Bonneville School District board votes to start naming process over
Update 6:00 pm: The Bonneville School District voted Thursday night to suspend the Black Canyon High School name and start the naming process over. The exact process will be decided at a later time.
Original Story: The Bonneville School District met Thursday night to discuss options for the naming of the new high school after the community voiced concerns about the name that was originally chosen.
During Thursday night’s meeting in a room filled with parents, school board members said they would not be taking direct feedback in the meeting, but those attending could file a motion to be made in favor of changes. The board said they thought they had made the best choice for the school based on community input, however, after the initial announcement was made, it was clear not enough feedback had been gathered.
One board member stated since the announcement of the original name choice, he had received 75 to 100 emails complaining about the choice.
“We were taken by surprise. We want the name the community wants. We will follow policy, but we need to make changes,” said Dr. Chuck Shackett, District 93 School Superintendent.
The board is considering picking a new name based on community feedback. The newly proposed naming process will come up with the top names and a survey will be posted online through a third party for the community to give input. The top three names will be approved by the board and put out to the community for a vote. The board will then have a final vote based on those results. This new process is still subject to the board’s approval.
At this time the name is staying while the board considers the options. Members of the board said they have also received requests to keep the originally chosen name, Black Canyon High School. The board has said changing school colors at this point will be hard because architects have already been designing using the originally chosen colors.
The board naming committee said they’ve already had more than 100 new names submitted for the school.
