BACOLOD CITY — A school built through a partnership between the city government and the Department of Education (DepEd) could soon be named in honor of Bacolod City.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said in a statement on Monday he has sent a proposal to Education Secretary Leonor Briones to officially rename the Education and Training Center School (ETCS) IV, as Bacolod City Elementary School.
Leonardia said City Schools Division Superintendent Cynthia Demavivas has agreed to the proposal in principle.
“We believe that it is high time to honor Bacolod, now on her 80th year as a city, with a public elementary school that proudly bears her name,” the mayor said in his letter to Briones sent last month.
Leonardia told the DepEd chief that Bacolod has not had a public elementary school bearing the city’s name since all its public elementary schools have been named either after a barangay, a hero, or the lot donor.
“We strongly believe it is most appropriate, considering various valid cultural, historical, and educational reasons. This will also give the present and future students a new sense of identity and pride as Bacolodnons,” he added in the letter.
The PHP39-million school has three storeys and 36 classrooms; stands on a reclaimed area in Barangay 16; and can accommodate at least 1,620 pupils.
Leonardia said the school has pupils from ETCS I, II, and III.
The plan, he said, is to create a new school named after Bacolod City using the facility.
The school building was completed towards the end of Leonardia’s third and final term as mayor in 2013. It was not used by the succeeding administration, and when he was elected mayor anew in 2016, the building was opened the following school year.
Through the project, Bacolod became the first city in the country to build a school building under a “50-50 scheme” with the DepEd. The city government funded the 24 classrooms while the DepEd was supposed to build another 24, for a total of 48 classrooms.
So far, the DepEd has constructed only 12 classrooms. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
