The Edmond Public Schools Board of Education voted May (date not specified) to table the committee recommendations to name the new Covell-area elementary and middle schools and asked staff to expand the naming committee and present a school-naming policy draft to the board.

The board was presented the naming committee’s picks — Pleasant Grove for the elementary site and Horizon for the middle school — but some board members said the committee lacked balanced community representation. “I feel like it was kind of a guided selection,” Board Member Hobgood said during the discussion, calling for more community input before the board finalizes names. Board Member Underwood made the motion to table the item; the motion passed after debate and a second.

Board members who opposed immediate approval said the committee that produced the recommendations included multiple district staff members and too few parents and other community representatives; several board members asked for more parents and community members on each committee. Board President Jones and others said the community had already submitted a broad pool of name suggestions and that the committee had followed the established procedure when vetting names.

As part of the motion to table, the board directed staff to expand each school’s naming committee to include additional community members (board discussion referenced a preference for adding about five community members/parents per committee), at least one principal and one teacher, and one district administrator to facilitate the process. The board further directed administration to prepare a first draft of a formal school-naming policy for the board’s June meeting, with a second reading expected in July; the policy would formalize committee composition and the process used to vet and forward recommendations to the board.

Board members discussed calendar constraints: several expressed concern that trying to reconvene a larger committee in late May or June would be difficult because of graduations, end-of-year schedules and staff availability. Facilities staff said delaying a name for a month or two would not halt work on site plans or construction, and Superintendent Dr. Angela Grunwald indicated she could work with staff to meet the board’s scheduling requests.

The board vote to table was followed by a commitment to return with the reconstituted committee’s work and a formal policy draft: first draft in June, second draft in July, then implementation of the new policy. The district emphasized that the list of community-submitted names that had already been collected would remain part of the committee’s review rather than starting the naming process over.

What’s next: staff will reconvene the naming effort under the board’s direction, expand community representation on the committees, and bring a proposed school-naming policy to the June meeting for board consideration.