It's been loosely referred to as the Pine Ridge school for awhile, and now the official name of Winkler's new K-8 school is 'Pine Ridge Elementary School.'
    
The Garden Valley School Division board chose the name through contest submissions and selected the name from a list of well over 100 suggestions.

Board Chair Laurie Dyck said the operations committee went through the list thoughtfully, and through the selection process, felt this was the best fit. Dyck said the board looked at things like names of schools already in the division, what seemed to be a natural fit, what helped people determine where it is, meanings of names, and the nearest school that might have the same name.

Until they begin filling the school with people, the name is what will give it life, said Dyck. "We've got the big broad name, now we can't wait to see how this is going to come to life... all the people, students, staff, and the community as they use it, that's going to become the heartbeat of Pine Ridge Elementary School."

In total, 18 people submitted 'Pine Ridge Elementary School' through the contest, which was the most popular name suggested.

The new K-8 school is slated to open in September of 2019.

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