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In a chaotic 15-minute meeting at the Greater Essex County District School Board Tuesday night that shut down debate on a proposed amended name for the new Kingsville school, trustees approved the name Kingsville Migration District School.
Events at the special board meeting led to an angry speech by Trustee Cathy Cooke outside the board chamber after the meeting in which she said “this whole thing was a terrible mess” and that “what happened tonight, that is wrong.”
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“What they did tonight was shut everybody up,” Cooke said. “They didn’t want trustees to talk. They didn’t want to hear anything from anybody in the community. All they want to do is shove it through and that’s what they did.
“And Trustee (Julia) Burgess did what she did, got it through. This was a planned thing. They knew exactly how they were going to do this tonight and that’s what they did. I was told before by another trustee that it’s going to be put on the floor. It’s going to be voted on. And that’s it. And that’s exactly what happened.
“Everybody should get a say in this. This is a community school. This school does not belong to the board. It does not belong to the trustees. It belongs to the community. And that was taken away.”
The board chose the name Kingsville Migration Academy at a meeting in February in which two suggestions from a public consultation process – Kingsville District Academy and Greater Kingsville Academy – were rejected. That move was initiated by Burgess, a Kingsville trustee.
But many citizens objected to Kingsville not being included in the new school name and they complained that the resulting acronym, EMA, had a vulgar meaning well-known to young people. Some said the acronym would expose students of the new school to ridicule by students of other schools during competitions.
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Several attempts to change the name in a meeting in March failed, which produced more objections from the community. A 2,600-name petition to include Kingsville in the name continues to be assembled by Kingsville District High School graduate Angelina Ward. That school closes at the end of the school year.
A new recommendation on the April 2 board agenda did not reopen the name for debate, but instead recommended that the word “Academy” be stricken and replaced by “District School.”
The resulting meeting was short, but tumultuous, as Lori Lukinuk, an expert in parliamentary procedure who was on the phone for the meeting, interrupted the discussion several times with advice on how to follow proper protocol.
Trustee Nancy Armstrong attempted to make a statement before the vote on the new name, but Lukinuk advised that such a statement was not permissible.
Trustee Cathy Cooke attempted to find out who placed the recommendation on the agenda. Such recommendations most often come from administration, whereas motions at meetings come from trustees.
But Cooke’s attempt to find out who placed the original recommendation on the agenda was shut down by Lukinuk, who said since a motion had been moved at the meeting by Burgess and seconded by Trustee Kim McKinley, that was the answer.
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“I would like to know who brought the recommendation. … We have a right to know madam chair,” Cooke said to Trustee Christine Nelson, who chaired the meeting.
Lukinuk advised Nelson to “move on.”
Burgess said the meeting had been called by the board chair Gale Hatfield who attended by phone call.
Burgess then explained that the board had “missed a vulgar acronym” when it chose Erie Migration Academy.
“We don’t want our students, staff or the community to be involved in the bullying that’s associated with a vulgar acronym,” she said.
Burgess then asked Nelson to shut down debate and vote on the new name, a request that Lukinuk said would require a two-thirds majority vote. Such a vote is “not debatable,” said Lukinuk.
It passed 7-4.
Nelson then called the vote on the new name, which also passed 7-4.
Armstrong then asked to address the board again, but Nelson took an adjournment vote, which passed.
After the meeting, Cooke protested that she could not find out who placed the recommendation on the agenda. “Nobody would answer. I never got an answer,” she said. “I won’t get an answer. This is an absolute disgrace. Somebody came up with that, but nobody wants to say who did.”
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Debate on the school name should have been sent back to the naming committee, which could then work with the community to come up with alternatives, she said.
“They want to sweep it away, let’s move on to the next thing. Let’s get this thing out of here because it’s causing too many problems for the board.”
She went so far as to question whether she would continue to sit on the school board. “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do moving forward,” Cooke said. “Do I want to belong to this board? I honestly don’t know. I don’t know. I am so disappointed at what happened tonight. It’s a mess. And it’s wrong.”
She refused to take part in the ensuing public meeting of two standing committees.
“I’m angry and I don’t want to stay,” she said when questioned about her decision. “I am disgusted at what just happened.”
After Cooke left, Ward and Emmerson Jadischke, both of whom made presentations to the board at the March meeting, said they wouldn’t give up trying to get Kingsville into the school name.
The acronym for the new school name also has unfortunate connotations, said Jadischke. “If you search out EMD in the urban dictionary it’s still pretty bad, and it also doesn’t include Kingsville, which is what the public wanted.”
Ward said she was not happy with the way the meeting unfolded. “I feel like the fact that speakers weren’t allowed at the meeting really says a lot,” she said. “When you are coming from a place of truth you really don’t have anything to hide.”
She said attempts to change the name need to “go further.”
“Keep reaching. Keeping making noise. I’m not done. We’re not done,” she said.
“They really showed us that we didn’t have a voice because they didn’t listen to any of the stuff that we did, so we’ll just have to see if people in a higher position will hear us,” said Jadischke.
bamacleod@postmedia.com
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