Hillcrest School has announced a fitting tribute to a person who was a part of their staff for many years.
The school’s library will be named the Rose Davenport Library after Davenport, a teacher who touched the lives of many students and staff members at Hillcrest. She died suddenly in June 2017.
Hillcrest School principal David Gillingham said they started working on the tribute at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. He called Davenport the “epitome” of everything one would expect from a teacher.
“She didn’t just teach curriculum, she taught kids, she cared, she had heart and she was everything you wanted to see in a teacher. And she loved literacy. That was her passion as a classroom teacher, and so we thought what’s more fitting than naming the library after her,” Gillingham said in an interview with Lifestyles.
Most of Davenport’s time at Hillcrest was spent teaching Grade 1, he said. During her time as a teacher, Davenport was selected as one of Canada’s Outstanding Teachers for the contributions she made to students’ lives.
Eventually she moved into a response to intervention (RTI) role at the school, which was where she was working when Gillingham arrived at Hillcrest in the 2012-13 school year.
Her work in RTI allowed her to have an impact on all of the kids from Kindergarten to Grade 8.
“She was what you would call one of those good people, who gave of herself and didn’t expect anything in return. She just expected people to do the best that they can, and she would help them get there,” said Gillingham.
Eventually she moved on to work with the South East Cornerstone Public School Division as a consultant. She worked across the division supporting English as an Additional Language learners.
Hillcrest had been looking for a way to recognize Davenport since her death.
“She gave her heart and soul to the school and to the people in it. No matter what, she’s always going to be part of Hillcrest School. This is a way of recognizing what she put into the school, as well as her love of literacy, and marrying the two, in a way that celebrates what she gave to us.”
The request to have the library renamed after Davenport had to go through the necessary process with the Cornerstone board. At each stage, the school has encountered full support of the school division, its board and the various departments of the division.
“This started out with the SCC approaching the school board, and asking for permission to proceed with naming the library in Rose’s memory. The school board took a review of that proposal, and accepted it as written, and so they gave us the go-ahead to move forward.”
At each stage, the school shared with the school board what they were planning. The board has seen the memorial plaque and a mock-up of the lettering that will be on the outside of the school building.
“At this point right now, we are just working with facilities on installation and getting that process sorted out. Once the installation is done, then we can finalize the dedication timeline.”
A dedication of the library will hopefully happen before the end of the school year. The plaque will hang next to the front entrance of the library.
