In the 1840s, further school related Acts were passed that led to vast improvement of the Common School education system in Edwardsburgh/Cardinal. By 1845, the superintendent for the Edwardsburgh district recorded 20 schools operating in the area with 755 children registered as students. In the 1850s, the township began to consider building separate schools in lieu of Common Schools, however these schools more expensive for the township to open due to a higher taxation on separate schools. When another Act went into effect in the mid-1850s, the common and separate schools levelled in price, as the double taxation on separate schools ended. This led to the first separate school being erected in 1855.