They were part of the planning, the naming committee, and were trustees when École QayQayt Elementary opened its doors, but Lisa Graham and David Phelan's names were left off the school plaque.
Paul Johansen, a New Westminster parent, told the board Tuesday night that the former trustess' names should have been on the plaque commemorating the opening of the school.
"I just think this is so wrong," Johansen told the Record before speaking at the meeting. "I'm upset because normally when you have a plaque policy, it's the trustees that contributed and were around when you were building the schools, got it approved, and architecturally and everything else they were involved in the process.
Johansen, a longtime school district critic, also took issue with the fact that trustees Kelly Slade-Kerr and Mark Gifford, who were elected in the November civic election, were named on the plaque. "When you start putting trustees that weren't even sitting trustees on plaques, when the school did get open, and omit the people that were there in the process of getting the school built, I think it's fundamentally wrong."
While the new elementary school opened last fall, the district held an official opening this month, where the plaque was presented.
Graham chaired the committee that helped come up with the name (a First Nations word that means "resting place") of the school, and Phelan was a trustee representative on that committee.
"I heard about it from different staff and parents that were down there looking at their school and looking at the plaque and were quite perplexed," Johansen said. "We should honour the dedication that Phelan and Graham put into this district; they were sitting trustees when that school opened in September 2014. The other trustees didn't get sworn in until towards the end of the year."
Superintendent John Gaiptman told the Record he made the decision to put current trustees' names on the plaque.
"It has always been my practice to list the names of the elected officials as they are constituted at the time of the official opening of the school," he said. "It certainly wasn't my intention to exclude anybody but my practice has always been to name the elected officials, be they trustees or the minister or the premier, as they are constituted at the time of the official opening. "
Gaiptman added that he will suggest to the school board that the district look at creating a policy regarding plaques commemorating the official opening of a school.
"It's a complicated thing," Gaiptman said. "What do you do if the minister has changed? Let's look at what other districts do. People might think we've done the absolute correct thing, let's talk about it."
Meanwhile, Phelan didn't return the Record's request for comment, and Graham is dealing with a health-related issue with her family.
