Name chosen for new Prineville theme school: Steins Pillar Elementary
(Update: Adding video, principal's comments)
PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Crook County School District Board members on Monday night selected the name Steins Pillar Elementary for the new elementary adventure theme school that will open in Prineville this fall.
The school mascot will be the Eagles, and blue and green will be the school colors, officials said.
CCSD board member Doug Smith said the name Steins Pillar fits the theme of what the district has used to name other schools.
“I’ve thought about Steins Pillar ‘Soaring to New Heights,’” Smith said, referring to the Steins Pillar Eagles. “It’s an uplifting type of name and something that fits the adventure theme very, very well.”
Several community members had recommended Steins Pillar in honor of the 350-foot-tall stone pillar that is a remnant of an ancient volcano. Steins Pillar is located in the Mill Creek Wilderness east of Prineville, in the Ochoco National Forest.
According to local historians, it is named after Major Enoch Steen, who explored the area in the 1860s. His name was misspelled so frequently that the misspelling stuck, which is why it's called Steins Pillar, instead of Steens Pillar.
Other top choices name choices included Grizzly, Caldera, Ochoco and Frontier for the elementary school that will open in September in the Pioneer South building on First Street in Prineville.
NewsChannel 21 spoke to the new principal of the new elementary school, Jim Bates, and he explained how the new school will compare to other schools in the district.
"It's actually very similar in many ways," Bates said. "We will have a structure for the day, and we will have our core math and our core reading and writing, and then we will have our 'challenge experiences.'"
"And I would envision at least an hour a day that we will be working with those real-world challenges, and local challenges for our town. And then doing our best to attach our core curriculum to our learning experiences."
The application period is open through March 29 for families to apply for their students to attend the school, which will serve up to 250 kindergarten through fourth-grade students. The school curriculum will teach students using art, technology and adventure learning themes.
