Hart School District OKs Names for 2 New Schools

Five months after being hired as principals with the William S. Hart Union High School District, Paul Priesz and Rochelle Neal can finally tell people the names of their schools.

Trustees Wednesday night approved Valencia High School and La Mesa Junior High School as names for the two new campuses scheduled to open next fall.

“It feels good” to have a name, Priesz said. “We’ve been working for a long time.”

Priesz was assistant principal at Canyon High School before being named principal of Valencia High, and Neal was principal at Sierra Vista Junior High School before coming to La Mesa Junior High.

The new names are in keeping with the district’s practice of having a Spanish-style name for the junior high school--Arroyo Seco, Sierra Vista and Placerita are the others--and a geographic-based name for the high school.

A nine-member committee including residents, the two principals and District Facilities Director Lew White narrowed more than 95 suggestions received from the public down to a handful for board consideration.

Valencia High School outpolled Santa Clarita Valley High School, despite the presence of another Valencia High School in Placentia in Orange County. Some agreed that Santa Clarita Valley High would improve name recognition for the city itself, but believed that its length would provide a problem for devising school cheers.

La Mesa Junior High School was favored over Rainbow Mesa Junior High School--which was considered to be “cheerful,” but perhaps too “cutesy”--and Mesa del Sol Junior High School, which was seen as an interesting, but cumbersome title.