Naming school a joke to some

Top suggestion in survey to name new middle school in Upper Mission so far is Schooly McSchoolface

Kelowna’s newest school would be called Schooly McSchoolface if pranksters get their way.

That’s the most popular suggestion so far in an online survey set up by Central Okanagan Public Schools.

A total of 650 submissions have been put forward, school district secretary-treasurer Larry Paul said Wednesday. The online survey went up last week at sd23.bc.ca and will go offline Friday afternoon.

Trustees are asking the public’s help in choosing a name for a new middle school in the Upper Mission, construction of which will get underway this fall.

The idea for Schooly McSchoolface is reminiscent of an ill-fated public competition to name a polar research ship in Britain last year. Although Boaty McBoatface was the runaway winner, the U.K. government instead named the ship after Sir Richard Attenborough.

Boaty McBoatface, however, was the official name given to one of the ship’s remotely operated sub-sea vehicles.

Along with Schooly McSchoolface, another flippant name being suggested for Kelowna’s new school is Smoky, presumably inspired by this summer’s wildfires.

On the serious side, geographicand historical-themed suggestions include Myra Canyon, Bellevue Creek, Kettle Valley and Okanagan Mountain.

Bennett School has been suggested,

after the Kelowna family that produced two B.C. premiers, along with Father Pandosy, the first European settler in the Kelowna area.

School district officials will review the submissions and present a report to the board’s planning and facilities committee, likely on Oct. 18.

It hasn’t yet been decided if trustees will choose the name themselves, either picking one from the list of suggestions from the public or settling on something else.

Another option, one which board chair Moyra Baxter says she’ll advocate for, is for trustees to pre-select a list of five possible

names and then have another online voting competition to let the public select the winner.

For his part, Dick Gunoff, the longtime head of the KelownaVeendam Sister City Association, suggests the new school be named for H.H. Angle, a Kelowna fruit farmer turned soldier who commanded the B.C. Dragoons during the Second World War, leading the troops through heavy fighting in Italy and Holland.

After the war, Angle returned to farming, but re-enlisted to serve with the United Nations. He died in a plane crash in India in 1950 and is considered the first Canadian soldier to lose his life while serving as a peacekeeper.