PRINCE ALBERT — Ahead of Pride Month, in June, the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division has approved three new Pride logos.
The board of education approved the logos at their regular meeting on Monday. Superintendent Garette Tebay said that the approval was a significant step. The board initially approved the creation of a single logo in June 2021 and the process for this began in mid-April, 2023.
“We have a group of staff leaders who are looking at inclusive education and gender and sexual identity and that group of staff leaders hosted an artist’s retreat for students who are part of GSAs in their school communities,” Tebay said.
The retreat was hosted at the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation. The school division said it was the highlight of the year for some students, with one group, remarking that this must be what athletes feel like.
“Kids from across the school division got together and they talked about logos and branding and the key elements of our brand being our trees and the two rivers,” Tebay said. “Then after that, (they) set out to create logos that would be pride logos, but would also encompass our Sask Rivers brand.”
In 2021 Saskatchewan Rivers student council executive members created a short survey to gather student and staff feedback on creating a school division pride logo. They received 559 responses (341 students and 218 staff) with 87 per cent supporting the creation of a Pride-specific school division logo.
Roughly 83 per cent of staff said they supported the move. Of the students, 89 per cent supported it.
The logos for consideration numbered almost 60 and were narrowed down to the three finalists and presented to the board in a previous meeting.
“Several logos were created and then those logos were narrowed down by the team,” Tebay said. “Three logo concepts were presented to the board in a previous board meeting. Those three logo cards, based on some feedback from the board and more feedback from the leadership team of educators, were refined and put into digital format and the board accepted them as logos that can be used on behalf of the school division.”
— with files from Jason Kerr, Daily Herald
