School naming decision prompts walk-out in Kingsville

A walk-out by Kingsville District High School (KDHS) students took place on Friday, February 23 as they were joined by just as many adults — all showing their opposition to the recent naming of the new K-12 school located in Kingsville.

The school on Jasperson Drive is still in its construction phase but that did not exclude it from the controversy surrounding the naming of the building, which is expected to open next September.

A call for volunteers was put out in November for anyone wishing to be on the naming committee for the school, which will welcome students from KDHS, Kingsville Public School, Harrow Public School, and Jack Miner Public School.

Over the past few weeks, members of the committee — consisting of representatives from the four schools — got together for meetings and brought a list of about 600 publicly suggested names down to a final eight for their last meeting on February 12.

At the end of that meeting, those final eight prospective names were narrowed to two finalists — Greater Kingsville Academy and Kingsville District Academy.

However, eight days later, at the Greater Essex County District School Board meeting on Tuesday, February 20, a motion was brought forth to forego those names and go with Erie Migration Academy as an alternative.

Board trustee Julia Burgess provided lengthy rationale at the school board meeting for calling the school Erie Migration Academy and admitted she expected there’d be some opposition to the new name.

After a brief discussion — during which absent trustees Nancy Armstrong and Linda Qin called in about the motion — a vote was taken by the board on Ms. Burgess’ motion.

In a vote of 6-2 — with Armstrong and Qin voting against it — the new name passed.

Trustee Armstrong went on record to oppose the motion during her phone call.

“I cannot support this motion because I view it as not respecting all the work that was done before,” she said. 

“I think we had the policy and had the committee formed based on the policy,” added Qin from the phone. “It seems that the motion kind of goes away from the suggestion of the committee. I think it’s not prudent to rush to decide a name.”

Board chair Gale Hatfield then mentioned that the regulation does provide that they can bring other names to the floor in the process and read the regulation which stated that trustees can vote to accept one of the suggestions from the committee — or provide an alternative.

“We have the right to choose an alternative,” said Hatfield.

Burgess suggested that she would not support deferring the decision back to the committee, due to time constraints. “Delay is not serving the decision well,” she said.

After the meeting concluded, social media was inundated with comments — mostly criticizing the board for their decision not to follow the recommendations of the naming committee.

The walk-out on Friday — joined by dozens of parents and other taxpayers in front of KDHS — was affected by the fog day called earlier in the morning, which also affected student attendance at school.

In total, about 200-300 people held signs, danced to lively music and induced hundreds of honks from passing vehicles.

KDHS student Lauren DeYong was part of the front line on the sidewalk.

“I attended the protest today because the name chosen is not one the naming committee voted for,” said Lauren. “I want the board to reconsider and listen to the students.”

Her sister Morgan had similar sentiments.

“It’s important that things are done fairly and students on the naming committee were misled,” said Morgan. “Including Kingsville in the new school name is important for the legacy and unity of our community.”

Many local residents came out against the board’s decision, including MPP Anthony Leardi, who issued a statement over the weekend.

“The proposed name fails on at least four of the five naming criteria,” he said. “The board has made a misstep with the proposed name. The board should simply reconsider the choice and follow the process again.”

On Monday, trustee Burgess issued a letter in which she asked Leardi to rescind his statement, citing inaccuracies.

Another walk-out is called for Friday, March 1 in front of KDHS.