The new Kelly Road Secondary School is on track to open in September and there is a possibility a new name could accompany the occasion.
At Tuesday’s School District 57 meeting, a motion was carried to “engage in the process of a new name” and the board of education is committed to doing so before the school opens in September.
The facility would be called the Dakelh name Shas Ti Secondary.
Board Chair Tim Bennett told MyPGNow.com the request was made by Lheidli T’enneh elders.
“It represents the area, in which the new Kelly Road is going to be built as it is actually built on a grizzly bear path and we had Lhedli elders share a bit of the history and the story where the new Kelly Road Secondary is going to be situated on.”
“Every time that you are able to speak the indigenous language, it keeps the language going. This decision by the board allows us to take as a district an additional step forward towards reconciliation.”
Bennett understands there is opposition to the name change.
“We recognize that this decision is going to create conflict and we recognize that Kelly Road has a long history in the district but we also want to say that this decision isn’t going to erase the history of Kelly Road.”
Bennett adds they are looking to make the change now instead of a couple of months down the road.
“Now is the time to do this. All of the signage of the new building is going to have to be produced, all the letterheads are going to have to change because the building is situated differently on the property and it could have an impact on the street address.”
The motion was tabled by Trustee Trent Derrick.
A petition on the name change has already been created and can be found here.
A protest of the name change is planned for Saturday at 10 AM outside of the SD 57 Board Office.
(This is a corrected version of our earlier story)