A school by any other name is still a school.
The new owner of the old Sampson School building, Lin Dawson, has decided to retain naming rights of the property, overlapping with the name of Lenoir County’s alternative school.
Because the school moved from its home building on Tower Hill Road to Kennedy Home's Haigler-Overcash Education Center in November, the school district recommended a name change to curb possible confusion.
The Sampson Alternative School was renamed Lenoir County Learning Academy at the Board of Education’s meeting Monday night. This new name was the No. 1 choice among school staff and a planning committee. Each school staff member completed a survey to choose one of three names they’d prefer.
“We’re doing a lot of good work here,” said Diane Heath, now Learning Academy principal. “In looking at a name, we wanted to send a positive message about our learning environment. That’s how the committee started … in coming up with those names.”
She added, “We looked at generic names so that it would fit us no matter what building we could ever be in.”
The alternative school serves sixth- through 12th-grade students with a history of academic, attendance and behavioral issues. The school offers a smaller class size, with fluctuating enrollment, sometimes caused by students returning to their home schools. There are currently 66 students enrolled.
“Our students don’t stay with us forever,” Heath said. “I think in trying to make things more positive … a name change can very well be something that students can look forward to and take ownership in.”
Diane Lynch, Lenoir County Schools associate superintendent, provided two reasons both entities couldn’t be called Sampson.
“For one thing, (the alternative school is) not located in the Sampson School building; it’s now at Kennedy Home,” she said. “And the other reason was the new owner of the Sampson School building is going to retain the name of Sampson, so it would be confusing if we had an alternative school named that and this project that he’s going to be doing.”
Dawson, who purchased the school inApril after submitting a $22,500 bid to the school district, plans to turn the building into a community haven through his non-profit agency J.H. Sampson Community Life Foundation. He will only use one floor during its first operational year, with the complete structure fully functioning within three years.
The school building was closed due to extremely poor conditions. Complete repair costs were estimated at more than $580,000, with up to $300,000 just to replace the moldy roof.
Dawson, who said it would take $750,000 to bring Sampson to life, had no intentions on changing the name when he acquired the property.
“I really don’t see how the name change would (affect campus life),” Lynch said. “We do not have ‘alternative school’ in the name. It’s ‘Learning Academy’ which is probably a more positive sounding name.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.