Editorial

Naming a new school

Jan. 04, 2002 - Lincoln County School Board members have a tough assignment in coming up with an appropriate name for a new high school. No doubt they will get plenty of suggestions. Whatever choice is made won’t please everyone.

School board members will seek advice from the public Monday but won’t vote on the name until their February meeting. Anyone may offer their own recommendations at the 7 p.m. meeting, which will be held at the administrative office on General’s Boulevard. The new high school, now going up on Lee Lawing Road, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2003.

The location of any school is always a consideration in coming up with a name. We already have an East and a West. Adding a Northwest or Northwestern seems a bit much. The new school is located in a geographic area that already has an identity — Pumpkin Center. There’s already a Pumpkin Center Elementary School and a Pumpkin Center Middle school in the area. A contributor to our Reader’s Forum recently made a pitch for the name Pumpkin Center High. Blonnie Dellinger Travis writes that Pumpkin Center is an established community with high moral standards where people are proud to live, work and play. While the name “pumpkin” often has a comical connotation, nobody in that community finds it distracting, she said.

“I have heard different conversations stating that the students would not want Pumpkin Center High School in their college applications, but I beg to differ,” writes Travis. “The school’s name will not matter, but the grades and attitudes of the students will. I have seen firsthand that students at Pumpkin Center Middle and Elementary schools are not ashamed to say they are a part of Pumpkin Center community.”

Her reasoning is sound. The name obviously goes with the territory.

Another suggested name, Ore Banks, offers a historical perspective, paying tribute to the iron production that took place in the Pumpkin Center area in the 1790s and early 1800s.

Certainly the name of any individual who is strongly identified with the community in a leadership or educational role should be considered.

In the long run, a school’s name is claimed by the attending students and becomes a memory associated with the personal experience rather than any title that appears on the building. But decades from now our community should be able to look back positively on how the school got its name. We hope, and expect, the school board will make a wise, informed decision.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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