, Wolters maintained she had received no written order from the board until after she had started observing the time change, and that in a telephone conversation with the school division’s secretary-treasurer, she understood she was allowed to do so. The secretary treasurer denied granting Wolters this permission, explaining it was not within his jurisdiction.
C. H. Robinson, the district’s superintendent of schools, asked Wolters to revert to standard time but she refused, the secretary treasurer testified.
The district decided to follow standard time after a vote of district residents found the majority favoured it.
Other reasons given for the change in principals were that Wolters and other teachers “did not get along very well” and that her presence as principal did not promote a harmonious relationship between the school and the community, the story said.
Wolters countered that she had differences over school matters with some of the teachers, but that they had always been settled amicably, and she had always been on friendly terms with those teachers.
Her statement was verified by one of the teachers who testified.
According to the Edmonton Public Library website, the Daylight Saving Act was introduced in Canada and Europe in 1918 during the First World War to save energy by postponing dusk for an hour. It was again adopted in 1942 during the Second World War, and revoked in 1945.
In 1946 there was no DST in Alberta. The Daylight time Act (Alberta) prohibited DST in 1948, permitting only Mountain Standard Time to be used within the province.
A plebiscite for Daylight time held with the Alberta provincial election in 1967 was defeated. But it was voted in four years later in 1971.
Alberta officially started Daylight time on April 30, 1972.