Trustees of School Section Number 20 in the District of Shelburne fonds

In 1864 the Government of Nova Scotia introduced a new Education Act, which established Nova Scotia's "free" school system, so-called because, under this new system, public schools no longer charged tuition or attendance fees to students, but were supported by compulsory local assessment and provincial government grants. Pursuant to the Education Act, the jurisdictions of Nova Scotia's regional Boards of School Commissioners were clarified and confirmed. These jurisdictions, known as "school districts", were based, in most cases, on county boundaries. The school districts were, in turn, divided into school sections, with each section being responsible for establishing and maintaining a school, the operation of which was to be overseen by a board of trustees. The board of trustees was the smallest unit of school administration, below district boards of school commissioners and the provincial government's Council of Public Instruction and Superintendent of Education. Trustees were elected for three year terms at annual meetings of a school section's ratepayers and were responsible for holding all school property, employing and maintaining teachers, making regular visits to the school, looking after school facilities and equipment, summoning regular meetings of the ratepayers of the school section, filing returns with the divisional inspector, making arrangements for the conveyance of pupils, and, in later years, enforcing the Public Health Act. Pursuant to the Education Act, the Birchtown school section's board of trustees operated as a body corporate under the title "Trustees of School Section Number 20 in the District of Shelburne." Following the establishment of municipal school boards, in 1940s, the word "District" was replaced with "Municipality". The local boards of trustees' powers were steadily eroded as increased responsibilities were given to municipal school boards, and many small school houses closed as larger "consolidated," or "district" schools were opened. Prior to 1959, the children of Birchtown had received their education in small school-houses. That year an 8 room school house was built.