Wiscasset Academy, an homage to Wiscasset High School’s predecessor, is popular among early ideas the high school’s students have considered as new names for the school, Principal Cheri Towle said Feb. 26.

Other students feel the school should keep its current name when it begins to accept grades seven and eight next fall, Towle said at Thursday’s Wiscasset School Committee meeting.

The committee began talks on names for the high school and Wiscasset Middle School, where Wiscasset Primary School’s students will join fifth and sixth graders. Voters in December 2014 agreed to close the school, a move projected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in year two of the school department.

For the middle school’s name, Committee Chairman Steve Smith floated Wiscasset Elementary School. But neither he nor the rest of the panel committed to a name for either school. Instead, members agreed to have students and the rest of the community help decide.

Wiscasset Primary Principal Mona Schlein told the committee that students there have been asking if they could have some input.

“That would be really great,” Smith said.

The committee expects to hear those results at its March meeting, then plans call for putting suggestion boxes around town. Members also discussed a possible community straw vote among leading names.

“This is a journey to re-identify the Wiscasset school system and Wiscasset community,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said. “And I think renaming or rededication of a building is a marvelous step to take in that journey, to commit to something that identifies what is your real goal ... and your dedication.”

Committee Vice Chairman Glen Craig said he welcomes all input on names, in keeping with the committee’s history of listening to people’s opinions.

“The five of us are not a dictating, this-is-the-way-it-is board,” he said.

Craig suggested the high school have a catchy name that reflects excitement over the school’s growth.

Middle school playground discussed

School Committee member Chelsea Haggett reported that she has begun working with Kim Andersson from the local group Partners in Education (PIE), about plans to get the playground at the middle school ready for next fall.

Currently, the playground is not appropriate for the youngest students who will go there, Haggett said. The goal is to finish fundraising by June 30 and complete work on the playground by Aug. 31, she said.

Some companies that sell playgrounds match the funds that are being put into a project, Smith said.

A PIE member in the audience expressed concern about the committee’s expectations for PIE on fundraising. Smith responded that the playground project will be a community effort. “It doesn’t have to be your responsibility,” he said.