Lexington Middle School could have new name when it opens at new location
Editor’s note: this story has been updated to show the Lexington 1 school board must still approve the change.
When the new Lexington Middle School opens next school year, it won’t be Lexington Middle School any more.
Instead, future middle schoolers will graduate from Lakeside Middle School, if the Lexington 1 school board approves the change.
The middle school’s principal unveiled the new name for the school at the board of trustees meeting on Tuesday. Principal Casey Calhoun said the change came about because rezoning has severed the old ties between the middle school and Lexington High School. Instead, the school primarily feeds into River Bluff High School off Corley Mill Road.
“It became this weird thing where you’re the Lexington Wildcats, but your family is buying Gator gear,” Calhoun said, referring to the two schools’ sports mascots.
The school solicited feedback from its students, families, staff and members of the community to decide what the new school should be called when it’s planned to open in the fall of 2021. River Bluff Middle and Lake Murray Middle were also finalists, but Calhoun said they shied away from those two because of the existing high school and Lake Murray Elementary School.
“You have an issue when you name an elementary school after a middle school, or a middle after a high school, and then you rezone and it creates consternation,” Calhoun said. “We want to let each school stand on its own.”
North Lake Middle School was another candidate, but Calhoun said Lakeside ultimately won out because the school wanted to maintain the initials LMS.
In September 2019, Lexington 1 purchased 34 acres for the new middle school between Old Cherokee Road and Cherokee Trail, at a cost of $1.6 million. The site is about a mile and a half from the school’s current location on North Lake Drive.
The project is part of a $365 million building plan approved by voters in the district in 2018. The money will also pay for a new middle school in Pelion, new elementary schools in the Gilbert and White Knoll areas, and renovations to several existing schools, plus a new transportation facility.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 1:34 PM.
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