The school district is looking for Hart community members to sit on an advisory group designed to “include the extended history of Shas Ti with the more recent history of Kelly Road Secondary School.”
Opposition to the board’s plan to rename Kelly Road to Shas Ti has been fierce since it passed a motion last week to start the name change process. The advisory group will be called an ‘engagement process working group.’
The work of the will be guided by principles of reconciliation in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s Calls to Action. It lists the definition of reconciliation as restoration of friendly relations and/or the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.
“In this case, the definition of reconciliation couldn’t be more relevant,” said Tim Bennett, chair of Board of Education School District 57, in a news release. “We’re asking this working group to support the district in restoring friendly relations and making feelings and beliefs compatible with one another through the upcoming engagement process.”
The working group will represent and be selected by various community members. They will share a responsibility to shape and guide School District 57’s proposed engagement plan with input, ideas and feedback from their stakeholder groups.
Members will include:
- Two KRSS students
- KRSS Teacher Representative
- KRSS Support Staff Representative
- KRSS Principal or Vice Principal
- Lheidli T’enneh Councillor
- Lheidli T’enneh Elder
- SD57 Trustee Representative
- SD57 Superintendent
- KRSS Parent Advisory Council Representative
- Hart Community Association Representative
- KRSS Alumni Representative
“The guiding question for the group and the participating public will be, going forward: How do we honour the inclusive history of this new school and the land it resides on?” said Anita Richardson, Superintendent. “This will ensure an extension of the history, not an omission of either.”
Meetings began this week, and elements of the plan will be shared with the public before spring break.
The principles of reconciliation in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s Calls to Action that will guide the group are:
- Reconciliation is a process of healing relationships that requires public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowledge and redress past harms.
- Reconciliation must create a more equitable and inclusive society by closing gaps in social, health, and economic outcomes that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.