Trustees approve name change for Waterloo high school
Posted Apr 8, 2022 08:30:00 PM.
It's official — the Waterloo high school located at 650 Laurelwood Drive has a new name — Laurel Heights Secondary School.
The name change was officially signed off on by trustees with the Waterloo Region District School Board.
The renaming is meant to serve as an act of reconciliation, as the former name was considered harmful due to the role its namesake (Sir John A. Macdonald) played in Canada's residential school system.
In late 2021, a renaming committee began the consultation process, and in January, asked community members to submit suggestions. 450 responses were collected and narrowed down to 120 names that met a specific renaming criteria and policy. In February, the committee sought feedback from the school's staff and students, and received over 70% participation with just shy of 1,300 responses.
The other two shortlisted names were Headwaters Secondary School and Northwestern Secondary School.
“Student and community voice played an integral part in the process from the outset and will show us where we need to go – as long as we are open to really hearing the message and taking those next steps,” Vida Collis, principal of Laurel Heights SS, explained in a news release.
