School Board Narrows Name Choices for Shakopee Junior High Schools

Starting next school year, Shakopee will have for grades 7-9. In accordance with school board policy, current Principal John-Paul Jacobson and Principal Chris Endicott organized a naming committee to develop possible names for the junior high schools.

The principals presented the names to the Shakopee School Board on Apr. 9.

In addition to Jacobson and Endicott, the naming committee consisted of administrators, parents, teachers, and students who represented both schools, explained Endicott. The committee took into account the history of the community as part of their process for developing names.

Jacobson noted that committee members also discussed the types of feelings, thoughts, and themes they wanted associated with the junior high school names.

According to Endicott, “We were expected to come up with the names for the two buildings that have some commonality, meaning the public should be able to discern that the names of the two buildings are similar in some way.”

The committee recommended three options to the school board:

• West Ridge Junior High
• East Wood Junior High

• Spencer Junior High
• Marschall Junior High

• River Bend Junior High
• Prairie Ridge Junior High

Jacobson described the results of the presentation to the school board:

The school board decided that directional names were the most helpful for students and families and consistent with the opinions they were hearing from people in the community. Many of the board members liked the simplified names of Shakopee Junior High East and Shakopee Junior High West in addition to West Ridge Junior High and East Wood Junior High. The board decided to take a couple of weeks to connect with more members of the community to see if there was a majority opinion on one of the two naming options being considered at this point. (Emphasis added)

The school board will make a final decision at the next school board meeting on Apr. 23, said , chairperson of the school board.