PEA RIDGE — "Everybody's got an opinion on this thing," Rick Webb, board member, said regarding the flood of calls coming in with questions on the naming of the new Pea Ridge Primary School.

At Monday night's meeting, the board approved a committee of five members to filter community interest and ideas and bring back to them recommendations for the new name.

The members are Margaret Cheek, Jerry Nichols, Jackie Crabtree, Linda Whitaker and Marcia Cothran.

"The board, according to the policy, will ultimately name this building. But this committee is going to have a tough deal - there has been more than one phone call (about the naming process). For every person somebody thinks of, there's a different person someone else thinks of," Webb said.

The signage on the new school needs to be in place before the school district can close out with the contractors. After the name is chosen, it will take six weeks to get the sign ready. Following that, a dedication ceremony will be arranged.

"The School Board hasn't been dragging our feet on this, we just couldn't get anyone involved," Webb said.

Superintendent Mike Van Dyke assured board members there is no hurry on choosing a name, and the board set the deadline for submitting ideas for the October School Board meeting to give the community ample time to decide. The naming committee will set the submission guidelines.

News, Pages 1 on 08/12/2009