Beattie name could stay on a Kamloops school

KAMLOOPS – The decision to have remove Beattie from school names may not quite be final.

At the Feb. 29 School District 73 school board meeting, resident Shelia Park discussed the renaming of the Beattie School of Arts with trustees.

She spoke about the history of the Beattie name, something some trustees didn’t know about, Supt. Karl deBruijn says. The Beattie sisters were two educators early in the city’s history, and deBruijn says Park presented the idea that the name change would take away from that.

“It was an honour to a pioneering family of teachers,” deBruijn says.

While the board has already voted to change the names of the Beattie School of Arts when it amalgamates into one campus later this year, deBruijn says district administration will report back to the board about keeping the Beattie name and the board may reconsider and have a debate on the issue during a future meeting.

The closure of Stuart Wood School at the end of this school year means school administrations and communities are moving around. The elementary students attending the Beattie School of Arts campus on McGill Road are joining the secondary students in the same program at the JP campus on Ninth Avenue. As of right now, the plan is to call the amalgamated school Kamloops School of Arts.

The Stuart Wood students will start attending the former Beattie School of Arts campus on McGill Street in September 2016, which will then be renamed McGill Elementary.

Previously, deBruijn has said current school board policy is for new schools to be named after the location, not after people.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.