The community of Wanup is located outside the City of Greater Sudbury. Wanup began as a small farming community with an estimated 200 Finnish families living in the community by the 1930s.
Children were taught in a one room school house until 1961. By the 1950s it was estimated that 70 percent of the students were of Finnish background.
In 1961, a two-room school was constructed on land purchased from local dairy farmers, Ed and Aili Heino. The two-room school was later expanded to four rooms two years after. In 1969 a gymnasium and an open concept pod consisting of seven classrooms was added onto the school. The expansion was necessary to accommodate students enrolling from nearby Burwash Correctional Farm. Students from Burwash attended until 1974 when Burwash closed.
Classrooms consisted of multiple grades. One classroom would teach Junior and Senior Kindergarten as well as grades 1 and 2. Another classroom would teach grades 3, 4 and 5 and another class would teach grades 5, 6, 7 and 8. Students were involved in sports activities including basketball, volleyball and track and field. The school had a choir, band, student council, year book and homework clubs.
Today the school has eleven classrooms, library, change rooms and gym, music room and equipment room. Capacity of the school is 233 students. The school was utilized by community groups including Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Sunday School and Continuing Education. Families often used the 15 acre property for the baseball field and track fields. Families felt a personal attachment to the rural school, teachers enjoyed the smaller class sizes.
In 2012 the Rainbow District School Board decided to close Wanup Public School given the declining enrollment. A group named Save Wanup Coalition was formed to try and save the school from closure. They formed an online website and petition. Their efforts to save the school were unsuccessful and students were merged with those of Algonquin
In 2017 an application was received by the city of greater Sudbury to rezone the property to be used for contractor and commercial self-storage. As of 2020 the property is dilapidated, dark, wet and neglected.
Photos from 2020…
