Public could get to pick name of Upper Mission’s new school
Head of school board says she’s open to online voting to decide name of middle school
An online voting contest could be used to choose the name of Kelowna’s newest school.
School board chairwoman Moyra Baxter said Thursday she’d be open to the idea of letting the public pick the name of the middle school to be built in the Upper Mission.
“I think that would be a good idea,” Baxter said, adding she thought such a contest would draw considerable public interest.
Earlier this week, the school district sent out a press release inviting people to suggest names for the new school, the construction of which is about to begin.
However, there was nothing in the release that committed the board to actually choosing any of the suggested names. Recent practice has been for trustees to make the naming decision, a process that has not been without some controversy.
In 2008, trustees settled on the name Chute Lake Elementary for a new school in the Upper Mission.
The name was chosen by trustees in a 5-1 vote after they considered a list of possibilities that also included Kettle Valley — the overwhelming favourite of people who lived near the school — Thomson, Upper Mission and Curlew Park.
Baxter said her preference this time would be for the board to review all the suggested names for the new school that are submitted in an online survey now posted on the school district’s website before the Sept. 29 deadline.
“I’m sure we’ll get some really good names coming forward,” she said, expecting the names might reference historical figures and geographic features, among other things.
A short list of contenders could then be created, with the public invited to vote on which they preferred.
“You’d have to make sure any of the short-listed names would be acceptable, no matter which one ended up winning,” Baxter said.
That would avoid an embarrassing local version of the Boaty McBoatface episode in Britain, in which an unrestricted online contest to name a new ship was wide open to pranksters.
The school district used to have a policy of simply naming new schools after the street on which they were located. That’s why there are schools with accurate if uninspiring names like Davidson Road School and Hudson Road Elementary.
The naming policy was eventually changed to invite a wider variety of suggestions, with the board making the final decision.
The last school to open in the Central Okanagan was Mar Jok Elementary in West Kelowna, in 2014. It was named for a Chinese-Canadian businessman and community volunteer who once owned the land upon which the school was built.
Baxter says she’ll bring up the idea of an online public voting contest involving pre-selected possible names for the Upper Mission middle school at a future board meeting.