Naming Cape's schools is serious business

Thanks to the recent and continuing construction of new school buildings in the Cape Girardeau School District, serious consideration has been given to names for various schools. A committee is currently at work on recommendations for some existing schools that will take on new functions at the start of school this fall.

When the district's new vocational school opened last fall, it took a name that reflected its mission: Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. The former Vocational-Technical School on Clark Street is being converted to other uses and will house the district's administrative staff.

This fall, Central High School is scheduled to move into its new campus -- housing grades nine through 12 -- next to the Career and Technology Center. Its name, steeped in tradition and history, will also move.

The old high school building on Caruthers Avenue will become a junior high school for grades seven and eight. And the neighboring old Central Junior High School will become a center for grades five and six.

The committee is recommending school names for those two buildings. The recommendations will be considered by the board of education at its Jan. 28 meeting.

Currently, public schools in Cape Girardeau other than the career center, high school and junior high school are named for deserving educators -- Alma Schrader, Charles Clippard, Barbara Blanchard, Louis J. Schultz -- who made major contributions to the district, or for Founding Fathers -- Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Two buildings that have been closed in recent years followed the same pattern. One was named for George Washington, and the other for longtime teacher May Greene.

The possibilities for naming the junior high school and the attendance center for grades five and six are endless. There are outstanding educators whose dedication and service to the district would certainly be appropriately honored by having a school named after any one of them. And there are great leaders of our nation -- Abraham Lincoln comes to mind -- who could be similarly honored. Some thought has even been given to honoring a piece of area history like the Trail of Tears with a school name.

As recent practice has proven, the selection of a school name must stand the test of time. A rush to connect with current events, whose treatment in future history books is unknown, has proven unwise in recent decades for the naming of other public facilities around the nation.

When the board of education makes its decision later this month, the tradition of naming schools for local educators -- including Louis J. Schultz -- is one that will provide the best guidance.