Committee Presents Possible Names for New School

By Leah Carliner

Saturday, July 26, 2008

In her spare time, 16-year-old Camelia Driss volunteers at a hospital, is an aid at her school's library and is a member of the National Honors Society.

And the rising senior recently added a new activity to her list: naming schools.

Driss, along with 17 other students, parents, teachers and other Loudoun County citizens, was a member of a committee formed to suggest a name for the new Leesburg high school. Participants were appointed to the committee by school board members and other officials from their school districts.

Driss scored a spot when her librarian at Heritage High School asked if she'd be interested. "I was excited. Oh you know, naming a school for other kids to go to, that's kind of cool."

Courtesy of the LCPS Office of Public Information

A sketch of the new school being built in Leesburg. A special committee made up of students, staff and community members present recommendations to the Loudoun County School Board this week for the name of the new high school.

Another committee member Lexie Anderson, 17, also said that she was excited to be contributing to the new school -- especially because her younger brother, Ian, will most likely go there. The school, currently dubbed HS-5, will affect students in the Leesburg and Catoctin districts.

"[I] always wanted to see how they named a school," Anderson said. "It made me feel that I was really involved in something."

Though the committee deadlocked, their top two choices -- Old George Town High School and Tuscarora High School -- were presented at the June 24 school board meeting. The school is slated to open in the fall of 2010 and board members are anticipated to vote on the recommendations at their next meeting on Sept. 9.

The school board is not required to adopt the suggested name, and Tom Marshall, the Leesburg District representative said that he doesn't like either of the top two options. Marshall said that Old George Town is too many words and Tuscarora, the name of a Native-American tribe that passed through the county, doesn't have enough historical resonance.

"I prefer Leesburg High School because at least people know where it is," Marshall said about the committee's third suggestion.

Marshall said he thinks that the county requires the board to form these citizen committees to name schools in order to "avoid controversy," and allow the community to give their input.

"We [will] more than likely feel obligated to choose one of those three names," Marshall said, though he added the ultimate decision is "our prerogative."

The 18 committee members met on May 28 and June 11 to discuss possible names. School board staff members provided the committee with research materials and participants were encouraged to do their homework. Some students polled their fellow classmates and committee members exchanged contact information to continue the discussion outside of the set meeting times.

Shirley Cameron, a secretary at Loudoun High School, said she was surprised at the level of involvement from the student committee members in particular.

Cameron, the mother of five Loudoun High School graduates, said that she was "shocked" that the school board would listen to such an eclectic committee.

"I think it's great that the school board would listen to a group of people like that."

Tagged: education, Leesburg, school board, schools

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