COLUMBIA PROPOSED AS NAME FOR HIGH SCHOOL CITIZENS PANEL MAY MAKE CHOICE FOR LANCASTER CAMPUS.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Columbia High School is one of the suggestions as Antelope Valley Union High School District officials consider appointing a committee to come up with a name for the district's eighth full-size campus.

Board President Jim Lott said he will propose at the Feb. 19 board meeting formation of a citizens panel to pick an appropriate name for the high school expected to open in 2007 in east Lancaster.

``If (committee members) want to name it Columbia School, then we should name it that,'' Lott said.

The Columbia name had actually been suggested by teachers for the new east Palmdale high school that will be named for state senator and retired test pilot W.J. ``Pete'' Knight. Knight High School is scheduled to open for freshmen next fall.

But trustees said they don't want to rename the Palmdale school.

``(Knight) has earned his respect and will be given credit for his work in aerospace,`` Lott said.

The seven astronauts who died aboard space shuttle Columbia should be honored for giving their lives to space exploration, he said, but ``it would be unfair to take (the honor) from Pete Knight and give it to them when (Knight) has made contributions too.''

Trustee Donita Winn also said she opposes renaming Knight High School and said she would support forming a citizens committee to come up with a name for the Lancaster school.

``I don't see why we wouldn't go ahead and name Eastside (after the Columbia) if that's what people want,'' Winn said. ``The name of a school is important to the community it serves.''

Trustee Calvin Robinson said he would not support a name change for Pete Knight High unless the senator requests it.

``It would be disruptive to change the name at this time,'' Robinson said.

Lott said Knight High School has an appropriate name.

Antelope Valley Teachers Association President Gary Roberts asked trustees to consider renaming the east Palmdale high school at a Feb. 5 board meeting after teachers union representatives voted in favor of the proposal at an association meeting.

Littlerock High School independent study teacher Dave Weaver, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, had made the initial proposal to rename the east Palmdale school after the Columbia and to name its football field after Knight.

The campus is close to Air Force Plant 42, where the space shuttles were built, Weaver noted.

``I thought that would be a tribute because the school is very close to Plant 42 and the people are very interested in (recent events),'' Weaver said.

Roberts said the district's policy before 2000 was to name a school after a geographic area and football fields after civic leaders.

``High schools have been renamed in the state in the past,'' Roberts said. ``I think it would be an honor to name the same school Columbia and the field Pete Knight. They go hand in hand.''

Knight spokesman David Orosco did not agree.

``Pete Knight was an astronaut, not a football player,'' he said.

Both Roberts and Weaver said the name change was not proposed because of Knight's politics, such as his authoring Proposition 22, which California voters passed in 2000 to ban same-sex couples from getting married in the state.