Lheidli T’enneh Chief Clay Pountney didn’t mince words on School District 57’s decision to go with a dual name for the new school in the Hart that will open in September.
Trustees voted 4-3 in favour of the name Shas Ti Secondary and Kelly Road Secondary.
Pountney told MyPGNow.com the resolution doesn’t make a lot of sense.
“They voted on a dual name and I really don’t believe that’s going to work, it kind of had to go one way or the other because when you have a dual name that just keeps a scar on a school that’s going to be there for decades.”
“It’s going to create more division in the coming times because in the upcoming decades when you have one kid saying Shas Ti and another saying Kelly Road you might keeping the fighting going it’s just odd to me.”
“We are extremely disappointed that a majority of board members reversed their support from February 25th to name the new school Shas Ti. They bowed to pressure from a vocal group of outspoken residents and in the process, have thrown up a major roadblock in the way of truth and reconciliation. What does that say to students? That you can vote one way one month and then feel okay about changing your mind two months later? How can we trust SD 57 ever again to follow through on its commitments?”
Pountney would have preferred the decision to go one way or the other and feels some of the progress that’s been made is now gone.
“What we found during this process that there is a lot of people trying to rewrite our history for us so there is a lot of people from different areas that when they see first nations make a move that is progressive in any direction, they will try and snub that out.”
When asked if the school board caved in to the pressure of keeping both groups happy, Pountney issued this response.
“That’s exactly what I believe half of the trustees did and I think they kind of reneged on what they said they were going to do February 25th and caving into an online questionnaire that anybody could have written in. I could have said I was a former student at Kelly Road there was no accountability within that questionnaire.”
Pountney adds the host first nation’s relationship with SD 57 has been damaged by the board members who changed their vote.
“This has hurt the reputation between us and SD 57, it just has, moving forward I don’t know how this is going to look as I will have to speak with my council to see what the next steps will be.”
“The trust is kind of gone.”
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