Name, mascot, color options narrowed for new Farmington high school
The Davis School District's tenth high school is being built in Farmington on Glovers Lane. This rendering by VCBO Architecture shows what the building is going to look like. The district had ten possible names, 11 possible options and five color combinations for the school at a meeting May 12, 2017.
Survey results presented to the Davis School District Board of Education May 16, 2017 show those who responded prefered the name Farmington High School and the mascot Eagles.
FARMINGTON — It might be the Farmington High School Ducks or it might be the Bayside High School Eagles.
There are actually three name options, three mascot options and three color combinations the Davis School District Board of Education is considering for its newest high school, currently under construction in Farmington. A survey found the most favored option is the Farmington High School Eagles with a blue and silver color scheme.
The name and mascot possibilities are the result of two rounds of online surveys, the most recent of which dictated the top three vote-earners in each category. Those results were presented to the board at a meeting Tuesday, May 16.
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For suggested names, Farmington High School received the most support with 51 percent of votes. Bayside High School came in second with 13 percent of votes and Farmington Peak High School came in third with 9 percent.
With mascots, Eagles received 29 percent of the votes, Phoenix received 13 percent and Ducks received 10 percent.
Color options were developed by the building’s architect, VCBO Architecture, and included variations of blues, golds and grays. The survey found the most preferred option was a dark aqua blue, silver and white, receiving 34 percent of votes. A grouping of very dark blue, gold and white received 23 percent of votes and a light blue, gold and white received 17 percent.
Richard Swanson, the sitting Davis High School principal who was picked in March to be the new high school’s principal, asked that if the board selects the color option that received the most votes to include a black option so uniform design will be easier.
Swanson also said about 20,000 people responded to the two surveys combined. About 11,000 took the most recent survey alone as it was available online to the general public.
Director of Secondary Schools Dan Linford said some survey respondents didn’t even live in the state any more but were graduates of area high schools.
The district declined to release more detailed survey results.
Board member Julie Tanner asked what criteria the board should use to make their decision and Linford said in his personal opinion they should consider potential mascot conflicts with other schools.
Board member Mona Andrus said they should consider how an Eagles logo would look considering the district’s Clearfield High School has a Falcons mascot.
President John Robison and board member Gordon Eckersley both said the results of the survey should carry a lot of weight in the board’s decision.
Eckersley said he was involved in choosing the mascot for Layton High School decades ago and he would have been “so mad” if the board at the time had disregarded survey results that favored the Lancers mascot.
“I respect that these people say, ‘This is what we like the best,'” he said.
Longest-serving board member Tamara Lowe said this is the first time she has seen the board have time to think about the decision instead of taking a vote immediately upon seeing survey results.
The school board has the final say and will take a vote at a June meeting.
The new school has a maximum price of $75.8 million and is slated to open on Glovers Lane in fall 2018.
Contact education reporter Anna Burleson at aburleson@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnagatorB or like her on Facebook at Facebook.com/BurlesonReports.