Students suggest Cold Lake Junior High for new name of 7-9 school in City of Cold Lake

Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) wants to know what the Cold Lake community thinks about renaming one of its schools.

In September 2023, the current Cold Lake Middle School will become the new public Grade 7-9 school in the City of Cold Lake. Students from all areas of the city will go there before heading to Cold Lake High School for grades 10-12.

Students from Art Smith Aviation Academy, Cold Lake Middle School and Nelson Heights Middle School have been working together to build a new school community and sense of belonging as the school changes its configuration. As part of that process, students from all three schools were given the opportunity to suggest a new name for the school. Then they were asked to vote on a short list created from the names that were suggested. Based on the vote, the students have asked the NLPS Board of Trustees to rename the school Cold Lake Junior High.

“We were very impressed by the students’ presentation to the Board and the amount of work they have done to engage students in the process of selecting a new name,” said Board Chair Karen Packard. “Now we want to hear from community members about how they feel about the proposed name for the school.”

Under the division’s Administrative Procedure 546 – Naming New Facilities, a 30-day feedback process is required before the Board makes a final decision about renaming the school. To collect feedback, the Board has created a discussion forum on its Engage NLPS website, where anyone from Cold Lake can share their thoughts about the renaming of Cold Lake Middle School to Cold Lake Junior High as it transitions from a grades 4-8 to a grades 7-9 school.

To share your thoughts, go to engage.nlpsab.ca and choose the Naming the new 7-9 school in Cold Lake engagement. To leave a comment in the discussion forum, you will need to register with the site.

The discussion forum will be open from March 7 to April 5, 2022. All feedback that is submitted will be reviewed by the Board prior to making a final decision about changing the name of the school.