Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 21/00) - What's in a name? A great deal, according to officials at Weledeh Catholic school.

Principal John Murphy received permission to change the school's name after making a presentation to the Yk Catholic School Board Wednesday. The move would simply involve adding the name of a saint before Weledeh.

The name blending will officially take place when the new Weledeh school opens in the fall.

Murphy told the board school officials will need to soon know what the official name will be, for the purposes of ordering logos and letterhead and things of that nature.

He said putting a saint's name at the start would emphasize the fact Weledeh is a Catholic school.

After the meeting, Murphy said parents and staff members have suggested some names, but the school wants more input before making a final decision. They want to keep Weledeh as part of the name because of its local significance.

"We wanted to make sure we continued to recognize the Weledeh name, because that's very important to us, because that's an aboriginal name. It identifies us and we've become very proud of it," Murphy said.

"Weledeh, as I understand it, means 'meeting place by the water where people fish,'" the principal said. "The saint's name, which we haven't chosen yet, which we hope to get input from everybody, will give us an opportunity to represent the Catholic identity."

Murphy said school officials can now begin to take people's suggestions, not only of particular saints' names, but also why people feel a certain name would be appropriate.

"We want to send a letter home to the parents. We want to put it into our newsletter and probably put an ad in the newspaper, go to the parish and in the bulletins say, 'this is what we hope to do,'" said Murphy.

An open meeting is also planned, although a date has yet to be set.

Murphy said people can write or phone in their suggestions to the school. He pointed out the decision whether to alter the name, and what the new name should be, will ultimately be made by the school board.