What should schools be named?

What’s in a name?

That’s the question that came to mind the other day when the final middle school football game was played at Pete Brewster Field.

The football field, originally the turf of the Portland Panthers, was named several years ago in honor of Brewster, who distinguished himself not only for the Panthers but for the Purdue Boilermakers and the Cleveland Browns.

It was a fitting honor, and it was overdue.

But now, the building that has housed East Jay Middle School is going to be re-purposed as an elementary facility. Pete Brewster Field will be re-purposed as a playground with basketball courts. And the school itself will be getting a new name.

The same holds true with West Jay Middle School, with the consolidation of junior high classes in the Jay County High School building beginning in the fall of 2020.

Westlawn Elementary School students will move to the far superior West Jay building, and the current Westlawn building will join the closed Pennville and Judge Haynes buildings as excess inventory.

Figuring out the fates of those no longer needed buildings is one question.

Another is what the reconfigured elementary schools will be named.

Will the Westlawn name simply move several blocks north to a new building? That’s always struck me as a pretty generic label. Historically, Dunkirk had a Sutton school, named for an early pioneer family. Is it time to resurrect that name?

Or are there other possibilities out there that capture Dunkirk’s Gas Boom and glass industry heritage? 

And what about East Jay? There’s already a generically-named East Elementary School, which will still be in operation. The current General Shanks Elementary building is being re-purposed for administration and pre-school but will probably be able to hang onto its name.

Or the Shanks name could follow the elementary school kids to a new home. Or — for that matter — the Judge Haynes name could be transferred to the new location. (Full disclosure: Judge Haynes was my great-grandfather, and I attended that school.)

Then again, there are plenty of worthy citizens who could be honored:

•Entertainer Jack Imel? That would play well in Portland with Lawrence Welk fans.

•Astronaut Kevin Ford? Though he was born in Jay County, he was raised in Montpelier.

•The pioneering Brooks or Studebaker families? They’re already memorialized in courthouse murals, but Brooks Creek isn’t far from the West Jay site.

•Internet guru Mary Meeker? That may be too 21st century.

•Dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp? She was born at Jay County Hospital, but her family lived in rural Dunkirk and her father had a car dealership there.

•Pete Brewster himself?

This is, admittedly, the least earth-shattering decision facing Jay Schools as it struggles with the complexities of consolidation.

But it’s one of those decisions that will matter over time.

Maybe the smart thing to do is ask the kids. They’re the ones who will be going through the classroom doors.