No change to the approved name for the new K-12 school in Kingsville despite frustration from the community.
During Tuesday's Greater Essex County District School Board meeting, trustees met with a couple of items on the agenda. At the top of the meeting, student trustee Colin Pyne asked to have a motion to reconsider the name Erie Migration Academy added to the agenda.
A student trustee can make such suggestions, but it must be put on the floor officially by a board trustee. Trustee Nancy Armstrong put the motion on the floor which was seconded by trustee Linda Qin. It then moved to a vote, which failed, with only Armstrong, Qin, and trustee Cathy Cooke in favour of adding the motion to the agenda.
Despite no motion coming to fruition, a handful of delegates still spoke stating how upset they were by the process of naming the school, and continued to ask the trustees to rescind the name.
One delegate spoke about how the name was not discussed with Caldwell First Nation, despite the school being on their land, and how the name for the school has no significance to the Indigenous community.
The agenda then featured a notice of motion put forward by trustee Julia Burgess to review the naming and renaming policy for future schools, which was approved by a near 5-4 vote.
Trustee Cathy Cooke said during the meeting that trustee Burgess' notice of motion shows an issue with how the school name was chosen.
"There were issues with it, and that people weren't given the information, some of the information, some of the paperwork, so with that being said, I'm just going to ask, would you consider rescinding and starting over? That would be fair."
Trustee Linda Qin said during the meeting the name should be reconsidered following the community "chaos".
"And it needs to be fixed, and based on the current chaos and the unsatisfaction from the community, I strongly suggest to take back the result of the naming procedure and go back to the naming committee, and reconsider a new name."
Emmerson Jadischke, a grade 11 student at Kingsville District High School, says it was disappointing to see the outcome of the meeting.
"I just feel like they weren't responding to our voices, and the walk-outs, and all of the letters from the community. So we tried to come here [GECDSB meeting] to show that, and they still just didn't respond to our voices which was really disappointing and frustrating."
Kinsey Kendrick, a grade 11 student at Kingsville District High School and member of the naming committee, says the students involved in helping choose the name were not given all of the information they needed.
"They didn't give me the procedure, and I reached out to all of the other student representatives after I was informed that the procedure was supposed to be handed out, and they also did not receive the procedure. So I thought the lack of communication was very apparent when none of the student representatives knew what the requirements were for the new name."
Angelina Ward, a 2021 graduate of Kingsville District High School, started a petition to have the name rescinded, which has received over 2,400 signatures.
She says the meeting itself was very disappointing to watch.
"I found it was very dismissive, I felt like we were being swept under the rug, and what we're saying doesn't matter, like how the community is feeling, and how much stock we really put into these things, was of no care, no second thought. It's just 'this is over, deal with it'."
Ward says Caldwell First Nation was never consulted on the new name.
"The school is on Caldwell land, in the land acknowledgement that the board gives, that's Caldwell's land. Erie is not an existent word in Caldwell's language. I don't think that it's appropriate."
A notice of motion was put forward by trustee Qin at the end of the meeting to examine the naming procedure of Erie Migration Academy, and present the consequences of the name to the board. Board chair, Gale Hatfield stated she will review and advise the motion.
Hatfield stated following the meeting that no comments would be provided to AM800 News by any board trustees regarding the matters spoken about during the meeting.
Erie Migration Academy passed during on the February 20 meeting, with the board voting 6-2 in favour.
This school will bring together students from Jack Minor, Kingsville Public, Harrow Public, and Kingsville District High School.