As Wiscasset High School changes from a grades 9-12 school to serving grades 7-12, Wiscasset School Committee member and former Wiscasset High Assistant Principal Eugene Stover said residents have a lot of opinions on what to name the school.

But he, for one, doesn’t want the one that School Committee Chairman Steve Smith said appears a likely choice: Wiscasset Academy.

“I would not be happy with (naming it that),” Stover said. “I know (it was) a distinguished school and we have a lot of graduates still around from there, but let’s go forward not backward.”

In recent months, the panel has collected views from students throughout the school system on what to name the high school and Wiscasset Middle School, which will serve the elementary grades including those displaced by Wiscasset Primary School’s closure. The committee has also mulled putting boxes around town or running a straw poll in which residents could pick their favorite among proposed names.

The committee recently decided to gather input outside the polls on June 9. On May 28, members worked out the details.

Member Michael Dunn voiced concern that residents might expect the committee will automatically base its decisions on the most popular names from election day. 

“It just seems like we might be opening it up for somebody to be upset,” if the committee chooses other names, he said.

“That’s a good point, “ Smith said.

Members decided to have a suggestion box for school names outside the polls, with no proposed names to pick from, and no suggestion that the most popular names will go on the schools. Keeping the survey open-ended will let everyone give their opinion and will avoid the survey being viewed as a vote, members said.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage reiterated past statements on the importance of having official names for the schools, for insurance, security and legal reasons.

For next year’s budget and other purposes, Beverage and some other officials have begun referring to the middle school as Wiscasset Elementary School. Smith has called that name a “no brainer” for the school; however, the committee on June 9 will accept name ideas for both the middle and high schools, members said.

Dollars for drone class

A proposal to ask Wiscasset selectmen for $4,750 from the Mary Bailey Fund drew the school committee’s split vote in favor of the request May 28. The money will go toward materials for a drone class at Wiscasset High.

Committee member Chelsea Haggett, the lone dissenter in the vote, said it could appear that the school committee was using the fund to start a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program after voters on May 27 said no to spending $100,000 on a STEM lab.

“We’ll be viewed ... like we’re looking for a work-around, after the town has spoken,” Haggett said.

Income from the approximately $384,000, Mary Bailey Fund can be tapped to create advanced coursework at the high school, officials said. Smith said he will put in the request to selectmen after the June 9 elections so that the new board of selectmen can consider it.