MAHONING VALLEY What's in a name? For many schools, something simplistic is the best route

Most area school leaders are taking the generic route when naming new school buildings.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
Superintendent Jim Ciccolelli heard lots of suggestions on what to name Campbell's new elementary and junior high school.
"Summit," because it sits atop a rise along State Route 616.
"Sunrise," because it faces due east and the rising sun.
"Campbell Community School," because of the community's support to construct the facility.
In the end, Ciccolelli and a 20-member committee formed to name the school went the generic route: Campbell Elementary/Middle School.
"The committee just felt that was the best and most simple way to identify the school," Ciccolelli said about the building that opens at the start of next school year.
It's not an issue that Campbell and other Mahoning Valley school districts have had to face much over the past several decades: naming schools.
Several building programs
Today, however, with nearly a dozen school districts throughout the region in the midst of major building programs, school leaders are starting to think about how they'll go about attaching names to the new facilities.
"It can be a very sensitive issue," said Richard Buchenic, Lowellville superintendent.
Nationally, there has been a surge in patriotic school names like Eagle's Pride, Peace, America and even World Trade Center, according to Education Week newspaper.
Lima schools in northwestern Ohio recently decided to name five new elementary schools Freedom, Unity, Heritage, Liberty and Independence.
Here in the Valley
But locally, most schools leaders appear to be taking a more conservative, less colorful approach.
In Struthers, for instance, the ne w elementary school will be called,