On Cloud 8
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By Lynze Wardle
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
SYRACUSE -- Davis School District administrators are ready to put the finishing touches on High School No. 8 -- and they are asking for residents' help.
The Syracuse school is scheduled to open in August. The district has invited the public to submit suggestions for a school name, mascot and colors.
Administrators for High School No. 8 will review the submissions and select the top five entries in each category. Students slated to attend the new school next year will vote for the final selections.
"We thought the kids needed some ownership of this school," said Dee Burton, current assistant principal at Layton High School, and future assistant principal at High School No. 8. "It's their school and they're going to represent it."
Suggestions for names and other features can be sent to nametheschool@dsdmail.net until Jan. 31 at 4:30 p.m.
The e-mail address was posted on the district's Web site, www.davis.k12.ut.us, late Monday. The district had received more than 80 responses by Tuesday morning, Burton said.
Administrators are hoping for names and mascots that reflect the history or geography of the area, he said, and a color combination not being used by another high school in the district.
Burton said High School No. 8's new features need to be ready for the District Board of Education to approve in their Feb. 6 meeting.
"We're running behind schedule," he said. "The delay in the boundary process has really put us in a tight situation."
The process of selecting colors, a name and a mascot for the school was delayed until after high school boundary changes were finalized, Burton said, so High School No. 8's future students could help make the decisions.
New boundaries were scheduled to be set before the holidays, but were not finalized until Jan. 16.
Burton said builders are waiting to paint the gym floor, stair railings and to install bleachers until they can tailor their work to fit the school's official colors.
Work on the $38 million, 384,000 square foot structure is on schedule to be completed by April 1, said the district's director of new construction, Bryan Turner. In August, the school will open to 10th- and 11th-graders, so 12th-grade students can graduate at their current high schools.
This spring and summer will be dedicated to finishing the school's landscaping, Turner said, and installing computer lab equipment, kilns and pottery wheels for the art room, cooking equipment for culinary classes and lifts for the autoshop.
"There's just a million little things that need to be ordered," he said.
Administrators, a head secretary and custodian, counselors and a football coach have already been hired for the new school, Burton said.
Teachers will be sent from other district high schools that are downsizing as a result of the opening of High School No. 8. Others will be hired from outside the district.
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