The Central Okanagan School District has made a move to better identify itself as a public school system in a rebranding approved by school board trustees this week.
Moving forward, School District 23 will be known as Central Okanagan Public Schools.
"It's a bit of trend in the province," explained school district secretary treasurer Larry Paul. "We're wanting to emphasize the public school aspect of the district. We found in some schools, such as Oyama Traditional School, some people thought that was a private school. So we want to emphasize our branding as a public school system."
The district will make minor changes to its logo and will make the updates in-house over time. School board trustees asked to have a look at any changes to the logo, which has been place in the district for decades.
Paul said that there is competition between private and public schools in the province, more so in the lower mainland, but he added with up to 10 private schools in the Kelowna area, the district wants to make sure it's promoting its 43 schools within the public system.
"To some extent we are looking at the competition saying we can offer great programs as a public school system," said Paul. "We'd like people to come to our system. There is competition out there. We are the biggest player by the nature of the way we are funded by government. We want to make sure parents are well aware of the options."
It's not the first time the school district has changed its name and its corporate name of School District 23 will remain in place. About a decade ago, the district began calling itself the Central Okanagan School District after it was known as SD 23 before that.
The new logo and name Central Okanagan Public Schools will be on district letter-head and its web site and each school will also have the new logo and name as well as its school name on it.