Agnes Macphail Public School was officially opened in 1980/81. The first Principal was Jules Desjardins. The school was named after Agnes Macphail, a teacher, a member of both federal (MP) and provincial parliament (MPP) and a champion of rural issues and penal reform.


                                                                            
Agnes Macphail was the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons (MP) for Grey Southeast. She was re-elected in the 1925,1926 and 1930 federal elections. She later was one of the first women to be elected to the provincial legislature in 1943 representing East York as a member of the Ontario CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation). She was responsible for Ontario's first equal pay legislation. Other causes she championed were pensions for seniors and workers' rights. She was the first woman delegate to the League of Nations where she worked with the World Disarmament Committee. She was a pacifist, but did vote for Canada to enter World War II.