Edmonton Public Schools to rename Prince Charles School, maintain masking mandate

Trustee Shelagh Dunn brought the motion forward at Tuesday’s board meeting, pointing to the large number of community voices calling for the school to be renamed. The motion said renaming the school doesn’t undo the harm caused by colonialism, but it’s a small action in response to calls to action in the report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

“I’ve heard from many staff, students and community members who are asking for a name that better reflects the work that’s happening in the school, that better reflects the students and families who have chosen to attend the school,” Dunn said during the meeting.

The motion passes after the board of trustees for Kootenay Lake School District in B.C. voted unanimously to change the name of its Prince Charles School last spring.

Board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said it’s a necessary move and she’s especially supportive of the way the name change will be handled — allowing community voices to be heard.

“It’s allowing community and that parent community and the school community and students who attend what’s now called Prince Charles School, soon to have another name, to help guide that conversation for us,” said Estabrooks during a media availability following the board meeting.

Edmonton Public Schools will begin the renaming process by launching consultation with current students, families and staff of the school, as well as relevant elders and knowledge keepers in the community.

Estabrooks said the community will decide the timeline and process of the renaming, but it will be up to the next board of trustees and the next policy committee to decide when the renaming will take place. The new board of trustees will be sworn in after the Oct. 18 election.

Trustees also voted Tuesday to create a special committee to help guide the process of renaming future schools as the division takes steps to becoming more anti-racist. With renaming of schools becoming more common, Estabrooks said it was time to put the motion forward.

“We know that this is building, so it’s my hope that this motion can provide clarity to our community but also a commitment that we support the renaming of schools and we also support figuring out a process to how do we get that done? And what’s the process to review the names that we currently have,” said Estabrooks.

Seven parents spoke at the board meeting expressing their opposition to the Edmonton Public Schools’ mask mandate, however Estabrooks said those speakers won’t change the current re-entry plan and the majority of parents she hears from are in support of the division’s COVID-19 safety measures.

“It continues to baffle me how our re-entry plan and masking in particular continues to be so controversial,” she said. “Our plan is solid, and we will not be making any changes based on what we heard earlier today.”

During the meeting superintendent Darrel Robertson said there have been 23 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since school began this year. Estabrooks added that it’s not a representative number of all the cases in the school division because there is no longer contact tracing and they are relying on parents and staff to self-report.