School name not discussed in-camera, trustee says
The name of Erie Migration Academy “unequivocally” was not discussed at a regularly scheduled in-camera meeting of the Greater Essex County District School Board Feb. 20 before the public debate on the name for the new school in Kingsville, Trustee Julia Burgess said Monday.
“It would be illegal.”
In online discussions requesting the Ontario Ombudsman's Office review the process that resulted in the name Erie Migration Academy, some have questioned whether the in-camera meeting was appropriate.
Burgess introduced Erie Migration Academy as a suggested name for trustees' consideration at the meeting, despite a public consultation process that had suggested two names — Kingsville District Academy and Greater Kingsville Academy.
The $60-million school will accept students from kindergarten to Grade 12 when it opens in the fall.
The new name has met with opposition from the community, including those who feel Kingsville should be included in the name, and from those who are dismayed at the unfortunate vulgar acronym EMA that will leave students and the school open to ridicule during sports events, when students don their uniforms.
In the March 19 school board meeting, after several failed attempts to reconsider the name, Trustee Linda Qin moved a notice of motion “to examine the naming procedure of Erie Migration Academy and appraise the corresponding consequences to the board.”
Board chair Gale Hatfield wondered if the motion was in order, and she will consider and advise on the motion.
In an interview Thursday, Burgess appeared to consider the possibility of addressing the acronym.
Asked if she would be open to the idea, she didn't shut down the idea
“If somebody came forward on the naming ... and said `we don't want the acronym,' it's submitted and maybe it's submitted by both student trustees, you know, yeah, wouldn't that be a good strong student voice, instead of the voice that is being heard now about mistrust and accusations that cannot be founded on any fact,” Burgess told the Windsor Star.
Still, how far should school boards go in avoiding acronyms, she said? She pointed out that Kingsville Migration Academy (KMA), was also a suggestion that would have an awkward acronym.
Still, where would that line be drawn? she asked. “Do we defer to texting acronym language for everything and then review all of our schools again? And do we do it with 70 facilities and then worry about acronyms?”
At the March 19 board meeting, and again in an interview with the Star Monday, Burgess said the transition committee — which is set up when a school is closing and students are moving — for the Harrow High School, which closed in 2015, was told that the new school in Kingsville would have a “fresh, new name” that wouldn't include the names of previous schools.
But no one is sure exactly who made that promise, since it's been eight years since the transition committee meetings, she said.
Feeder schools to Erie Migration Academy will include those from the former Harrow High school, who have been attending Kingsville District Academy for eight years. The new school will also take students from Kingsville, Colchester, Harrow, Leamington and Pelee Island.
In discussing the name Erie Migration Academy at the March 19 meeting, Burgess said the direction of the board in choosing school names has moved toward “concepts and ideas.”
She cited Westview Freedom Academy, which opened in Windsor in 2014; the newly named Beacon Heights Public School in Tecumseh, which the board says on its website “will be a guiding light for education in the area,” Lakeshore Discovery Public School, which opened in Belle River in 2007, and Legacy Oak Trail Public School in Lasalle, which opened in 2021.
The two names recommended by the naming committee for the Kingsville school “didn't meet the criteria that we were looking for the idea, concept,” she said, although it's not clear whether the naming committee was ever told that “Kingsville” would not be an acceptable part of the name.