The Falcon School District 49 Board of Education came under fire in February concerning a proposed name change ó from whatís usually referred to as Falcon School District 49 to Pikes Peak District 49. On Feb. 12, the district posted a survey on its website to garner input on the proposal from the community.When word got out that the district had been toying with the name change, community members took to Facebook to voice their opinions and to urge other community members to make their voices heard through the districtís survey. Comments ranged from questioning the districtís decision to mess with a good thing to accusing the district of distancing itself from a ìbad reputationî earned in the past.David Nancarrow, director of communications for D 49, said the goal of the ìrebrandingî would establish a recognizable regional identity beneficial to the district as a whole.According to the districtís website, D 49ís boundaries cover 133 square miles, including parts of eastern Colorado Springs. Of the 27 schools listed on the websiteís school directory, 19 schools are located outside of Falcon, including charter and blended learning schools.The name change proposal was presented to the BOE at its annual planning retreat in January. Marie LaVere-Wright, board president, said the chief officers brought up a concern that, in discussions with other educators outside of the Colorado Springs area, many people do not know where D 49 is located because of its Falcon distinction. Although the districtís legal name is El Paso County School District 49, it is widely known as Falcon School District 49 and referred to as such. The website, however, refers to simply, District 49.ìWe are among the top 20 districts in population across the state,î she said. ìWe need them to understand where we are. Not knowing that can impact us when we are recruiting teachers both statewide and nationally.îAt the planning retreat, LaVere-Wright said the chief officers suggested creating a geographical marker to help people pinpoint the districtís location, and the board asked the officers to create a formal proposal. As part of that formal proposal, the board said they wanted feedback from the community, she said.ìWe want to know where the community stands on this,î LaVere-Wright said.According to the responses on Facebook, the communityís stance is negative. Some questioned the costs of changing the name.Nancarrow said the district does not have a figure for costs at this time, but there is no cost to update the districtís name from a legal and financial institution standpoint.ìThe logo we currently have features the image of a mountain with no mention of Falcon on it,î he said. ìWe would maintain the logo as we have it, as it exists. That would eliminate any kind of cost to develop a new logo.îEven if the renaming effort does not cost money, many community members raised concerns that deleting the ìFalconî reference would unnecessarily alter the districtís identity. One community member stated that the district has worked hard to make a good name for itself the last few years, and it would be counter productive to change things now.LaVere-Wright said the board would be discussing the proposal at a Feb. 28 work session, and is planning a second discussion on March 8, which includes an open forum where the community can share their viewpoints.The proposal is slated for board consideration, at the earliest, on April 12, she said.ìWe wanted to start to engage the community now to find out how they feel about the proposal, which is why we developed the survey,î she said. ìBefore we ever began to have a discussion about it as a board and heard the formal proposal, we wanted the community to have a voice in the entire discussion. That allows us to be better informed while we discuss it.î
