Wheeling High School to keep its old name

Turns out Wheeling High School won't change its name after all.

After an uproar of criticism from alumni and Wheeling High School staff, District 214 officials backed off a decision to change the name to Wheeling High School Math Science and Technology Academy this August, said Wheeling Principal Laz Lopez.

"We heard from a lot of alumni who said the Wheeling High School name really meant something to them," he said. "We also heard from students in the fine arts community who were concerned.

"So we're going to still be Wheeling High School only with and emphasis on math, science and technology."

Instead, the school will introduce a new logo, with the phrase "Wheeling High School" in bold letters and the phrase "math, science and technology" is lighter letters.

Lopez called it "an academic logo" and pointed out that the regular Wheeling Wildcats symbol will still be used around on the school's gym floor and on sports uniforms.

"While Wheeling High School will remain our only name, our redesigned logo will reflect our new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) focus," said Lopez in a statement.

Next year Wheeling will offer classes that most high schools don't, including metal working, computer engineering and architectural design.

Students will also have the opportunity to be certified in areas such as nursing assistant and will be able to work in a special engineering and architectural lab that cost $500,000 to build this past summer.

Superintendent David Schuler said at a Jan. 21 board meeting that he wants to keep the names of all six District 214 high school consistent.

He also said that while there was some initial talk of changing Wheeling's name, he didn't want to recommend an official name change since "there wasn't a consensus."

Every since announcing the new focus last year, Lopez has had to defend his school's commitment to English and fine arts.

Some didn't agree. Hannah Park, a Wheeling junior and advanced art student, criticized the name change in an art piece, and then claimed the piece was kept out of a prestigious art show because of the subject matter. School officials denied that was the case.

In the statement, released on Monday, Lopez mentions that Wheeling was recognized in 2009 as one of the Kennedy Center Schools of Distinction in Arts Education by the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education.

"People just got stuck on the name change and that's all they talked about," he said.