Finally, the Hart will have a new high school.
For years, Kelly Road has been on the top of School District 57's wish list for replacement. Construction will start this fall on a $45-million replacement. Like Duchess Park, the new school will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) golf standards and, also like Duchess Park, it will be built next to the old school, which will be demolished once the new facility is open.
It's disgraceful that the B.C. Liberals waited until the eve of the provincial election is announce replacing the school. How politically cynical and manipulative are the B.C. Liberals? Shirley Bond and Mike Morris spent Friday morning up in the Hart making the announcement, then headed back into the Bowl for a lunchtime event to open their campaign office.
That kind of shameless pandering for votes with public money should be beneath both of them. Replacing a 56-year-old high school that has seen its best-before date expire many years ago is not great political leadership, it's simply the right thing to do with taxpayer dollars.
Better late than never, however, which is roughly the reaction Prince George Mackenzie NDP candidate Bobby Deepak had.
As important as the announcement and the decisions made over the next few months regarding architecture, design and contracting, there is another significant choice to be made around the name of the school.
Naming a high school after the street it is on shows a horrible lack of imagination and/or an unwillingness on behalf of politicians and bureaucrats to decide on a proper name. The irony here is that the street address for the current Kelly Road secondary is on Handlen Road. According to Street Names of Prince George - Our History, both Kelly Road in the Hart and Kelly Street off Fifth Avenue are named after John Kelly, a surveyor who also owned a watch and jewelry repair shop in Prince George's early days. That makes it quite unnecessary to also name the school after him, too.
Unfortunately, most local schools just bear the name of their neighbourhood - Glenview, Peden Hill, College Heights, Southridge, Hart Highlands. There are only two Prince George schools - Ron Brent and D.P. Todd - that are named after individuals, both educators in this case. The former John McInnis school is named called the Centre for Learning Alternatives.
What a missed opportunity.
There is no more direct way to link a neighbourhood and its school-age residents to their local history than to have the area school bear the name of a prominent and historically important citizen.
At Kelly Road, it would make a fabulous high school history class assignment for students to be assigned to write a term paper on the local figure they think their new school should be name after. Some suggestions:
Six Mile Mary - the Carrier woman who it is believed was 108 years old when she died.
Granny Seymour - Another legendary aboriginal elder who lived until the wise old age of 114.
Mary John - Born in Prince George, this Lheidli woman was raised at Stoney Creek near Vanderhoof and worked tirelessly to preserve the Carrier language. She received an honorary degree from UNBC and the Order of Canada before she died in 2004.
Shirley Gratton - Unlike the three previous female leaders, Shirley is alive and well and still actively volunteering. She is a longtime Hart resident, a member of the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame, a past Citizen of the Year and she has received the Freedom of the City.
Dezell - the last name would cover three people in this extraordinary family - former Prince George mayor Garvin Dezell, his wife Bea, an active community volunteer who died in 2014 at the age of 105, and their son Cliff, a longtime city councillor and also a recipient of the Freedom of the City.
There are likely many more great names that should be considered and all are deserving.
Choosing one is not that hard, either.
The five or six best history essays submitted by current Kelly Road students, as selected by the staff, would be forwarded to the school district trustees. They would make the final selection.
As Prince George moves into its second century, more efforts need to be made to recognize the important individuals who shaped the community in its first 100 years. Putting their names on civic facilities, such as parks, buildings and schools, is the surest way to accomplish that.
