Trustee says anger from the community probably won't change the new name of a Kingsville school

Amid criticism over how the newschool in Kingsville, Ont.,was named, a school boardtrusteesays she can't see the name "Erie Migration Academy" being changed.

Greater Essex County District School Board trustee Julia Burgess said proper procedure was followed in choosing the name despite it not appearing on any shortlist.

Burgess told CBC Windsor thatwhiletherecommendations of the naming committee for theregional K-12 school were heard and considered,the board isn'tboundto follow them.

"It was pretty widely feltacross my colleagues, that ... the names that came forward, didn't really reflect what the whole district wanted to have as branding for a brand new school that reflected six prior schools consolidating into one," she said.

"Any kind of motion for reconsideration would be, at this point, I think out of order. There's no reason for it. So, we'll listen to theeverybody's howls, but there would have to be something awfully compelling."

"And since we've adhered to our own policy, our own regulation, it's been open, transparent ... this is it."

Burgess added that the board previously opted not to go with a naming committee suggestion in the case ofJames L. Dunn Public School in Windsor.

On Tuesday, the public schoolboard voted 6-2 to adopt the name "Erie Migration Academy," in advance of the1,700-studentschool's opening in September.

The namewas not one of thetwo names the 24-member naming committee chose from more than 600 community submissions.

Burgess, who was chair of the naming committee,invokeda regulation that allowed her to put forward thealternate name,which drew from manysubmissions that used the words "Erie," and "migration."

Migration, Burgessexplained at the meeting, wouldhonour both the migration ofpeople as well as bird species and monarch butterflies.

Committee work was 'undermined'

The decision has beenmet with sharp backlash, including two online petitions and a planned lunch-time walkout protest for students.

Emmerson Jadischke and Kinsey Kendrick, 16-year-old Grade 11 students at Kingsville District High School, are organizing the walkout event. They're calling for the board to revisit the name.

"We just felt that like the decision that was made by the board was unfair and we felt that this was our only chance to kind of get our voices heard as students who are going to be impacted by this decision," said Kendrick.

Kendrick, who was part of the naming committee, said she felt like the board disregarded the options put forward.

"I just felt that like all of our work that we did on the committee was undermined, and we put in all this work and it was just not put to use," she said.

'Lack of integrity'

Winnie Stanley, a parent who was at Tuesday's meeting,says she would have been fine with new namehad it been on theshortlist.

"It comes down to the principle, the lack of integrity through this process," Stanley said. "It's not so much the name."

She and others say, however, they would have liked to see Kingsvillereflected in the name, since it's the municipality where the regional school will be located.

JodieScherer, a parent of aKingsvilleDistrict High School student and a recent graduate, agrees.

"I feel like it was just a couple of words that were thrown around and pulled out of a hat," she said of the chosen name. "Yeah...I don't see it fitting Kingsville as a whole."

Former Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos is among those who signed a petition against the decision.

"The process was abandoned. The community members, the volunteers that served on the committee, the youth students, they were basically ignored," Santos said.