Fort Bend ISD has a new HS...thanks to you, the taxpayer...

On Election Night, Fort Bend ISD taxpayers approved a $428 million bond package that includes a new high school. The new school, currently called HS #11, is going to be built in the Sienna Plantation area.

Now that the new school has been approved, the naming debate will begin. So let's take a look at the process if I were the head honcho. We're going to play a game called Name That School.

First, the following letters will be eliminated: A, B, C, D, E, H, K, M, T and W, because there are already high schools that start with those letters, one apiece: Austin, Bush, Clements, Dulles, Elkins, Hightower, Kempner, Marshall, Travis and Willowridge. Progressive High School doesn't count since it is an alternative school.

Based on that fact, the following names float up:

Presidents (a very obvious choice since Presidents have at least one high school in their name, FBISD's George Bush for instance) with preferred names in bold:

• Thomas Jefferson
• Andrew Jackson
• Martin Van Buren
• James Polk
• Millard Fillmore
• Franklin Pierce
• Abraham Lincoln
• Andrew Johnson
• Ulysses Grant
• James Garfield
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• Richard Nixon
• Gerald Ford
• Ronald Reagan
  

Another potential choice would be to name the new HS after a former Texas governor. Two of them, Mark White and Ann Richards, would be obvious choices, but Richards especially has weight with Texans due to her popularity as Governor, even as she was defeated by George W. Bush. White, however may face questions due to his support of No Pass/No Play. If the school does not open until 2011, Rick Perry might come up if he loses or does not run in 2010. There are qualms with Perry, though, over his failed leadership as our guv.

Being a Texas pioneer also counts. That's why we have Stephen F. Austin and William B. Travis, for instance. They were both members of the Texas Revolution, so I am now going to focus on some of my potential picks below:

• James Fannin
• Anson Jones (the "Architect of Annexation")
• Thomas Rusk
• Juan Seguin

Finally, there are many others that may be considered, such as U.S. Cabinet alums (which explains the naming of Dulles HS), former FBISD officials (Elkins, Hightower were named after such officials), local pioneers (explains the name of I.H. Kempner) and highly regarded members of the Supreme Court (which gave us Thurgood Marshall). After all, some other names may turn up such as:

• Colin Powell
• Jane Long
• Congressman Ron Paul

Of course, as time will tell, there will be updates on what happens. Stay tuned.