Welcome to Drumheller Valley Secondary School

    When students head to class in the newly renovated junior high and high school in the Riverside area, they will be proud to be attending the Drumheller Valley Secondary School.     The name change of DCHS was made official at a Golden Hills School Division Meeting on Tuesday, November 9. Former principal Tom Zariski and current principal Curtis LaPierre made a presentation to the Board of Trustees on the process of coming up with the new name and why it is fitting.
    The motivation behind coming up with a new name is so the school’s moniker accurately reflects the reality of the school. No longer is it a composite high school, according to the definition. In reality, the school houses both junior high and high school programs as well as the international program, a wide variety of arts, academic and vocational training programs, to name a few.
    According to the package presented to the Board of Trustees, the original name of the school was Drumheller Vocational High School, and then Drumheller Vocational and Academic High School and finally DCHS.
    They began the renaming process on September 21 by forming a committee and garnering suggestions from the community. Their first round of suggestions came up with 32 ideas. These were narrowed down to just three, and the committee went back to the community and asked for more feedback.
    Drumheller Valley Secondary School was agreed upon after eliminating the status quo, and the suggestion of Drumheller Secondary School. Interestingly enough “valley” was fitting to use in the title, because it not only reflects the famous landscape of the community, but also when the school was originally opened it was in the Drumheller Valley School Division.
    The school will keep the Alberta Education school code (5725) to ensure historical data related to DCHS becomes part of the ongoing record of the renamed school, said the recommendation.