School May Bear Name of Ill-Fated Challenger

The name “Challenger,” in honor of the seven astronauts who died in the space shuttle tragedy last year, has been recommended for the new junior high school scheduled to open in Mira Mesa in September.

The recommendation from the San Diego city schools names committee will go before the Board of Education Tuesday for approval.

If approved, the name would be an exception to the general district policy of naming schools either after prominent civic individuals or a school’s geographic location.

Verta Pierce, chairman of the names committee, said the 13 members had received two names from representatives of the Mira Mesa area, that of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher-astronaut from New Hampshire who died in the shuttle disaster, and that of Marion Jessop, a longtime San Diegan who served as a Board of Education member. The Mira Mesa representatives were parents and teachers from eight elementary schools that will feed into the new junior high.

Pierce said, “In our deliberations, we talked at length about the fact that while we admired Christa McAuliffe as a teacher and astronaut, there had been seven people aboard the Challenger and they represented every segment of our country (race, religion, gender, geography), and we just felt that we ought to name the school for all of them, and why not name the school Challenger?

“And the decision was absolutely unanimous.”

Seen as Inspiration

Pierce also said that junior high represents a difficult transition period for students--”they’re neither fish nor fowl”--in the years between a structured elementary school and a less-constrained high school atmosphere.

“If we could do anything in the world to help inspire these youngsters, then maybe the name Challenger might because of what it (symbolizes) and even because of the (meaning of) the name itself,” Pierce said. “If we can get the youngsters to take hold of that and have pride in the new school, maybe they will aspire to better work.”

The school board is not legally bound to adopt the committee’s recommendation, Pierce said, but she hopes the “board will accept this recommendation in the spirit in which it is given and that there be no controversy at all.”

If the name is approved, Pierce said, a plaque will be placed at the school underneath the name, at eye level, with the names of all seven astronauts.

The junior high at the corner of Parkdale Place and Winterwood Lane will open in temporary facilities in September for an estimated 900 seventh-graders. A permanent school is scheduled for completion by 1990 with 1,600 seventh- and eighth-graders.