The earliest school in our area was the Waneta School, a 22' by 34' frame construction building on a one-acre lot, situated directly across the road from the Pend d'Oreille Cemetery [information obtained from Art Buckley interview]. It opened in September 1893 and was in operation (according to public school records in Victoria) until June 1897.
From an article by Clara Graham in Kootenay Yesterdays [The Alexander Nicolls Press, 1976]: "The school room at Waneta was the first to open in a Columbia River settlement south of Revelstoke, predating schools at Rossland and Trail."