West Richland, WA
If there’s two things the Tri-Cities has a whole lot of, it’s expansive blue skies and brushy desert landscapes.
In a nod to the region’s arid landscape, the Richland School Board voted unanimously this week to name the district’s 11th elementary school “Desert Sky Elementary.”
The name was among five presented to the board.
The name “embodies the desert climate of the area and the vast sunny blue sky seen most of the year,” said district documents.
Located off Sunshine Avenue in West Richland, Desert Sky was completed in 2019.
For it’s first two years the school had two different names while it served as a temporary home for students and staff while other schools were being rebuilt — Tapteal Elementary and Badger Mountain Elementary.
Once Desert Sky opens next fall, the school will serve kindergarten through 5th grade students living in the southwest portion of the district.
A community survey conducted last month initially generated more than 250 possible names. That list was later narrowed to 72 that held geographic and historical significance.
Retired U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a Richland native, had his name thrown into that initial list, said district spokesperson Ty Beaver.
But district policy says school buildings cannot be name for people who are still living.
From there, 18 names were selected by staff and sent out in a community survey March 9-16.
The top-five names were then presented to the board.
The choices included:
- Belmont Elementary, named after the nearby street, which means “beautiful mountain” in old French.
- Mountain View Elementary, after the four mountains — Badger, Candy, Red and Rattlesnake — that can be seen from the school.
- Red Mountain Elementary, after the nearby mountain.
- River Rock Elementary, for the “diverse group of rocks that have been worn and rounded” by the Lake Missoula Ice Age floods.
The school’s staff is still working to choose the school colors, as well as the mascot, which students will have a say in after it opens for the 2022-23 school year.
The $17 million building was the first paid one paid for from a $99 million bond passed by voters in February 2017, and it shares the same design as Jefferson Elementary.
They both are 65,000 square feet, with 24 classrooms, four classrooms for special education and designated places for music and art.
