3. Kiviniemi

In 1884, the first primary school in the Kuhmoniemi parish village started in a building located at the promontory of Kiviniemi (or Kouluniemi) by the lakeside. The first teachers at the new school were Pekka Kontio from Kirvu and Hilda Itkonen (later, Kontio) from Kuopio. The village’s primary school was the only school in Kuhmoniemi until 1891, when the primary schools in Lentiira and Katerma-Vieksi areas were opened. The old wooden primary school building was in use until 1969. 

In 1921, the general compulsory education came into effect in Finland. A building for the lower grades of the primary school was built in Kiviniemi in 1928 along with a dormitory, which accommodated pupils from more remote villages. Upper grade primary school pupils were taught in the old primary school building, which can be seen in the background of the picture. Regular dormitory accommodation ended at the parish village primary school when the lower grades’ building was destroyed in the Winter War. After the war, temporary huts were set up to serve as school premises. 

A new four-story stone school building was completed in 1950. In place of the demolished wooden school, a low concrete school building, the so-called brick annex was built. It was completed in 1973, in the same year when the new comprehensive school system was adopted in Kuhmo, along with the rest of the northern Finland, and the primary school became an elementary school. In 1985, the school was named Kontio School. 

All basic education groups moved to Tuupala School complex in 2018 in connection with the completion of the new wooden school building. Kontio School was left empty, and the brick annex was demolished in 2021. 

Mikael Soininen (until 1907 – Johnsson) was born in Kuhmoniemi in 1860 as a son of a priest. He became an educator and politician who significantly influenced the establishment of general compulsory education and the development of the primary school system. The section of the Lakeside Path (Rantaraitti) around Kiviniemi is named after him as Mikael Soininen’s Path. 

J. Memorial for the Veterans (Juhani Vepsäläinen 1994). 

Students, the cafeteria manager, the dormitory manager, and two teachers on the porch of the parish village elementary school in the spring of 1931. In addition to local children, the elementary school also had students from the villages of Sylväjä, Haataja, and Häkkilä.

The first elementary school in the parish village of Kuhmoniemi, completed in 1884, was demolished in 1969. The picture shows the groundwork being done for the new stone school in the late 1940s.