Pembina Hills Regional Division No. 7 is the public education

Public education

State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...

 authority for a region of central Alberta

Central Alberta

Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta.Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province...

 centred on the towns of Westlock, Barrhead, and Swan Hills.

The current regional school district was created on January 1, 1995 during a wave of school board amalgamation

Amalgamation (politics)

A merger or amalgamation in a political or administrative sense is the combination of two or more political or administrative entities such as municipalities , counties, districts, etc. into a single entity. This term is used when the process occurs within a sovereign entity...

 in Alberta, during the Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta

The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta is a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta...

 government of Ralph Klein. Pembina Hills was formed by a voluntary merger of Westlock School Division No. 37, the educational component of the County of Barrhead No. 11 and Swan Hills School District No. 5109.

Prior to that union, the Barrhead and Westlock areas had previously been part of a regional school division, Pembina School Division No. 37, which was split in 1947 into the Westlock and Barrhead School Divisions. In 1959, the Municipal District

Municipal district

A municipal district is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly referring to a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them....

 of Barrhead consolidated with the school district to form a county

County

A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

. The first school district in Swan Hills (Oil Hills School District No. 5109) was not formed until 1959.

Schools

• Barrhead Composite High School, Barrhead, Grades 7-12
• Barrhead Elementary School, Barrhead, Grades K-6
• Busby School, Busby, Grades K-6
• Dapp School, Dapp, Grades K-6
• Dunstable School, rural Westlock County near Busby, Grades K-6
• Eleanor Hall School, Clyde, Grades K-9
• Fort Assiniboine School, Fort Assiniboine Grades K-12
• Jarvie School, Jarvie, Grades 7-9
• Hillman Colony School, Hillman Hutterite Colony near Westlock Grades 1-9
• Neerlandia Public Christian School, Neerlandia, Grades K-10
• R.F. Staples Secondary School, Westlock, AB, Grades 7-12
• Sunniebend Colony School, Sunniebend Hutterite Colony near Westlock, Grades 1-9
• Swan Hills School, Swan Hills, Grades K-12
• Vista Virtual School, virtual school
  Virtual school
  A virtual school or cyberschool describes an institution that teaches courses entirely or primarily through online methods. Though there are tens of thousands of commercial and non-accredited courses available online, the term "virtual school" is generally reserved for accredited schools that teach...
  
   (offices in Barrhead), Grades K-12
• Westlock Elementary School, Westlock, Grades K-6
• W.R. Frose School, Fawcett, Grades K-9