New school to be named after boreal forest

NEWS RELEASE

ALGOMA DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

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At Tuesday night’s Board meeting the Algoma District School Board Trustees approved the name of the new JK-8 Northern Avenue facility as Boreal French Immersion Public School.

When naming a school, as per the ADSB’s Naming of Schools Policy, the Director of Education establishes a Committee to make a recommendation to the Board.

The Committee is composed of:

• two Trustees, appointed by the Board;
• one school administrator (Principal or Principal designate if applicable);
• one staff representative;
• a parent representative of the School Council (in the case of consolidation, one representative from each School Council will be invited);
• one Superintendent of Education;
• one student; and
• one community member.

The Rosedale French Immersion Public School, the Francis H. Clergue French Immersion Public School Councils, and students from both schools provided input for consideration to the Naming Committee.

Students, parents, staff, and community members were invited to submit name suggestions for the JK-8 Northern Avenue facility through the use of an electronic application (Survey Monkey).

Stakeholders were notified through local media, the ADSB and school websites and school newsletters of the opportunity to help “name our school”.

An inventory of the names were reviewed by the Naming Committee and three final names were put forward for consideration by the Board which were:

• Pointes North French Immersion Public School
• Boreal French Immersion Public School; and
• Rosedale French Immersion Public School.

It is the Board’s policy that trustees, as elected representatives of their community, approve the official names of new and consolidated schools or changes to existing names of schools.  As such, the Board approved Boreal French Immersion Public School as the name for the new JK-8 Northern Avenue facility.

It was noted that the name was a strong choice as the boreal forest is deeply ingrained in the Canadian identity and is an image known throughout the world as symbolic of Canada. 

Many of the Group of Seven iconic paintings captured the image of the boreal forest, many of which were painted in our very own region of Northern Ontario.

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