| Feb 27, 2013


As construction continues on the new school in Sharbot Lake, a protest against the name chosen for it, Granite Ridge Education Centre, is bubbling along on Facebook.

It is clear, at least in the minds of the Facebook group, Granite Ridge Education Centre/This is a protest group, that the Limestone District School Board’s trustees have chosen the wrong name. It is also clear that a number of the group’s members are pretty adamant about, as there were hundreds of comments posted on the group’s Facebook wall between February 15 and 22, although traffic has died down since then.

A running poll on the wall lists reveals the preference of the group. Among the six potential names listed, 225 chose Sharbot Lake District School while only 36 chose all the other listed options combined (Granite Ridge, 6; Lakeview, 8; Waterstone, 1; and Hillcrest, 1)

Ann Goodfellow, the school board trustee for Central and North Frontenac, and Addington Highlands, is not particularly impressed with the Facebook group.

“I can't tell you what they are saying because it is a closed group, and my request to join was rejected,” she said.

One of the group’s administrators noted that the group is not meant as an open forum on the name of the school. “It is about how to get the name changed, not about anything else. Try to keep it to that; we want opinions on how and what we need to do to accomplish it,” posted Genny Kelly on February 18.

The Facebook group lists over 1,600 members, but that includes people who have been invited but have not yet joined the group. A quick survey of the list of members would indicate that about 40% of the 1,600 people listed have agreed to join the group.

As one of the nine Limestone trustees who ultimately chose the new name, Goodfellow said that she supports the decision. “To have named the school after Sharbot Lake would have meant excluding the people in the surrounding communities who do not identify with Sharbot Lake. The school will serve all the communities, not just Sharbot Lake. I think Granite Ridge is a good name; it denotes strength,” she said.

Goodfellow provided an outline of the process that was used to come up with the name Granite Ridge, which is a formal process adopted by the board in recent years because a number of schools are in various stages of development throughout the region.

Soon after the board announced that the new school was coming, an Integration committee was formed to facilitate the transition from three schools to one. The Integration Committee includes representation from the students, staff, and parent councils from Hinchinbrooke and Sharbot Lake public schools and Sharbot Lake High School.

This past fall, the Integration Committee formed a Naming Subcommittee, which was headed by Madeleine Tarasick, a retired superintendent of the Limestone Board. The Naming Committee put out a public call for suggestions, and received 130, which they whittled down to a shortlist of six.

These six names, (Lakeview, Waterstone, Sharbot Lake, Granite Ridge, Hillcrest, and Lakeside) were published in the Frontenac News and elsewhere in early December of 2012, and further public comment was sought about which one was the best.

The Naming committee then met again, looked at the comments and cut the list to four names, which they submitted to the Integration Committee. Apparently one of the two names that the Naming Committee eliminated was Granite Ridge.

The Integration Committee then took over. They looked at the four names, added one of their own, Maple Ridge, and also decided to put Granite Ridge back in the mix.

They then held a secret ballot vote on the six names that were now in front of them, and chose the top four to send to the Board of Trustees.

The four names that were submitted were Granite Ridge, Sharbot Lake, Maple Ridge and Lakeview.

At the February meeting of the nine-member Board of Trustees the four names were put forward, and a closed ballot vote was taken. After the first ballot none of the names had received a majority vote, so the least popular name was dropped, and a second vote was taken, which delivered majority support for Granite Ridge Education Centre.

(The above account of the process came from interviews with Ann Goodfellow and Sharbot Lake High School Parent Council Chair Cheryl Allen – the complete details of the process and all the written reports should be included in the minutes of the February Board of Trustees meeting, which will be presented for approval at the March meeting. The minutes and attachments to Limestone District Board of Trustees meetings are posted at Limestone.on.ca/Board/Minutes.

Jamie Riddell, one of the members of the Granite Ridge protest group, and a former candidate for school board trustee for Central and North Frontenac, has asked if he can make a presentation to the Limestone Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, March 6.

However, even if Riddell gets to the board meeting, it is hard to see how that could translate into a reconsideration of the school name. For the decision to be changed, a member of the board would have to make a motion to reconsider the decision; another trustee would have to second that motion; and a 2/3 vote would be required to rescind the motion that named the school Granite Ridge.

As everyone who lives on the Canadian Shield learns eventually, granite is not easily moved.

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