A group of advocates in Peel Region were furious when they found out a new policy that prohibits naming schools after any individual would mean plans to dedicate a new centre to a local campaigner would be scrapped.
The building in question looked set to be named after Kola Iluyomade, an advocate for the Black community who lived in Mississauga and died in 2021. Agendas, reports and other school board documents seen by Global News refer to the building as the Kola Iluyomade or KI Centre for Black Excellence.
That plan, however, appears to have changed at a recent meeting.
At a May 3 committee meeting, senior Peel school board staff recommended the new centre for Black excellence be christened without the advocate’s name. The recommendation would bring it in line with a new policy that prohibits buildings from “being named after an individual,” staff said.
“All along we’ve been working in good faith with the board and in all of their correspondence to us, the structure was called ‘Kola Iluyomade,’ so we had no reason to believe (the new naming policy) would be implemented on an agreed-upon name,” said Idris Orughu, a local advocate who worked with Iluyomade to draw attention to issues at the board in recent years.
The board naming policy is part of a series of directives that were brought in after the Ontario government took over Peel District School Board to investigate allegations of anti-Black racism, Islamophobia and discrimination.
Provincial investigations found equity issues at the board and ordered trustees to step aside for years, while a provincial supervisor took control of major decisions. Control was handed back to elected trustees in January.
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The board has renamed some schools as part of ongoing reviews, including one named after Sir John A MacDonald, Canada’s first prime minister.
Members of the group Advocacy Peel, which has campaigned against anti-Black racism at the Peel District School Board, say they have spent almost two years working on the new centre for Black excellence. They argue the building itself was their idea and they were not told Iluyomade’s name would be removed at any point.
“The message from the PDSB is that if they can no longer name a building after a White supremacist, they will refuse to name one after a Black man who advocated for Black children,” Paula Hylton, chair of Advocacy Peel, said in a statement.
The group has launched a petition urging the Peel school board to maintain Iluyomade’s name that, as of Wednesday afternoon, had around 450 signatures.
Local advocates are also frustrated by a change to the rules that stops them from presenting their concerns at board meetings. A protest is set to take place at the Peel District School Board headquarters ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.
“We want to let the board know that this was a huge mistake,” Orughu said.
“If we aren’t able to delegate to the board, … we would not have all of the meaningful, incremental gains we have been able to gain today. It is anti-democratic.”
PDSB chair David Green, however, argues that “no promise” was made to name the building after Iluyomade, saying a motion to that effect does not exist. He told Global News that, while people would have to wait to see how he and his colleagues voted on Wednesday, senior staff had not recommended naming the building after Iluyomade.
A report by Peel school board staff states, “In June 2022, the PDSB announced a commitment to honour community activist Kola Iluyomade in the naming of the Centre.”
Green said trustees would “weigh” all perspectives before coming to a decision.
The province would not comment on the decision, saying it was an internal board matter.
A spokesperson for Peel District School Board similarly would not be drawn on Tuesday, only telling Global News that “this is on the agenda for tomorrow’s board meeting and we will update you accordingly.”
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