Residents can still pitch a name for new Clovis intermediate school. Here’s how

The Clovis school district is currently considering names for its new Clovis South intermediate school, though the school won’t open until 2025.

The district is accepting community suggestions and plans to select a name later this year. Those interested in submitting name suggestions should send them to Stephanie Hanks, the Clovis South area superintendent, via email at stephaniehanks@cusd.com..

This new intermediate school is part of the three new schools opening in a newly formed Clovis South Area: Satoshi Hirayama Elementary, the yet-to-be-named intermediate and Clovis South High schools.

Hirayama Elementary, which opens next August, was named almost a year ago. It is the 35th elementary school in the district and the first to be named after a Japanese American person, in honor of the World War II Japanese internment camp survivor, national and international professional baseball player, and local educator.

The unnamed intermediate school and Clovis South High School will form the Terry P. Bradley Educational Center, which will open for the 2025-2026 school year and is expected to be fully operational by 2028.

Here’s how you can participate in naming the new middle school.

What kinds of names can be proposed?

The school district chooses facility names that fit into one of three categories: people, places and themes.

If a facility is named after a person, the board’s policy states that names of people still active in their careers are not acceptable, but they can be alive. The honor does not have to be posthumous.

Five of Clovis elementary schools’ namesakes – Harold Woods, Janet Young, Virginia Boris, Roger Oraze, James Fugman – are current community members and “actively involved” in the schools named in their honor, the district’s spokesperson, Kelly Avants said.

Theme-based names are meant to reflect the “character of the community,” culturally and historically, or be community identifiers based on indigenous and characteristic plants and animals to the Clovis area. As for place-based names, the locations must be recognized as historical and geological landmarks and areas or points of interest.

If the district receives place name suggestions, Avants said the team working on the naming process would validate that it is a legitimate landmark by verifying the location or historical reference with sources external to the district, such as the U.S. Geological Survey or local historical societies.

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For a school or facility to be named, the district can decide on a name or a community member can submit a name suggestion to the district. Once naming a school or facility is considered, the board can decide if they want to form a committee to assist with the name-selecting process.

Creating this committee is not mandatory; for Hirayama Elementary, Avants said the district did gather community suggestions and the board then proposed Satoshi Hirayama’s name.

However, the board did not use a committee, Avants said, and it was board members in the Facilities Subcommittee who started the discussion to review community input before making a suggestion and voting on it.

“According to our policy the board can choose to name a facility directly or use the committee process as outlined in the administrative regulation,” Avants said.

If the board decides to use a committee, it can create a 10-15 person group that holds meetings and then reports work back to the board. Avants said the process should not last more than three months.

Also, if the committee does form, Avants said that the school’s principal and its area superintendent would then develop a process to identify people to join the committee.

Whether people apply to form part of this committee or are picked to be in it, Avants said there isn’t a “prescriptive model” to decide who would be in the committee because it depends on several factors when the district discusses the naming of a school or facility.

How can the community participate?

Besides submitting a name for consideration and/or forming part of the name-selecting committee, the district can survey community members and students.

Who gets surveyed depends on whether a person or student forms part of the school or school area – or facility in either of these – that is getting named.

“If the naming process is taking place before boundaries for the new school are identified,” Avants said, “then these surveys could go out to students in an entire high school area in which the new school is being built.”

After the suggestions, committee meetings, feedback sessions and reviews, Clovis Unified’s Board of Trustees votes to on a school or facility’s proper name.

Trustees are elected public officials, and Clovis Unified’s are voted on every two years as term end dates alternate: four seats in 2024 and three in 2026. No additional board member will be added for Clovis South since it is a new attendance area within the already established district boundaries, not a district area extension into more district neighborhoods.