Naming Eugene's schools.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The two new elementary schools currently under construction in the Eugene School District, financed by bonds approved by the voters last year, will obviously need names. The Eugene School Board has taken a welcome first step in broadening its policies regarding the naming of schools. The board should reach out to the public, including students and staff in the areas to be served by the schools, for assistance in choosing appropriate names.

One of the new schools will absorb students from Patterson, Family and Westmoreland schools and will be located just southeast of Patterson Elementary off West 15th Avenue. The other is being constructed on the Washington Elementary School site on Harlow Road and will take students from Washington and Willakenzie schools. Right now they're being called "Southside" and "Northside," but the district can easily improve upon those generic labels.

The Eugene School District hasn't had a new school to name for decades. Under school-naming policies adopted in the mid-1960s, the Eugene district names elementary schools after prominent deceased local people or landmarks near the school site. Middle schools are named after deceased U.S. presidents or former Eugene junior high schools. High schools are named after deceased national or international figures. Those policies gave the post-1965 schools their current names: Gilham, Fox Hollow, Awbrey Park and McCornack elementary schools; Monroe and Kennedy middle schools, and Churchill High School.

Now, the Eugene district has taken a liking to the school-naming process in place in the Woodburn School District. There, schools are named after prominent and distinguished people - perhaps local, perhaps not - who have made outstanding contributions to the arts and letters, science, government or education. The names might also come from historical or geographical landmarks, from themes that reflect the character of the community or from indigenous flora or fauna.

Those broader school-naming policies would work well in Eugene. But most important is that the Eugene district reach out to citizens, students and staff to get the broadest range of suggestions on what to name the two new elementary schools. The new schools will serve generations of students and will become neighborhood landmarks. Their names will be prominent on local maps and in local minds - they need to be well-chosen, and they should reflect the wishes of those who will work in them, learn in them and pay for them.