Committee compiles school names

Parents choosing a name for their unborn child often flip through the pages of a book of baby names. But an 11-member committee appointed by the Cape Girardeau Board of Education has no such book to name schools.

Instead, the committee relied on input from the community to form its list, which will be compiled and reviewed during a meeting Tuesday at the district's administration office. Deadline for suggestions was Friday.

The committee is considering names for the junior high building and the fifth- and sixth-grade building. The school board expects to consider the suggested names at its Jan. 28 meeting.

When the district closes Schultz School this year and opens a new high school in the fall, there will be a shift in building arrangements. The existing elementary schools will house kindergarten through fourth grade, moving fifth and sixth grades to a separate building, now Central Junior High School. The seventh grade, which has been self-contained in the Schultz building, will join the eighth grade in a move to what is now Central High School.

But finding a name for these buildings isn't going to be an easy task. The committee plans to submit at least three unranked suggestions to the school board. Board members will make the ultimate decision on the naming.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Steska was not yet employed by the school district when Cape Girardeau named its last school in honor of former educator Barbara Blanchard. With the exception of the junior and senior high schools, all the district's school buildings are named after people, whether local principals or teachers or great national leaders.

"The board has given us guidelines, but it's going to be tough coming to agreement," Steska said. "There are so many people and places, and they are all good ideas."

Some committee members, like LaFern Stiver, solicited suggestions from neighbors, relatives and even her mail carrier. "I have been surprised that more people didn't solicit me and say, 'Name it such-and-such,'" Stiver said.

A former teacher herself, Stiver said most of her suggestions have been names of past teachers, plus a few current ones.

Most of the members polled by the Southeast Missourian didn't want to give away any secrets, particularly because the entire committee hadn't seen all the suggestions.

'Good suggestions'

So what are residents in Cape Girardeau saying should be the names?

"They're not off the wall," Steska said. "People have taken it pretty seriously and they are good suggestions, so that will make it difficult."

Some of the possibilities could be naming the building after Melvin Gateley, a former school principal, city councilman and currently a candidate for mayor; after Abraham Lincoln; or after the Trail of Tears, a name of historical significance for Southeast Missouri.

A few people have even suggested keeping Schultz as the name, Stiver said.

The panel will have to decide whether to name each building separately or give the campus a name, or name each building and the campus.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126