School Board approves name for new school
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
It took a while, but the East Troy Community School District Board of Education approved a name for the new school at the Aug. 29 meeting – Little Prairie Primary School.
The name was conceived by the students at Doubek Elementary School during a problem-based learning project in spring. After researching, lobbying and voting on names for the school, the students sent four choices to the School Board in May.
While Little Prairie was at the top of the running with both the board and the Doubek students, there were concerns about the name because Little Prairie is a municipality in the School District.
There was also a request by some board members to have Primary School used as opposed to Elementary School because they felt it should be distinguished as a school for the lower grades because it was a K2 school.
The board requested a survey be put out in late spring on the district’s website for community feedback. When that information came back, the public was largely in favor of the Little Prairie name, but again some concerns were raised in the comments on the survey.
The board then directed district administration to form an advisory committee with board members, staff, administration and residents to look at the issue and come back at the Aug. 29 meeting with a recommendation.
The committee met a couple of times over the last two months and discussed the name possibility, the process on how the name choice was arrived at and the concerns that had been raised.
Prairie View Principal Mark Weerts and Doubek Principal Lindsay Harris were on the advisory committee and spoke to the board Monday night about how the committee considered all the options available to them and while the decision wasn’t necessarily a unanimous one, it was a consensus. They both said they felt the process was important and should be honored.
“In a real sense this came from the kids,” Weerts said. “It was vetted by the community and we felt Little Prairie should be the name.”
Harris said the concern about Little Prairie being a municipality in the district could be addressed by informing the public why the name was chosen and how it was the kids who came up with it because they were going to be the “little ones” next to Prairie View.
There was discussion about the use of “primary” instead of “elementary” in the name.
School Board member Steve Lambrechts said he couldn’t find any schools in Wisconsin that used “primary” in its name, but admitted he looked mostly at the larger school districts.
The issue was discussed in the advisory committee according to Weerts, Harris and board member Martha Bresler, who was also on the committee.
Bresler had brought the definition of “primary” to one of the meetings, which includes, according to Merriam-Webster, “most important” and “first in order of time or development.”
Board member Dawn Buchholtz said she didn’t have a problem with “primary” even though it wasn’t used much elsewhere.
“I think it makes us stand out,” she said. “I love it.”
Board President Ted Zess said it really didn’t matter what they decided on, because, in the end, everyone would just call the school Little Prairie like they do with Prairie View.
The board approved the name with all the members voting yes except Lambrechts, who abstained.
