In August 2023, in order to “accommodate ongoing growth in Dublin,” Dublin Unified formed a naming committee for a new TK-8 school projected to open at the Boulevard development in the Fall of 2026. This same month, the committee invited DUSD students, staff, and parents, as well as Dublin residents at large, to provide suggestions for the new school’s name in a survey that closed on August 31. While no indication of progress in the process has been made since, these submissions will soon be evaluated by the committee—which may release another survey for further input—in order to ultimately deliver three candidate names to superintendent Chris D. Funk. Funk will then give these three names to the Board of Trustees, which will host two public meetings where it will accept public comment before deciding on the final name for the school.
This process is part of DUSD’s larger effort to integrate community voices into significant Dublin decisions. With a total of 631 submissions, 424 from the community and 207 from students, DUSD seemingly accomplished its goal to represent a wide range of student and community voices in the new naming process.
However, the community hasn’t always been content with the district’s approach to community outreach. The new TK-8 school’s naming process comes on the heels of another effort mounted by DUSD to include the opinions of the Dublin community—the process for determining the mascot for Dublin’s new high school, Emerald High. The process for naming DUSD’s new TK-8 school strongly resembles that for deciding Emerald High’s mascot, which similarly featured a community survey on potential candidates for mascots. However, the process went awry when votes were counted and, ultimately, the serpent was to be the mascot for the school—a problematic development for some who considered the serpent to be a symbol of evil and deceit.
Though backlash from the community eventually convinced DUSD to change Emerald High’s mascot to the much more innocuous Aeronaut, the Dublin community, especially prospective Emerald High students, was left uneasy. In fact, concerns still linger from the Emerald High situation over whether or not the new school’s name, even if decided by vote, will reflect the Dublin community and its vision for the school.
“I think they should let the students pick,” an anonymous Emerald High student said. “Personally, I wasn’t, like, super invested in when we chose our mascot. But I do think that […] as the students, we should get to be the ones who choose what represents us and how we get represented […] So I think that the students should get to choose [the name of the new school], and I hope that their decision gets to be final this time because I really wish that’s how it had been for us.”
Despite these concerns, though, hope still exists for the new school and the impact it can have on the Dublin community.
“I do believe this can really be something that brings people together,” this same student observes. “We’ve all wanted a new school, and now… I think this is a kind of opportunity for unity. And not just, like, [the TK-8 school] spirit, but we’ve all waited for and are excited about this new change so it could be kind of like Dublin-wide spirit, too.”
Regardless of the course this naming process will take, most members of the Dublin community—students, parents, and more—are eagerly anticipating the new opening. While details remain limited, be sure to subscribe to StudentSquare to receive live updates on new developments on the TK-8 school.
