BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia is pushing to rename Education and Training Center School (ETCS) 4 as Bacolod City Elementary School.
On September 3, Leonardia sought the assistance of Education Secretary Leonor Briones requesting the Department of Education (DepEd) to name the 36-classroom facility into Bacolod City Elementary School.
Leonardia said the three-storey facility, now commonly called ETCS 4, is located at the reclaimed area in Barangay 16.
He said the P39 million building is now being used by a mix of more than 1,600 pupils from ETCS 1, 2, and 3, and there is a plan to create a new school using this facility.
“I told Briones that it is high time that Bacolod has an elementary school that proudly bears her name, especially now that it’s her 80th year as a city. This will also give the present and future students a new sense of identity and pride as Bacolodnons,” he added.
On September 5, DepEd Bacolod schools division superintendent Cynthia Demavivas also endorsed the mayor’s letter to the DepEd secretary, stating no objection to the proposal.
On September 29, Education Assistant Secretary Revsee Escobedo, in a memorandum to Briones, said that the DepEd need not interpose any objection to the proposal.
Escobedo also wrote to the mayor on October 19 reiterating the position of the DepEd.
“The Department has looked into the legal implications as well as the feasibility of your proposition, and interposes no objection to the proposal,” Escobedo said.
Escobedo, however, pointed out that a favorable recommendation from the Local School Board is required, in compliance with the Local Government Code (Republic Act No. 7160), and subsequent issuance of an ordinance by the City Council to formalize the renaming, is needed.
“With Councilor Renecito Novero as chairman of the Council committee on Education, we foresee smooth sailing for this proposition,” Leonardia said.
He said the school building was constructed during his term in 2012-2013 to address the classroom shortage at ETCS.
“I saw the congestion of students because most of the parents in various barangays enrolled their children at ETCS in spite of the nearest elementary school within their barangay,” he added.
The mayor noted that parents choose to enroll their children at ETCS because of the high standard of the school.
Leonardia noted that the school building was constructed through the 50-50 funding scheme program with the local government and DepEd.
It has 36 classrooms, but 12 classrooms have yet to be completed by the DepEd.
Leonardia said that before he left his post in 2013, they unveiled the school building, but the irony and tragedy that the school was not used by the former mayor, who also changed the front design of the building as symbolic of Bacolod Government Center.
He said the school building was only opened when he returned as mayor.