What鈥檚 in a name? A lot, apparently.
R.E. Mountain Secondary student Halle Bottrell started a petition on Change.org last week asking the 91原创 School District to keep the name of her beloved school when it changes over to a middle school in 2019.
Within days, thousands had signed the petition. By this weekend, more than 16,000 people had signed in support of keeping R.E. Mountain as the name of the school.
Now Bottrell has decided to present her case and petition to 91原创 board of education at its upcoming meeting Tuesday, Oct. 24.
鈥淭he effort everyone is putting in means so much and one signature goes such a long way. I never thought it鈥檇 get this big,鈥� she wrote on Friday.
The concern started for Bottrell when she learned there was a group who were interested in naming the new high school R.E. Mountain.
鈥淭here is a chance they will not keep the name that had represented our community so well.
If we were to take away our high school鈥檚 name it would take away all the memories that have been made by past students and the legacy they have left,鈥� writes Bottrell on the petition page.
鈥淎s REMSS is such a well known school for the impact we have made in our community it would be a great loss if the name was changed. In my opinion I wouldn鈥檛 like to look back in the future at all the memories I鈥檝e made at this school and have them disappear due to the replacement of the name.鈥�
91原创 School District is building a new high school beside REMSS. The new facility, with a capacity for 1,500 students, will be open fall of 2019.
The district is accepting submissions to name the new school. The deadline for public submissions is Oct. 30. The district has asked that the name of the school be in the theme of the area.
But the district wasn鈥檛 aware of the petition and did emphasize that no decision about the name will be made until December.
鈥淲e started asking people to submit names at the last board meeting. Since then, I have heard about a group pushing to name the high school R.E. Mountain, We have had several submissions so far,鈥� said Brian Iseli, 91原创 School District secretary-treasurer.
But if there was a huge movement for the new high school to be named R.E. Mountain, then the district would go through a naming process for the middle school at that time, said Iseli.
When the change-over happens in 2019, Mountain will retain all its trophies, artifacts, and class photos at the middle school, said Iseli.
鈥淲e have no intentions of removing anything from Mountain,鈥� he said.
To make a name submission for the new high school being built at 7633-202A Street in Willoughby .
