New high school is in need of a name

The Daily inter Lake

Got a good name for Kalispell's new high school?

School District 5 officials want to hear it.

The school board gave the go-ahead for Superintendent Darlene Schottle to line up a committee to suggest a fitting name for the school.

It is set to open in fall 2007 on 60 acres of permanently leased state land at West Reserve Drive and Stillwater Road north of Kalispell.

Submit your suggestions online by visiting www.yournewschool.com

There's also a link to the site from Kalispell Schools' main Web page, www.sd5.k12.mt.us

At the site, you will be asked for your suggestion and the rationale for it. That reasoning will be important in helping the committee understand and possibly agree with ideas for names as they come in.

The committee's makeup will be weighted toward community members from Kalispell and the outlying rural districts, with teachers and high school students included. Trustees will approve the membership at their regular board meeting on Tuesday.

Committee members will make a call on what they consider the best ideas, then forward a suggestion to the school board for final approval.

Trustees expect that final decision to be made in the near future, probably early spring. They then will choose a mascot and school colors.

Similar decisions for Kalispell Junior High as it is converted to a grade 6-8 middle school will be delayed for a while, Schottle said, to avoid a "mixed identity."

Students at the junior high, she explained, "are Braves until August 2007."

The current timing was prompted by the architect's desire to incorporate colors into the final drawings for the high school building, something they will have ready this spring.