The former Rossland Secondary School (RSS) will keep its initials, after School District 20’s board of education decided to rename it Rossland Summit School during Monday night’s regular board meeting.
More than half of the trustees endorsed the new name, but not before there was some debate over calling it Rossland Public School first.
Trustees Lorraine Manning and Toni Druitti argued that the latter name was unique to the community and those looking to relocate wouldn’t get confused with the new independent school, Seven Summits Centre for Learning.
“To me, I think it might be a disadvantage to us because they might see the other summit school, rather than the public school,” said Manning. “You may lose students if people are searching on the website.”
Trustee Jen Carter recommended Rossland Summit School because she said it was the easiest choice.
“Some of the fiscal, the financial things that are involved in the name change may not be necessary if we go with the RSS initials and I think that it’s important that we choose something that’s going to make the transition as easy as possible,” she said.
Trustee Gordon Smith appeared to win the rest of the votes over, providing his community’s perspective. The Rossland resident said after much discussion with his neighbours and at the dinner table, he supported a name that captured the mountain town’s culture.
“Rossland Public School, in my opinion, was submitted quite a bit because it’s the obvious choice,” he said.
“But I think the community was trying to generate something that would do a little bit more than just an obvious name . . . we’re trying to capture the imagination of the residents and build some positive spirit back into that school after the reconfiguration changes.”
The board got to make the final call on the three remaining options, which included Rossland Summit Public School, Rossland Summit School and Rossland Public School.