Bing Crosby Middle School? Spokane district seeks input on naming 3 new schools

Spokane Public Schools is taking names.

As the district prepares to build three new middle schools, it wants the public’s best suggestions on what to call them. An official campaign will start in the coming weeks; check out the district’s website and social media for the details. In the meantime, here are some suggestions to get you thinking.

They can honor people, places or things – you name it. And that’s the whole idea: a chance for the community to offer some ideas.

How about Mandy Manning Middle School, to honor Spokane’s recent national teacher of the year?

Or Joe Albi Middle School, which could be built adjacent to the current Albi Stadium site?

There’s a courthouse in Spokane named after congressman Tom Foley, who served as speaker of the House, but no school.

And there’s a theater named after singer and actor Bing Crosby, once among the famous people around, but no school.

And he might not have achieved that fame without Mildred Bailey, a pioneering Native American jazz singer who also gained national attention for her distinctive voice.

Carl Maxey was not only a national champion collegiate boxer, but Spokane’s first prominent African American lawyer and a civil rights activist.

There’s already a Michael Anderson Elementary School at Fairchild Air Force Base, which pays tribute to the Cheney astronaut who died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry in 2003. An Anne McClain Middle School could honor Spokane’s own astronaut, who spent more than six months aboard the International Space Station.

Steve Gleason, former professional football player and advocate for those who have ALS, already has one of the biggest honors any American can receive as a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

A whole holiday observed across the country, Father’s Day, was the idea of Spokane resident Sonora Smart Dodd.

And there are any number of other possibly deserving folks from the Inland Northwest.

A school also could be named for a neighborhood, such as Foothills Middle School for the new building that will go up in northeast Spokane.

There are sure to be more ideas, so let the naming begin.

“It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Associate Superintendent Mark Anderson told school board members Wednesday night as the district laid out plans to name the new buildings approved in the 2018 capital bond.

That’s not an exaggeration: Chase Middle School, built in 1996 and named for former Spokane Mayor Jim Chase, is the district’s most recent middle school.

The district also will seek a new name for the On Track Academy in northeast Spokane.

According to the schedule set by the district, those names will get school board approval on June 10.

In the meantime, the district is developing a plan to engage the community. That will include a “school-naming web page” on the district website, promotions on social media, and work through district media, including, PeachJar, School Talk and KSPS-TV.

The guidelines are wide open. According to the district, a school can be named after a person “who made a noteworthy contribution to education, community, or society, a geographic characteristic based on location or primary function of the facility, or a logical association with the new school.”

Anderson will lead the committee, which also includes Superintendent Shelley Redinger, two board members and other district officials, On Track Principal Lisa Mattson, the three middle school principals and three community members to be named later.