Charter School Names

I've often said that I'd like to be in charge of approving the names of new charter schools in Colorado. Why? Because it'd be nice if the school names were unique rather than almost the same as others. Here are some facts to back me up:

• We have an Academy Charter School and Academy of Charter Schools (we commonly refer to them as "Academy" and "Academy of").
• Academy of Charter Schools recently changed their name to The Academy; now they join The Academy at High Point in wanting to be called "The Academy."
• There are two Frontier's: Frontier in Calhan and Frontier in Greeley.
• There were two Pioneers (although Pioneer in Ft Collins closed this past year): Pioneer in Denver and Pioneer School of Expeditionary Learning in Fort Collins.
• A whopping 33 charter schools use the letter "C"! Of these there are four that refer to themselves as "CCA": Cardinal Community Academy, Cherry Creek Academy, Cesar Chavez Academy, Corridor Community Academy.
• Until the EXCEL school in Durango closed a couple of years ago, we had two Excel's. There is also an Excel Academy in Arvada.
• There are four New America Schools. We hyphenate the school name and add the city, but even this becomes difficult when they move their schools between school districts.
• There are two Southwest's: Southwest Early College in Denver and Southwest Open School in Cortez.
• There are both Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins and Ridge View Academy in Denver.
• There are two Vanguards: Vanguard Classical School in Aurora/Lowry and the Vanguard School, which is the high school portion of Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy.
• Hope Online is often confused with the HOPE homeschool program operated by Lincoln Academy.
• There's a new trend from management company-operated schools to have a common name at the beginning of the school name and then differentiate it by location, such as Imagine @ Firestone and Imagine @ Indigo Ranch or LifeSkills Center of Denver and LifeSkills Center of Colorado Springs.

Most district-operated public schools in Colorado go for the geographical or animal names. Schools used to be named after former Presidents, but that rarely happens anymore (other than the charter schools in north Jeffco where developing charter schools could use the Jefferson Academy wait list if they named their school after a President; hence, Jefferson Academy, Lincoln Academy and Woodrow Wilson Academy are all named after Presidents.)

Probably the worst was the non-charter private school that used "charter" in its name. Imagine explaining that to upset parents who called to inquire about the school and ask why they were charged tuition.

In my dream world new charter schools select names that are unique and easy to differentiate. The founders check the Secretary of State's website to make sure the legal name is available. And, of course, my dream world includes charter founders asking about the feasibility of using a school name before making it official.