The new North Calgary high school has a name.
On Friday, the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) said that the board of trustees approved the new name for the school: North Trail High School.
The school, slated for opening in September 2023, will initially be home to Grades 10-11 students, with Grade 12 students coming the following year. The area has been after a high school for nearly 20 years. Finally, in 2019, Alberta Education moved forward with the new school.
The school will serve students from the Country Hills, Country Hills Village, Coventry Hills, Harvest Hills, Hidden Valley and Panorama Hills areas.
The North Trail High School name was chosen after gathering input from a variety of sources. The information from a community naming survey and consultation with an Indigenous Elder was delivered to the CBE’s school name recommendation committee.
That group includes CBE trustees, parents and community members and CBE administration.
“The Elder shared some of the stories of the north trail, and the land where the new high school is being built,” read a CBE release on Friday.
“The north trail includes the trails used by the Siksika and honours the warriors and ancestors. Warriors would travel this trail to prepare for new birth (spring). The trail may also have been used by the Cree to enter Blackfoot territory to negotiate treaties and possibly trade.”
They also said the land may have been an area where tobacco was harvested. A natural pharmacy may have also been there where natural medicines were harvested. There were also Saskatoon berries and chokecherries.
The Northern Lights can also be seen from the spot, they said.
In October 2022, Michael Bester was named the school’s principal.
