Davin School getting new name in fall: The Crescents

The Regina Public School Board voted to change the name of Davin School at its Tuesday evening meeting.

When the new school year begins in the fall, the school will be renamed The Crescents School after the neighbourhood that surrounds it.

“For me it came down to the fundamental fact that Davin School is a school,” said trustee Aleana Young.

“And having a children’s school named after someone who contributed to the creation and perpetuation of the residential schools system is fundamentally wrong.”

The seven-trustee school board has deliberated for at least nine months over the name of the school, which was built in 1929 and named in honour of Nicholas Flood Davin.

Davin was a Regina pioneer who authored an 1879 report that recommended that the federal government establish Indian residential schools. Trustee Jane Ekong abstained from the vote, while trustee Jay Kasperski was the lone trustee to vote against the motion.

“I do feel it is arrogant hubris for a group of trustees in 2018 to revisit and correct a decision made almost 90 years ago,” said Kasperski, “without any framework to guide that decision.”

In November, the school board launched a five-question online survey, asking the public’s opinions on the school’s name. The 1,379 results have not been made public; the school division says responses were evenly split between keeping the name and changing it.

A new plaque will be made for the school, detailing the history of the school name.

The name Davin will remain on the building’s masonry as a historical element, as will a plaque about Davin that already exists at the school.

The plaque reads in part: “Mr. Davin … championed the cause of the rights of new settlers.”