Would you go to Terrible Creek Elementary? Wake proposes names for 3 new schools.
For a very brief moment Wednesday, Wake County school board members considered giving a new school the name of Terrible Creek Elementary.
It was one of three options for a new Fuquay-Varina school that also included Hilltop Needmore Elementary and North Fuquay-Varina Elementary.
“The nearest geographic feature is the Terrible Creek,” said Betty Parker, Wake’s senior director of real estate services. The comment elicited laughter from the board members.
“It’s one of our more colorfully named creeks,” Parker said.
School board member Bill Fletcher quipped that it would be an “interesting challenge to see what kind of student enrolls.”
But Terrible Creek didn’t make the cut. Hilltop Needmore Elementary is the recommended name for the school that will be reached via Hilltop Needmore Road. In addition, the school is near Hilltop Needmore Town Park and Preserve, the site of the former Crooked Creek Golf Course.
The school board’s facilities committee backed staff recommendations on Wednesday to name three new southern Wake schools after nearby roads.
In addition to Hilltop Needmore, the committee backed Sunset Lake High School as the name for a new school in Apex and Woods Creek Elementary for a new school in Holly Springs.
“With these particular sets of names, we’ve landed on things that are very close to road names,” Parker said. “They seemed to be the least objectionable.”
Parker said staff looked for names that were neutral and equitable.
Sunset Lake High is recommended because the school is near the lake of the same name, and Sunset Lake Road is one of the roads people can use to enter the campus. Other options were Southeast Apex High and Stephenson Ridge High. Stephenson Road will be the primary road for entering the school.
Woods Creek Elementary is recommended because Woods Creek Road will be used to enter the school. Other options were Northwest Holly Springs Elementary and New Hill Elementary because the campus is near that unincorporated community,
“I know New Hill has been in want of a school named in their community, but I’m hopeful that we can plan one a little bit closer,” said school board member Lindsay Mahaffey.
The full school board will vote on the names.
How to name a school
Coming up with an acceptable name can be controversial.
The school board voted in August to rename East Wake Middle School as Neuse River Middle School as part of an effort to rebrand the school. Knightdale town leaders had wanted it renamed after the municipality.
Southeast Raleigh Elementary School, which opened in August, got its name to honor the community. But some people had urged school leaders to use a different choice.
School board member Jim Martin said Wednesday that the district should consult with municipalities early in the process about school names so they’re not caught off guard. But he said the district needs to retain control over the decision.
“I don’t want us to give it to the municipalities, because every school would be named for a municipality, which is not a good idea, and we don’t want that,” Martin said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 6:15 AM.
