The fact only two in Richmond are named after women is something the school district should be “cognizant” of, according to board chair Sandra Nixon.
Nixon said there is value in having a school named after a woman, a “leader in the community being recognized.”
“Hopefully for students attending, especially young female students attending those schools, it would send a positive message to them,” Nixon said. The school naming policy is currently under review.
March 8 is the United Nations’ International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.”
The U.N. points out COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities including domestic violence, unpaid care duties, unemployment and poverty.
Kathleen McNeely
Kathleen McNeely elementary was named after a women who was a teacher and principal in the Richmond School District already more than 100 years ago.
It was 27 years after her death, in 1991, that the school district named the elementary school after her.
McNeely’s first teaching post was in Squamish, and then, at the age of 19 in 1910, she began her long career in Richmond. She first taught at the English Public School in Steveston, and three years later, she was named principal of Bridgeport School.
When the Spanish flu hit in 1918, the Township of Richmond set up a makeshift hospital in Minoru Park Clubhouse and McNeely volunteered there as a nurse, for which she was commended by the township.
During the 1930s, when Canada was going through the Depression, she helped start a school cafeteria program to feed her students.
McNeely retired in 1948 and passed away in 1964 in Victoria.
Jessie Wowk
A year after Kathleen McNeely elementary opened, another school was named after a woman — Jessie Wowk elementary.
Her name was put forward by the Ukrainian community. Wowk was born in Ukraine in 1894, coming to Canada in 1906. She and her family settled in Steveston in 1926 where they started farming.
The Steveston resident was well known for her generosity, especially during the Depression, when she fed many people who were struggling to survive.
