Just inside the main entrance is a large bronze plaque indicating that the school was officially opened, strangely, on June 22nd, 1951, at the end of the school year. It probably received its first pupils in September of that year and continues today as the only elementary and middle school in the city, accepting students from kindergarten through grade nine.
Note on the plaque that the school was originally the junior and senior high school. That likely changed after 1981 when the McLean School burned. By that time enrolment had likely increased necessitating the construction of a new school anyway. The new school was built as a high school and the Summit School was changed to an elementary school.
In the twentieth century the city of Rossland managed to burn down two schools but the Summit school has managed to escape the same fate for nearly 64 years and counting.
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