GUELPH – Though there are no rivers in sight, the new high school in Guelph has been named Two Rivers Secondary School.
Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) trustees voted in favour of the new name during a Dec. 16 meeting and it has been sent to the Minister of Education for final approval.
The school is currently under construction at 388 Arkell Rd. in southeast Guelph, along the border with Puslinch Township.
It is not within Guelph’s two rivers neighbourhood (also known as St. Patrick’s Ward or the ward) nor is this neighbourhood within the school’s catchment area.
The Two Rivers Neighbourhood Group, which runs out of Tytler Public School and serves the ward, is opposed to the school’s new name.
Trustees Luke Weiler, Jen Edwards and Martha MacNeil also oppose the new name, while chair Ralf Mesenbrink and trustees Irene Hanenburg, Lynne Topping, Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson, Laurie White and Kyle Reaburn support it.
Two Rivers Secondary School was one of five names brought to a virtual community town hall on Nov. 17. It received 42 per cent of votes during that meeting, notes a staff report from executive director Brent McDonald.
The other names were Miskwaadesi with 28% of the votes, Royal Arbour 14%, Stonebridge 14% and Between the Lakes 0%.
The report did not mention only seven people voted during the town hall, meaning the 42% in favour of Two Rivers Secondary School consisted of three people.
Two rivers
On Dec. 16, Weiler brought forward a motion to reconsider the school’s name. He outlined some history of how Guelph’s two rivers, the Speed and the Eramosa, have shaped the city’s development, particularly in the neighbourhood near where they meet in central Guelph.
The ward, or the two rivers neighbourhood, is one of the oldest settlements in Guelph and is bordered by the Speed and Eramosa.
It is home to the Two Rivers Neighbourhood Group, the Two Rivers Market, the Two Rivers Huron Street Community Garden and various businesses named after the two rivers.
Weiler said it would take about an hour and a half to walk from the new school to the place where the Speed and Eramosa Rivers meet.
The rivers’ meeting place is “intimately connected to the development of Guelph,” Weiler said, whereas the location of the school was not historically part of Guelph and was surrounded by farm fields and forests.
He compared naming the school Two Rivers Secondary School to naming a school in Hillsburgh after the Forks of the Credit.
“I think that the recommendation has a mistake from a geographical, historical and geological perspective,” he said, adding it will cause confusion.
Weiler also questioned why the board would approve the name “in the face of opposition from a municipal partner organization based out of one of our own schools.”
He said he did not receive any correspondence in support of the name – only against it.
Naming process
The board distributed a survey in October and 923 respondents suggested 709 names. Of those suggested, 276 were approved, based on the board’s naming criteria. In the survey, the name Two Rivers ranked sixth overall and 20th among student respondents, Weiler noted.
Survey participants included parents (31%), community members (29%), students (25%), staff (12%), former staff (1%) and trustees (1%).
The board created a school naming committee, chaired by McDonald, made up of the trustee, principal, superintendent and a parent/school council member from each of the three elementary schools that will feed into the new high school (Westminster Woods, Sir Isaac Brock and Rickson Ridge Public Schools).
The committee used the board’s school naming policy to create a shortlist from the 276 approved names, and forwarded this to the board’s Human Rights, Equity and Accessibility Office and its First Nation, Métis, Inuit Education Council for review, eventually recommending Two Rivers Secondary School for the new school’s name.
Weiler argued the name goes against the board’s naming policy because:
- it is too similar to the neighbourhood group’s name;
- the geographical features it references are not local to the school; and
- the name does not have a historical significance to the school’s location.
“They did their best with what they were given,” Weiler said of the committee. “But I’m not sure that they had expert advice from local historians or geographers so it seems that was maybe a blind spot.”
Though the committee was tasked with offering a recommendation, it is the trustees’ responsibility to name the school, and in Weiler’s opinion, “as trustees it’s one of the few jobs we have left.
“For all these reasons I’m proposing to send this back to the committee for some more work,” he said. “Two Rivers is a beautiful name, but it’s the wrong one for this school.”
MacNeil said she agreed with Weiler because Two Rivers is strongly associated with a specific community and neighbourhood group to which the school is not connected.
Edwards said, “I do like the name, however it’s already taken by another community in the city and they have asked us not to use it.”
Construction of Two Rivers Secondary School is well underway, with icy weather on Jan. 6 not deterring workers from showing up and keeping things on track for the school to open in September. Photo by Robin George
Naming committee members say Two Rivers Secondary School is appropriate because:
- the Speed and Eramosa rivers are important natural features that shape the local landscape;
- rivers are a significant part of the community that connect towns and families;
- “Treaty partners appreciated the reference to the two rivers as a traditional meeting place and the connection to water with respect to sustainability and the environment;”
- there is cross-curricular educational value in referencing water and potential to use the name, meaning and significance within Indigenous education; and
- the name highlights the board’s goal of leading through sustainability by illustrating the connection between rivers, communities and sustainability.
Mesenbrink said he supports the school’s new name, which “provides great opportunities for the school to create a unique identity in terms of sustainability, ecology and the environment, history and Indigenous studies.”
He said the name will not create confusion; the neighbourhood group’s concerns focused on how the name would impact those groups, not the school; and the neighbourhood groups within the school’s catchment area did not express concerns.
“Although the views of other community organizations should be considered, they shouldn’t, by simply being shared, override the recommendation,” Mesenbrink said.
He added all the information available points to the school community supporting the name.
The board of trustees voted to approve Two Rivers Secondary School as the new name in a six to three vote during the Dec. 16 meeting.
