Now, with Cupertino Union's fifth middle school under construction and still in need of a name, the district is determined to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.

Eleven members of the Cupertino community came together on Oct. 14 for the first meeting of the New Middle School Naming Committee. Led by district communications manager Jeremy Nishihara, the group's members set a basic schedule and discussed their goals for the naming process—and then received the coveted list of names on their way out.

"Everything you get tonight is everything I got," Nishihara said. He handed out a list of 11 names, based on eight separate concepts, that the district received as a result of public input solicited over the summer. The original deadline to submit a name for consideration was Aug. 2, but the date was pushed back to Sept. 3 to accommodate those who might have been out of town during the district's summer break.

The eight possible concepts that committee members received for possible names are—past teacher and Principal Andrew Garrido; the current school site name of Collins; the neighborhood of Linwood Acres; longtime Cupertino resident Louis Mariani Sr.; former Leland High School and Arizona Cardinals football player Patrick Tillman; former President Ronald Reagan; former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; and former Cupertino Middle School Principal Samuel Lawson.

After the meeting, committee members considered the materials submitted and solicited feedback and will return to the district's boardroom the evening of Oct. 27 for further discussion. Members also received a copy of the school board's policy for the naming of a district facility. The policy stipulates that names should recognize either the geographic area where the building is located, or an individual, living or deceased, who has made contributions with significance to the community, or on a state, national or worldwide scale.

The policy also states that names cannot be duplicated within the district. Nishihara said that because the Collins name will follow the current elementary school's student body when it moves to the Portal site in December, that option will be taken off the list.

The Oct. 27 meeting will likely involve extensive discussion of the proposed names and voting by a ranking system that will whittle the list down to four. The board has requested three recommended names, which the committee will fine-tune (some suggestions include middle initials; others do not) and rank after further discussion.

"I feel that the process should be discussed as much as possible," said Jerd Ferraiudo, a member of the committee who is a retired administrator with Cupertino Union. Nishihara said that the committee would likely give a list of names to the school board to ensure the fifth middle school has a name before Christmas.

The committee itself is composed of 15 district employees and community residents with a vested interest in naming the new school—four could not attend the first meeting.

The proposed composition of the committee was initially one parent or representative from each elementary school that will feed into the middle school, one at-large citizen, a representative from each of the four labor organizations in the district and representatives from both the Instruction and Human Resources departments. Interested parties could not submit a suggested name and serve on the committee.

Nishihara said that the applications to serve on the committee that he received before the deadline matched up with the proposed composition so well that nearly everyone interested made it on the committee. Several of those categories now have more than one representative—for instance, there are two from Collins Elementary School, including a sixth-grade student who asked to serve.

At the first meeting, past naming difficulties seemed like the furthest thing from everyone's mind. Conversation flowed well as a schedule and voting process came together with little disagreement. Committee members said they looked forward to the process.

"This is going to be fun," said Pat McCrery, human resources coordinator for the district.

The public is welcome to observe the committee meeting on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. in the Cupertino Union boardroom, located in the district office, at 10301 Vista Drive in Cupertino. For more information, call 408.252.3000, ext. 323.