After a postponed vote last month, a second round of public input, and reluctance from some school board members, a new intermediate school coming to the Smyrna School District has its official name after a Board of Education meeting last week.
The new school, serving students in grades 4-6, will be called Sunnyside Intermediate School. It will be located across the road from the existing Sunnyside Elementary, although the intermediate school itself is on Rabbit Chase Lane.
The new name was the first place finisher in a Facebook outreach effort by the district after Board of Education members couldn't come to a consensus on a name last month.
“The response was Sunnyside Intermediate School with 57.9% of the vote,” said Superintendent Deborah Judy.
There were 354 responses to the survey.
Not all board members were convinced, however. Aaron Weisenberger was reluctant to move ahead with Sunnyside Intermediate, saying he would prefer to name the school Clayton Intermediate. The current Clayton Intermediate is becoming Clayton Middle, and the district also has a Clayton Elementary.
“I'm just a little hesitant on going with Sunnyside Intermediate and taking away the ability for our Clayton side of the community to have their additional name on this school,” he said.
Board President Jonathan Snow also seemed to have concerns about the proposed name, for different reasons.
“I wish personally that there was a name with some significance to something other than a street,” he said. “I personally struggle a little bit with naming a school Clayton Intermediate School that's in Smyrna, but at least the name has significance.”
However board member Charlie Wilson argued that the choice of Sunnyside Intermediate helps center the location geographically.
“Once the Sunnyside Elementary School was named, I think it established the area - the space,” he said. “So I'm comfortable with Sunnyside.”
Still, Weisenberger remained torn about the new name. He stressed that he respected the public input process.
“I don't discredit and disrespect the community feedback that we went and got. Again, I think that was great,” he said. “But sometimes you can't agree with it.”
Weisenberger, who spearheaded last month’s postponement of a vote, hinted at another possible delay, noting that the decision wasn’t time-sensitive yet. Snow agreed that there was no urgency.
“We're not under any deadline for anything,” he said. “They would like all their paperwork to include a school name, but that's not a need, that's a want.”
Support for another delay seemed tepid however, even among opponents of the Sunnyside name. The board voted 4-1 to approve Sunnyside Intermediate as the school’s name. A seemingly resigned Weisenberger voted with the majority, while Snow was the sole vote against the name.
