Geography focus for school-name submissions

Of 964 submissions from public for name of new middle school, 450 ruled ‘appropriate’

Names relating to the location of Kelowna’s newest school dominated suggestions to be considered by the school board this week.

In total, 964 submissions were put forward via an online survey set up by the Central Okanagan school district for the naming of the new middle school in the Upper Mission.

Of those submissions, 450 were considered “appropriate” for the naming of the new school, said assistant superintendent Rhonda Ovelson.

“Some submissions were inappropriate in their response or they responded multiple times,” she said.

Each person was permitted to submit only one response.

There were 78 submissions containing the word Mission, 28 submissions with the word Okanagan, 22 submissions with the word Upper, 18 submissions with the word Kelowna and 16 submissions with the word Frost.

The new school is being constructed on Frost Road near the Ponds Development.

The names with the most submissions included variations of Upper Mission Middle School, with 20 submissions, W.A.C. Bennett Middle School, with 20 submissions, Frost Road Middle School, with 16 submissions, Okanagan Mission Middle School, with 15 submissions, and Kettle Valley Middle School, with 14 submissions.

Other suggestions listed in the report included Andrew McCulloch Middle, in honour of the engineer who designed the Kettle Valley Railway, Apple Valley Middle, after the local orchards, Firestorm Middle, after the 2003 fire that hit the area, Ogopogo Middle, and Zimmermann Middle, in honour of Gerry Zimmermann, Kelowna’s fire chief during the 2003 wildfire.

District staff are presenting the list of submitted names to the planning and facilities committee Wednesday.

“It will be up to the planning and facilities committee to discuss and to look at all the submissions that were provided to them and decide how they want to proceed,” said Ovelson.

The planning and facilities committee will then forward recommendations for a name or multiple names to the school board.

“Staff have no specific recommendation to provide,” said Ovelson.