Spruceland Traditional Elementary School will begin the process to remove the word traditional from its name.
Principal Shannon Daines told the board of education at its June 22 meeting that after conducting a review, they found the school’s practices no longer align with a traditional school structure.
Daines explained the request to change the school’s name comes after a year of research and consultation with the school community.
Traditional schools focus on an authoritarian teacher-centred delivery of instruction and individual success, and Daines explained you will not see this in any classroom in the building.
“Spruceland Traditional has a commitment to dealing with complex social issues, diversity that occurs in all Canadians schools, and there can’t be just a focus on individual success,” said Daines.
“We have a wider social obligation of bringing together diverse values and experiences and teaching children what it means to live in a contemporary society.”
She said Spruceland Traditional also strives towards student-centred learning that focuses holistically on the well-being of students.
Daines said Spruceland does not behave in the way a traditional school is expected to behave and its name should represent the actual practices of the school.
“I’m going to say that the traditional school model feels very colonized and antiquated in some ways and so I don’t feel that it is inline ideologically with our strategic plan,” added Daines.
In her research, Daines said she found one study from 1998 which described traditional schooling as, allowing for greater cultural homogeneity that comes at the cost of pluralism and equity that are at the heart of public education.
“Children deserve equity in their education, and we need to move away from cultural homogeneity.”
She noted that of the 286 students in the school, 135 of them identify as Indigenous and the school’s population has students whose parents come from almost every continent on the planet except Oceania.
One of the surveys Daines conducted with the school population also found that only 14 per cent of families chose Spruceland because it is a traditional school, whereas 45 per cent chose the school because they live in the area, and 17 per cent chose the school because its an alternative for their catchment school.
“The population of the people valuing the traditional school is decreasing yearly,” said Daines.
"Since I have been in the school there has not been one family in the last two-and-a-half years that have brought their children to Spruceland because it is a traditional school.”
However, Daines also noted that because the school hasn’t actually practiced as a traditional school in years, except for the use of uniforms, families will not actually experience anything different in practice from this process other than the change in name.
Daines put forward three recommendations; to remove the word ‘traditional' from Spruceland Elementary, to remain a choice program but with a focus on community and the arts, and to engage in a process to establish a new name that accurately affects the school.
She suggested the possible name, Spruceland Community School of Choice with an Arts Focus.
The board voted unanimously in favour of all three recommendations.
However, no changes will be made in the 2022-23 school year as the process to determine the future name and other logistics will begin next year.
