The Washoe County School Board has decided on a name for a new elementary school.
The new school will be named Smithridge and will be built on the current Pine Middle School site.
Smithridge was selected from a list of three possibilities that also included John Flynn and Juanita Ydiando.
Board members want to make clear that not being selected for the name doesn't mean they aren't worthy or that their hard work throughout their careers isn't being recognized as extraordinary.
WCSD Board of Trustees President Adam Mayberry said, "Speaking for myself, I want to be very clear that, you know, not selecting somebody's name doesn't mean that they're not worthy of a school. This recognition that I think all the names that have been brought forward are people that are well deserving to have a school name in their honor."
John Flynn currently has the gym at McQueen High School named after him, so they want to give Juanita Ydiando something similar to be named after her at this new school.
Trustee Beth Smith (District D) says, "I would very much like to explore a future item where we potentially direct the superintendent to look for another school facility portion to be named for Pine, and then also for Miss Ydiando, because I do believe that all of these people should be recognized."
Board members decided Smithridge would allow the community to keep some of its history while welcoming a new chapter.
Megan Downs, the school naming committee chairperson, told us, "Whether that be educators or families it's really important that they keep the name, that they keep their traditions, their school uniforms; they wanted to keep those too, but just keeping in their close-knit community that had such a strong history was really important to the Smithridge families."
