Share Your Feedback on Northshore’s Elementary #21 Name Ideas

Thank you to our students, staff, families and community members who submitted name ideas for our new elementary school, scheduled to open in fall 2020. We received more than 700 submissions! The Elementary #21 Naming Committee has carefully reviewed the ideas and narrowed the selection down to 11 names. Now, we’d like your help in further narrowing the choices. 

Below is a list of the 11 name ideas, along with information about the significance of each name that is under consideration. We encourage students, staff, families and community members to once again submit their feedback from the 11 names listed. At the same time, we will also collect feedback from focus groups made up of students who will attend the new elementary. Survey responses can be submitted through Friday, Nov. 15.

Once the feedback window closes, the Committee will meet to review the feedback and finalize three to five recommended names for the School Board. At their Dec. 9 meeting, the School Board will select, approve and announce the name of our newest elementary school.

Names

The name selection by the Committee was guided by Policy 9250: Facilities Naming, which was approved by the School Board in 2017 and sets clear criteria and guidelines for school names.

• The name should be known and significant to the Northshore community; or
• The name should identify the geographic area of the community served by the school; or
• The name should honor a prominent individual, known locally or nationally, who has made a long-term contribution to the education of children. If a person’s name is selected for Elementary #21, then in keeping with the Board’s desire for inclusion and equitable recognition, it will be named after an individual who is a part of a minoritized community.

Based on these guidelines, the Committee selected 11 school names, which are listed below. Longer biographies for each individual on the list can be found in the survey. 

• Ruby Bridges Elementary: First African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South.
• Bridges Elementary: Represents Ruby Bridges, as well as the importance of building bridges within the school and community. 
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg Elementary: Second woman to serve as United States Supreme Court Justice.
• Cecile Hansen Elementary: Elected chairwoman of the Duwamish Tribe since 1975 who has committed herself to gain tribal recognition by the government.
• Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert Elementary: Member of the Upper Skagit Tribe and preservationist of Lushootseed culture and language.
• Dorothy Johnson Elementary: Helped implement the C.P. Johnson Humanitarian Award in the Northshore School District.
• Katherine Johnson Elementary: Instrumental at NASA with her expertise in mathematics and physics, which led to John Glenn’s successful flight.
• Audre Lorde Elementary: Former K-12 librarian, founding member of an organization that raised concerns about women under apartheid.
• Michelle Obama Elementary: Former First Lady of the United States and advocate for education, poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity and healthy eating.
• Cecilia Payne Elementary: Astronomer who discovered what the sun was made of, but was never given credit.
• Sonia Sotomayor Elementary: First Latina to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

Share Your Feedback

About Elementary #21

Elementary #21 was approved by voters in the 2018 election as a step toward easing the crowding in schools on the District’s north end. The K-5 elementary school will serve approximately 500 students. Currently under construction, it is located on Maltby Road, close to Little Bear Creek Road. The site is also slated to become a shared campus with a new middle school, pending voter approval of a future bond. Learn more…