Names for RMV's New K-8: Gavilán, Gabrieleño or Marguerite O’Neill?

The Capistrano Unified school board is bouncing around several names for the new K-8 school it plans to build for the new Rancho Mission Viejo development.

Initially, Trustee Jim Reardon threw out for consideration Richard J. O’Neill School after one of the patriarchs of the ranching families that have owned the land for generations. But ranch representatives have since rejected that idea, school officials said.

Trustee Gary Pritchard put forth Marguerite “Daisy” O’Neill School for another famous O’Neill and a “true native daughter.” While there was a Marguerite M. O’Neill Elementary School in Mission Viejo in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, it has been closed since 2009.

Trustee Amy Hanacek offered the name Gavilán, which is what the community of 55+ housing is called in Rancho Mission Viejo’s first neighborhood, Sendero. It means hawk.

“Escuela de Gavilán sounds nice,” she said.

Trustee Anna Bryson suggested naming the school after the Gabrieleño, the native people who occupied the land before it was settled.

The matter will come back to the school board in two months while staff researches the various proposals.

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