District 56 names new school, renames O'Plaine building
Rendition of the future building for Gurnee School District 56 to be located on a 75-acre site on Wadsworth Road between Delany and Green Bay roads. | Special to Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 29, 2011 2:11AM
The new Gurnee grade school under construction in Wadsworth can now be referred to by its name.
Gurnee School District 56’s board of education has voted to approve names for both the new school for grades three to five on Wadsworth Road and to rename O’Plaine School.
The board unanimously voted to call the new school Prairie Trail and voted nearly unanimously to rename O’Plaine School, River Trails School, according to school board President Heidi May.
“We really like that there is some continuity with trail in both names unifying the new beginnings for both buildings,” May said.
A committee solicited name suggestions from the community and presented the top few names for the board to vote on at Wednesday night’s board meeting.
There were about 75 name suggestions for the Wadsworth site and about 50 names to rename O’Plaine School, according to Helen Scott, board member and chairwoman of the naming committee.
Prairie Trail School will replace the 60-plus-year-old floodprone Gurnee Grade School on Kilbourne Road. River Trails School (formerly O’Plaine School) will be modified and repaired.
The person who suggested the winning name for the new school wished to remain anonymous.
O’Plaine School third-grade instructor Stacy Rowen submitted Prairie Trail. She will be among the instructors moving there to teach when the building is ready.
Prairie Trail School is anticipated to open in October 2012.
“I was brainstorming and I thought something nature-wise would be nice. It seems like the area it was in is open,” Rowen said.
Rowen has worked for the district in various capacities for about 10 years and is in her second year of teaching at O’Plaine School.
“I think it was a neat opportunity to participate in something you don’t usually get to participate in. How often do you get to name the school you work in?” Rowen said.
She added that she liked that “trail” is part of both school names, even though they were independently suggested.
“It’s a nice connection because we haven’t had that in the district before. At least two schools are now connected by name,” Rowen said.
Suggestions were submitted from community members, current and retired staff members and students, Scott said.
“There were many, many that were good. It just came down to seven (that were presented to the board to vote on),” Scott said.
Notices to the community to suggest names were sent through e-mails, in communications from the superintendent and at booths at Gurnee Days and at a PTO carnival last fall, Scott said.
“We had a lot of responses from everybody, which was really what we wanted. I’m happy with them. Personally, I’m just really glad that we got as many responses as we did,” Scott said.
The replacement school is being built on a 75-acre site on Wadsworth Road between Delany and Green Bay roads in Wadsworth. Voters approved the $28.5 million project in November 2010.
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Submited at Saturday, October 29th, 2011 at 8:00 pm on Uncategorized by admin
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