(UPDATE) - On Wednesday evening, the school board did not come to a three-vote consensus majority from their five board members.
The school's naming has been moved to May 18.
___
The newest elementary school in Santa Maria will soon have a name.
The Santa Maria Bonita School District Board of Education will make the decision during its meeting Wednesday night.
A committee of volunteers narrowed down the list of names to three after the district earlier this year asked the public for nominations.
Names were asked to hold historical or cultural significance.
The board will choose from the following names:
- Enos/Enos Ranch/Joseph Enos
Joseph Enos was born on the Azores Islands near Portugal. He immigrated to San Luis Obispo in 1880. He purchased the property where the new school is being built from the Smith Family in 1904 and established a farm on this property. Joseph and his wife, Mary, purchased hundreds of acres of local land to provide farms for their seven children. The second, and longest, location of the first school building in the Santa Maria Valley was at the Enos Ranch. The Enos name honors Santa Maria's heritage.
- Bill Libbon
Bill is a former student of the Santa Maria-Bonita School District and a mentor to local youth for more than 40 years. In 2014, Bill retired as director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Santa Maria Valley where he worked for 40 years. Bill attended Alvin, Robert Bruce and Oakley schools. He also attended El Camino Junior High, Santa Maria High School, and Allan Hancock College. Bill received his bachelor's degree at Long Beach State. He was preparing to go back for a teaching credential at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when he went to work at the Santa Maria Boys Club when it was on West Main Street. Bill Libbon spent his entire career helping children and their families in Santa Maria and the surrounding area.
- Pleasant Valley
Pleasant Valley was the name of the first school built in what is now the Santa Maria Valley. The school officially opened in 1869 with 15 students on property that is now part of Allan Hancock College. In 1874, the Pleasant Valley School building was pulled by teams of horses one mile south to property owned by the Smith family and later, the Enos family. This location is the present day Enos Ranch, at the corner of Battles and Bradley Roads. The funding, creation and expansion of the original school is associated with many of the early settlers in the area, including Rudolph Cook, Martin Luther Tunnell, Joel Miller, Paul Bradley, William and Sarah Smith, Joseph Enos, Thelma Battles and others. The school closed in 1935 and the building sat empty. In 2007, the school building was moved to Buellton, restored, and began a new life as a turn of the century schoolhouse and living history museum open to visitors.
Wednesday night's virtual meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
The school, located on College Drive near Meehan Street near Costco, is expected to be ready for the start of the 2020-2021 school year on August 13, 2020.
The two-story, energy-efficient K-6th school will have 26 classrooms and is the 17th elementary school in Santa Maria.
Construction costs were estimated to be more than $40 million.
