SCHOOL BOARD – Naming of new Pineview school a step in reconciliation

By DIANE JULES
Trustee, School District 73

WEYT-KP. I AM A MEMBER of the Adams Lake Band and the daughter of a survivor of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.  I am a Secwepemc First Nation mother, sister, daughter, and auntie.

I am also a recently elected councillor of Adams Lake Indian Band (ALIB) of the Secwepemc Nation, a member of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council (SNTC) consisting of nine Secwepemc Bands.

I am a dedicated trustee elected in the TNRD Areas L and P, the Village of Chase, and the Municipality of Sun Peaks, and I am passionate about my role as the chair of the Aboriginal Education Council for our district.

As a trustee, I represent the interests of all students, parents, and staff in the Kamloops-Thompson School District and advocate for the board’s priorities in the 2022-2027 District Strategic Plan. My goal has always been to see that we live our priorities not only in what we do and say, but also in changing structures that will enable sustained change. I am excited to share how this is happening with the board’s Pineview Valley Naming Committee, as one example.

The board is looking forward to the building of a new elementary school (operating capacity of 453 students) in Pineview Valley in the fall of 2026.  While it is the board’s legislative responsibility to name a school, at the in camera board meeting on Nov. 6, 2023, trustees requested that there be a change to the criteria for naming the school in Administrative Procedure 541 – Naming/Renaming of Schools and District Facilities to include the following addition of the bold-faced criterion:

• name of the street on which it is located (Copperhead Drive)
• name of the geographic area (Pineview Valley)
• name with historical significance to the Indigenous rights holders
• name that is reflective of local, provincial, and national diversities
• name that reflects a positive image of the board
• name of a person, if there is written support of a family representative, and if the name is used posthumously, and after five years of their passing.

In addition to this change, on Dec. 11, 2023 at the regular public board meeting, a  motion was passed to establish the Pineview Valley Naming Committee. At that time, trustees requested that the Aboriginal Education Council be consulted as to how best to go about this process of including indigenous rights holders in the naming process of the new school.

On Dec. 14, 2023, at  the AEC meeting, members advised the superintendent that a letter be drafted on behalf of the board chair to Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir as chief of Tk’emlups Band council to request a process for involving Tk’emlups councillors and community members in the naming process.

On Feb. 6, 2024, Tk’emlups chief and council approved that Coun. Morning-Star Peters would join the committee and Tk’emlups community members who were already participating as representatives: Jackie Jules, Gabriel Archie, Ethan Pincott, and Jade Seymour would continue.

Between Jan. 10 to March 1, 2024, the Pineview Valley School Naming Committee met multiple times to review community choices for names submitted by survey. In total, the committee reviewed 131 submissions and also reviewed contributions from the committee members after indigenous rights holders, who are part of the committee, shared about the land, history, stories, and elders’ teachings as connected to the territory of the Secwépemc Nation, specifically the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc people, where the school will be located.

From this feedback, potential names were narrowed down to five (5) choices. Because some additional names were suggested by the Pineview Valley Naming Committee members that the community has not seen, all top choices from both the survey participants’ and committees’ contributions below, which are listed in alphabetical order (not rank order), were provided again to community members.

They were asked to take a moment to read the rationales beside the names and listen to the soundbites for those names in Secwepemctsín (go to our district website sd73.bc.ca here to review the choices and to offer your vote).

This will be the final survey asking for top choices for names, and there are presently over 1,600 submissions, and the survey is still in progress. This high level of community involvement is much appreciated and shows the importance of naming a new school.

Our board is committed to Truth and Reconciliation and ensuring that every person is included and valued for who they are in community engagement. The change to the processes and structures for naming this new school is reflective of this priority.

As a First Nations trustee, I am proud of the work of this committee, which was established by the Kamloops-Thompson board of education. The board was thoughtful about putting in place the committee structure, changing the procedure to include indigenous rights holders in naming schools, requesting that the committee consult with AEC that then recommended the writing of the letter from the board chair to ask the Tk’emlups chief and council to guide us on how to name a school on Secwepemc territory on which we are guests.

I said it when we engaged First Nations and Métis Nations in shaping the 2022-2027 District Strategic Plan– Never have our voices been so loud. I am proud of this work and invite the community to take part in the process.

Go to our District website sd73.bc.ca here to review the choices and to offer your vote on a new name of the elementary school in Pineview Valley. Deadline: April 1, 2024.

Diane Jules is a trustee on the School District 73 board of education.