Two Grandin-area public schools will have a new name by next fall as they merge into a single campus.
St. Albert Public trustees voted Sept. 22 to have administration start talks to find a new name for the combined Sir George Simpson/Robert Rundle campus.
Simpson and Rundle are two Grandin-area schools that were built next to each other.
Two years ago, St. Albert Public had a space shortage at Simpson and a surplus at Rundle and Wild Rose, said superintendent Krimsen Sumners. To save money, the board moved to convert Wild Rose to a K-to-3 (soon to be K-to-4) school and combine Rundle and Simpson into a Grade 5-to-9 campus with a physical link between the two buildings.
Joint Rundle/Simpson principal Randy Roszell said students from the two schools have long worked together during track meets and other events, and this year have started taking classes in each other’s buildings.
District staff don’t have an official name for the campus, Sumners said. This consultation process, set to roll out before Christmas, will get staff, students, and community members together to brainstorm a new name for the joint school.
“We don’t want to minimize how important Robert Rundle and Sir George Simpson are to St. Albert Public Schools,” she said, but they also want a more inclusive name that better represents the community.
Sumners said administration is now developing a consultation plan for the new name and hopes to have the name ready by September 2022.
Roszell said he has no idea what the campus’s name will be, but wants parents, staff, students, and the community to help create it.
“Whatever it ends up being, it will end up being a great thing for this part of the city.”
