It's official, the New Westminster school board has chosen a name for its newest elementary school, set to open September of 2014, and the winner is . . . Ãcole Qayqayt Elementary.
Trustees voted unanimously to approve the new school's name at a board meeting Tuesday night. Qayqayt (pronounced Kee-Kite), was the recommendation of the district's school naming committee. The committee endorsed Qayqayt, stating in the recommendation that "very little today remains in New Westminster to honour and remember the Qayqayt First Nation. Naming this school for that nation would both honour and keep in memory the people whose land this once was."
The board received permission from Qayqayt Chief Rhonda Larrabee to use the name and The Record reported earlier this month that Larrabee was thrilled with the committee's recommendation.
Trustee Lisa Graham, who chaired the naming committee, said she was really pleased with the board's decision.
"I had two favourites, one was the Ethlyn Trapp and the other was Qayqayt," she said.
Graham has been the board's First Nation liaison for more than a decade and she stated at the meeting that the choice to use Qayqayt will help aboriginal students in the district feel validated, no matter if they attend the school or not.
"It's definitely a reason to be proud," she said.
Trustees, however, decided not to vote on the committee's recommendation to name the new middle school after John Robson. Instead they deferred the decision back to the committee of the whole meeting next Tuesday.
Trustee Jonina Campbell said the board should consider naming the school after a woman and pointed to a lack of female representation in the names of schools across the district, aside from Queen Elizabeth.
And Graham agreed that Queen Elizabeth, while great, doesn't properly represent the young girls attending New Westminster schools today.
"None of our New Westminster girls are born into the Royal family," she said. "It'd be nice for girls to actually look at a school named for a female."
Graham suggested the board consider naming the school for Dr. Ethlyn Trapp, a pioneer in the medical research field who began the first clinical research project on breast cancer. Along with her research on breast cancer, Trapp also forged the way for the first radiotherapy treatment for cancer in Canada.
"She was a medical doctor when there was virtually no female medical doctors," Graham said.
What's more, before John Robson elementary was built there was a high school on the site. The high school was named after Ethlyn Trapp's father, T.J. Trapp.
"You'd have that continuity. He was a very significant New West figure . but she herself, in her own right, was incredibly impressive," Graham said.
In the case of the middle school, Trustee Casey Cook said that there isn't an immediate need for a name and therefore the board should take its time choosing one.
The official groundbreaking for Ãcole Qayqayt Elementary will take place Friday, April 5 at the former St. Mary's Hospital site at 200 Royal Ave. from 1: 30 to 2: 30 p.m.
