HUNTINGTON BEACH : School to Be Named After Seacliff Area

When the first new school in about 15 years opens in 1994 in the expanding Huntington Beach City School District, it will be called Huntington Seacliff Elementary School.

The eight other schools in the elementary school district were named after people--former teachers, employees, administrators or community members.

Breaking with tradition, the new school will be named for the Seacliff area in the western section of the city.

The Holly-Seacliff development, being planned by Seacliff Partners development company, will draw the children to fill the new school, said Brian F. Garland, president of the district’s Board of Trustees.

Seacliff Partners will provide revenue to finance construction of the kindergarten-through-fifth grade school through fees imposed on each of the project’s approximately 3,700 homes.

Trustees earlier this month passed over more than 30 possible names for the new school submitted by residents, including Surf City Elementary School, before settling on Huntington Seacliff.

There were also some suggestions to name it in honor of the late Diana Peters, the school superintendent who died in July.

Others suggested the school be named for former mayors Norma Gibbs and Donald Shipley, former district teachers Mike and Katie Case, former Assistant Supt. Betty Funkhouser, and former supervisor for maintenance and operations in the district Dennis Loyd.

Others suggested naming the school after Karen Moore, a former Fountain Valley teacher; Donna Stewart, a former nurse; John Wyatt, a former principal, and James Perry Terry, a former board member, City Council member and president of Holly Oil Co.