School Name History
Location
32355 Mouat Drive, Abbotsford, BC
Opened
1973
The School
When it was built in 1974, much of the area around the school was farmland. The school was originally going to be named North Clearbrook Secondary. It could not admit its nine teachers and about one hundred fifty grade eight and nine students until January of 1974 due to a delay. While waiting for the school to be ready, they were housed in cafes, gyms, and extra classrooms at Yale, Clearbrook Junior, and Abbotsford Junior high schools. The gym was not finished yet, so gym classes were held outside; in addition, the school rented the Yale swimming pool during school hours. After 1974, the school added a grade every year until it was a full high school with Grades 8-12. The school then dropped Grades 8 and 9 and became a senior high. As the school continued to grow, four portables were brought on site to accommodate the increasing population.
An addition was built in 1988 that increased the school’s capacity from seven hundred fifty to one thousand students. It added two more science labs, art rooms, computer labs, a counselling centre, additional classrooms, and a theatre. At this time, Abbotsford’s first and only high school French Immersion program was established there. The school also began registering Grade 8 students again, so it once again became a full high school. When Mouat’s wife, Jean died in 1981, a memorial fund to buy library books was started in her honour; also a bursary is awarded in her name every year.
In 2002, an expansion created an art wing, a practice gym, and a state-of-the-art weight room. In 2002, the district established middle schools for grades 6-8 and Mouat Secondary transitioned to a grades 9-12 school.
W. J. Mouat Secondary was recognized in the August 23, 2004 edition of the MacLean’s magazine as one of the “Ten Most Innovative Schools in Canada.”
Origin of the Name
The school was named after the then superintendent W. J. “Bill” Mouat. The school board did not tell him the school was going to be named after him. They told him to take a vacation while the school was still under construction. When he came back, his secretary told him there was a major problem at the school that only he could deal with. When he arrived, he saw the sign that proclaimed the school to be W. J. Mouat. Mouat joked that they must have run out of names.
After his retirement he often visited the school. He never missed a graduation ceremony until his ninetieth birthday. When he could no longer get around easily, students were sent to visit him at his house.
William “Bill” Mouat (1910-2004)
William (Bill) Mouat was born in Nanaimo, BC on March 15, 1910. He grew up on Salt Spring Island. After graduation, he took teacher training at Normal School in Vancouver. In 1928, he taught in a log cabin in Topley BC in the Bulkley Valley.
After a few years, he attended the University of British Columbia and in 1937 obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Education. He taught Grades 9 and 10 French and Math in Prince Rupert for one year.
In 1938, Mouat was offered a principalship and opened the first high school in Coquitlam. He went into the army in 1942, where he had a motorcycle accident and was hospitalized for six months. When he was released from the army in 1944, he went back to Coquitlam to become the principal of Coquitlam Junior/Secondary High School. Mouat became Inspector of Schools in 1950 for the Cariboo, Williams Lake and Quesnel school districts. There were sixty-four different schools, half of which were one-room log cabins. In 1955, he took over the position of Inspector of Schools at Salmon Arm, Revelstoke and Enderby,BC.
William Mouat became District Superintendent of Schools in Abbotsford in 1960. After fourteen years in this position, he retired in 1974, completing an outstanding forty-five years in education. Throughout those years, he enjoyed a special relationship with staff and students. At the time of his death, a friend and colleague said, “He loved visiting the school and being with the kids… He had a natural magnetism. He connected with the kids.” In 2005, on what would have been his ninety-fifth birthday, the students of Mouat Secondary dedicated a bench in Mill Lake Park in his honour.
The Abbotsford School District graciously acknowledges the Abbotsford Retired Teachers Association for collecting the histories and stories of our schools as part of their "What's in a name?" 50th-anniversary project.