ST. PAUL - The sign outside says St. Paul Education Regional Division #1, but often the area's largest school division's name is shortened to other variations. Regardless of what the sign says, the division's name could soon change following a motion by the board of trustees on June 14 to explore the process involved in making the change.
The topic of changing the school division's name came up during a discussion around the policy in place that also dictates the steps required to change school names within the division. Stretching from Heinsburg to Two Hills, and north toward Ashmont and Mallaig, the school division includes many schools that are known by several variations of their school names.
Some discussions have taken place at school council meetings regarding school names lately - the school letterhead may be worded one way, while the actual wording on the school's wall is different, and yet another variation may exist within the school's gymnasium.
Administration and the board of trustees are hoping to move forward with standardizing the names of schools, especially since some schools are also wanting to update their logos. The idea would be for schools to come back to the board with suggestions on which variation suits the school best.
As for the name of the school division itself, the "#1" that is often included in the longer variation of the name is no longer relevant and was dropped a few years ago. In 2019, the school division's name was changed for legal reasons as per changes within the Education Act, to St. Paul School Division.
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Trustee Darcy Younghans suggested the board explore a new, more inclusive name that represents the entire region, and in doing so, remove "St. Paul" from the name.
He pointed to neighbouring school divisions such as Aspen View Public Schools and Northern Lights Public Schools. Fellow board trustees including Dwight Wiebe, Jan Rajoo, and FNMI trustee Melvin Abraham voiced their agreement.
Board chair Sylvie Smyl said she felt the potential name change would require "extensive community consultation."
A motion to move forward to develop a process to change the name of the school division to be "more inclusive to our entire division," was made by Younghans. The motion was carried.
A second motion to address the school names, and begin the process to make the names more consistent, was also approved by council.
While the school division is in the process of revamping its website for launch at the end of August, there is no rush to finalize any name changes in time for the new school year, according to administration.
