The Clark County Board of Education asked community members for their opinions on a name for its new high school, and they responded loudly and clearly: It should be George Rogers Clark High School.
More than 5,000 people submitted suggestions to the board, with the vast majority wanting to keep the current name of the existing high school, and the board listened. On Tuesday at its regular monthly meeting, the board unanimously voted to keep the name of the new school the same as the old one.
“The board is very pleased with the input we received regarding the naming of the new high school,” said chairwoman Judy Hicks. “This process began because for many months the facility was just called the new Clark County high school, and at some point we needed to provide a real name for that school. We asked for the community’s input, and the process culminated in the school being named George Rogers Clark High School.”
More than 58 names were suggested to the school naming committee, which was charged with the task of narrowing those suggestions down to three names to submit to the board.
On Tuesday those three names were given to board members. George Rogers Clark High School was chosen over the other two, Clark County High School and GRC Clark County High School.
Before the vote, board member Diane McKinney said about 99 percent of the feedback she got from community members favored keeping the name George Rogers Clark.
Board member Dr. Michael Kuduk said it was obvious the community wanted to keep the current name, and he liked that the board asked for the community’s opinion.
“I think this is an example of where the board and the superintendent and the school leadership reached out to the community for its input, and there was much input that came back,” Kuduk said. “This is something I would like to see happen more in the future between the board and the community.”
Hicks said the board appreciated the response it received and hoped it would continue.
“This has probably been one of the main topics of interest and conversation related to educational matters we’ve had in a long time,” said Hicks. “We do appreciate that and thank everyone for their input, and we hope it carries over into other educational matters after we make this decision.”
But even though the naming of the school was a hot topic in the community for the past two months, drawing passionate responses from both current and former GRC students as well as other community members, only one person attended Tuesday’s board meeting to comment before the board voted on the school name.
Contact Bob Flynn at bflynn@winchestersun.com.
