Winnipeg School Division reaches final stage for renaming Cecil Rhodes

The process for renaming Cecil Rhodes School is reaching its final stage.

Starting in 2021 the Winnipeg School Division (WSD) has been looking at changing the school’s controversial namesake.

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Cecil Rhodes, the man, was an imperialist and white supremacist who was instrumental in the founding of apartheid.

Over the past few weeks WSD has been taking community suggestions for the new name.

The WSD’s superintendent, Fatima Mota, told 680 CJOB the re-naming process has been lengthy.

“There has been a lot of consultation, both at the school level with Parent Council and the renaming committee as well in reaching out to different community groups through Facebook, Instagram and … even hard copies of the questionnaire,” she said.

Mota always says the students were involved from the onset.

“Students were engaged last year as well when they were looking at should the name be changed, and are highly involved this time around” she said.

“There are student committees at the school level. The classrooms learned through inquiry projects about the history of the school, and then they had an opportunity also to provide their input into the new name. So there were certainly highly involved and that was our priority to engage students and parents and the community at large.”

The Nursery to Grade 9 school will take on its new name this fall.