Two Durham schools are getting new names. One could be named after a rock.

The Durham school board, poised to name a new school after a civil rights icon or a pioneering Black school principal, may now name the school after a rock.

After taking suggestions from the public, the Durham school board had narrowed options for a new elementary school being built on Roxboro Road to Pauli Murray Elementary School, Betty Massenburg Elementary School and Third Fork Elementary School.

But, after reviewing plans for the school Thursday night, district officials decided not to vote on a name just yet.

“After looking at the renderings and hearing about the school, I almost feel like we need to rethink what we were thinking for a name,” said Chair Bettina Umstead.

Murray, an attorney, priest and poet, made a significant impact in the civil rights, women’s and LGBTQ movements. Her childhood home on Carroll Street in Durham houses the Pauli Murray Center and was named a National Treasure in 2015 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2016, the National Park Service designated it as a National Historic Landmark. The center will open to the public next year.

Massenburg was the first African-American woman principal in the Durham City School System in 1975 at Holloway Street Elementary School. She taught at Crest Street and Fayetteville Street elementary schools and was a teacher, dean of girls and assistant principal at Rogers Herr Middle School.

DPS spokesperson Chip Sudderth said 40 members of the public responded on the three name options. There were 21 votes for naming the school after Massenburg, 10 votes for Murray and other suggestions.

“I think all the suggestions are good,” Umstead said. “But I feel like there could be something that connects it more to the design and green spaces ... after that last presentation, we might could think about something different.”

The new school’s sustainable features include a planted roof, a compact building footprint to preserve the surrounding natural habitat, irrigation and a connecting building that will be used to teach ecology.

Board member Mike Lee agreed the new school should be named after its open space, glass design that embraces the environment. And member Matt Sears offered a suggestion he said would involve talking with environmental professionals.

“[The school] does sit on a bluff, it sits atop and the creeks go down. I also know that a little further south, Duke [University] sends people to peck around at the exposed rocks for geological reasons,” Sears said.“Those are a couple things that come to mind that tie into the natural elements of the site for me.”

Lee asked if there was a specific kind of rock nearby.

“I think it is a special rock, and if we looked into it more we may learn something about this part of the Piedmont,” Sears responded.

Massenburg’s daughter Phyllis Massenburg, also attended Thursday night’s meeting.

“Do you know that Betty Massenburg grew up on a farm where she grew things, where she was accustomed to looking out over the landscape, praising it, blessing it and nurturing,” she said.

Umstead and board member Jovonia Lewis both said, regardless of what name is chosen, Massenburg’s “legacy will be honored in some way.”

The new elementary school will open in August 2023 at South Roxboro Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and will serve 800 students.

“We’re going to table this for a bit and sit with it,” said co-chair Natalie Beyer.

In other school news, the board decided Thursday to rename Hillside New Tech High School, located on Fayetteville Street.

The high school will now be called the Durham School of Technology after the district’s contract with the New Tech Network ended.

This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 2:22 PM.