Effort to rescind school name fails at March 19 meeting

Although several attemps were made at the March 19 Greater Essex County District School Board meeting, efforts to re-open the naming process for Kingsville’s new school were shot down.

Student Trustee Colin Pyne stated that he felt the resolution that took place at the last meeting — naming the school Erie Migration Academy — was in violation of the board’s naming policy.

“It states in our policy that we should be following and vetting all names,” he said. “Unless anyone can tell me differently, this name was not vetted — just the words that make up the name.”

Pyne’s comments come on the heels of a community backlash in Kingsville to the board’s decision to forego the naming committee’s two suggestions — Kingsville District Academy and Greater Kingsville Academy — for the less-popular Erie Migration Academy.

Pyne put forth the motion that was seconded by Trustee Nancy Armstrong and it was put to a vote, with Pyne, Armstrong, Linda Qin and Cathy Cooke voting in favour. The motion failed.

Delegations of students and adults were then allowed five minutes each to speak to the issue, which came as part of the adoption of the minutes from the February 20 board meeting.

At that meeting, trustee Julia Burgess put forth the EMA name and it was approved by the board by a 6-2 vote.

Among the delegates were Kingsville District High School (KDHS) students Emmerson Jadischke and Kinsey Kendrick, who both spoke to the board about the school naming issue.

“If you could go back and vote again, would you make a different choice now knowing that this name was not supported by the community or naming committee,” asked Emmerson. “It has invoked an emotional response and disapproval from much of our community.”

The students requested a notice of motion for the board to consider the name Kingsville Lakeside District School, but despite rousing applause from the gallery, the request was denied.

Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kimberly DeYong, spoke as a parent and alumni of KDHS, citing that of the 660 names suggested by the public undertaking, only six had the words Erie or Migration in them — which amounts to about one percent. In contrast, the word Kingsville was present in more than 50 percent of the suggestions from the community.

“Kingsville is a name we can be proud of,” she said. “Please reconsider and use Kingsville in our new school’s name.”

There was some discussion about assurances made eight years ago when Harrow High School was closed. Those assurances included the new school not having a name that contained any portion of the feeder schools’ names. However, none of the trustees could confirm if that assurance was ever made or recorded.

Trustee Burgess did put forth a motion to review the policy that governs the naming of schools so that future boards have clearer instructions to follow. That motion was carried and the naming policy will now undergo a review from the board’s policy committee.

The meeting ended with Trustee Qin once again trying to move that the board re-visit the naming of the school and the policy under which it was named. Chair Hatfield commented that she would take it under consideration.