D93 suspends ‘Black Canyon High School Phantoms’ as new school name
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Jason Borba, KPVI
AMMON — Bonneville Joint School District 93 officials say they are going to seek more public input when it comes to deciding on the name to be used for their new high school.
“High school naming is a whole different animal, we found out,” said D93 superintendent Charles Shackett.
It was a full house on Thursday afternoon as school board officials with District 93 voted to suspend the Black Canyon High School Phantoms name and start the naming process over. This was considered a win for many in the community that weren’t happy with the name and felt like there wasn’t enough public input.
“I just heard the name Black Canyon Phantoms and I thought it sounded dark and my first thought was haunted houses or Pac-Man,” said Katie Kress. “Truthfully it did kind of grow on me but there were other names I liked better.”
School officials hope to get more public input on the school name by sending out surveys to patrons and taxpayers where they can vote on which names they like.
Shackett admits the school board should have gotten more public feedback before making their decision.
“The community is very involved, they are very interested, and it’s their school. A lot of work went into passing this bond,” said Shackett. “Hindsight is always 20/20 we look back and say, ‘Oh my gosh, we kind of blew it.’ We needed to give more time for input.”
Community members are happy that school officials decided to suspend the Black Canyon High School Phantoms name, and they hope everyone can work together to come up with a name the majority of people can agree on.
“There are people paying for the school, the school is paid by the community and patrons in District 93, so it’s a very important matter to people,” says Kristi Corlquist.
The school board says the naming process will be different this time and the community will have an opportunity to help choose the name, mascot and school colors.
There is no timeline set on when this will all happen.
This story was originally published at KPVI. It is used here with permission.