The new Rainbow District School Board elementary school under construction in New Sudbury has officially been named Lasalle Elementary School.
Trustees with the board made it official at their April 18 meeting, when they approved a motion dealing with the school’s naming.
The new junior kindergarten to Grade 6 school is being built on the same site as Lasalle Secondary School.
Students at the current Carl A. Nesbitt, Ernie Checkeris and Westmount Avenue schools are to attend the new elementary school, which is scheduled to open in September of this year.
Construction delays mean the school is scheduled to open a year later than originally planned.
The project has also run into cost escalations. The original funding approved by the Ministry of Education in August 2017 was $12.6 million. However, as of early last fall, the board said the cost had escalated to approximately $17.1 million.
The Rainbow Board set up an ad hoc committee to work on naming the new school.
Sitting on the committee were staff, students and parent representatives of all three of the aforementioned schools, as well as community representatives, a trustee and the area board superintendent.
Rainbow board director of education Bruce Bourget said the process used by the committee was very similar to the one used in the naming of the board’s Walden Public School.
“Throughout that practice, the groups came up with a variety of names,” he said. “They voted on the names, and there were two names that rose to the top of the list. One was New Sudbury Elementary School, and the other was Lasalle Elementary School.”
The board’s executive council (meaning senior board staff) looked at these two recommendations and decided to put forward the name recommendation for Lasalle Elementary School to trustees.
“It fits with the campus model that we have,” Bourget said. “It leads to Lasalle Elementary School, the Lasalle intermediate program and Lasalle Secondary School. So this is the name put forward for your consideration this evening.”
Trustee Judy Hunda, who represents constituents in the New Sudbury area, said she took part in the ad hoc committee for the new school’s naming.
She said she wanted to comment on what a wonderful, energetic and co-operative group the naming committee was.
“All the three schools came fully prepared,” Hunda said. “They had flip papers with all kinds of names and how they got there, and some were really, really interesting …
“The ideas were great. The kids were very vocal and very proud of themselves, and they really felt ownership. I left feeling really good. Parents were happy, the children were happy. It was very exciting for them to explain to us how they came up with some of their ideas.
“There was quite a number (of school name ideas), like about 12 or 14 maybe. But bottom line, these were the two that they came up with. And they were quite happy with the two that came forward, and would be quite happy with either of them. And so I feel really good recommending that we accept that.”
Hunda also took a moment to thank all of the parents in New Sudbury, who have been through a long process since an accommodation review was completed and provincial funding approved for the new school back in 2017.
“They have been wonderful partners,” she said. “Since we decided to amalgamate the three schools, I've never had one complaint. They have always been right behind the amalgamation, excited for it, patient as they've waited for this to happen. And they really truly appreciated being part of the process.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.