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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Board may as well not have asked public about school’s name

Apr 24, 2024 | 5:55 AM

IT WAS NO SURPRISE that the Kamloops school board chose an indigenous name for the new school in Pineview Valley.

For one thing, reconciliation is on everyone’s mind and an indigenous name for the school was part of that thinking. For another, the naming committee included “indigenous rights holders” who were allowed to submit their own proposals in addition to those from the public.

So, the name of the school will be Sníne elementary (pronounced Sneena), which means owl. It was one of five finalists out of 131 suggestions. The others were indigenous names for pine tree and turtle, plus Copperhead elementary and Pineview Valley elementary.

There’s nothing wrong with Sníne elementary, though I would have much preferred honouring a respected educator or other community leader. Senator Len Marchand Sr., a Kamloops resident, MP and the nation’s first indigenous cabinet minister, would have been my choice.

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But the process is concerning. Sníne elementary received 196 ‘votes’ out of 1,300 responses, while Pineview Valley got 856. Not even close.

Naming schools based on location is kind of boring but people like it because it’s easy to figure out where they are. So, OK, clearly the board wanted to go in a specific direction from the start.

If it was determined to have a certain type of name, why not just say so, instead of offering other options such as the name of a person?

And if it was going to blatantly ignore input from the public, why ask for it? Why not just make the decision itself, which it did anyway, instead of going through the pretense of seriously considering what the public had to say about it?

“Sníne elementary” certainly isn’t the worst name the school trustees could have picked. It’s short, will be quite easy to remember, not overly difficult to spell, an owl makes a good logo, and it does respond to the focus on reconciliation.

But the process rankles.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.