Time to Name Capo Unified's Next School

The time to name a new school for Rancho Mission Viejo has drawn near, and while one trustee wants to name it after a notable ranch family member, ranch representatives were thinking more along the lines of street and nearby pasture names.

Trustee Jim Reardon has suggested Richard J. O’Neill School for the K-8 planned for the massive development’s second neighborhood, to be called Esencia. Rancho Mission Viejo’s first neighborhood, Sendero, did not produce enough students to trigger a new school.

“I cannot think of a more logical or fitting choice for the first school to be located in the heart of the Orange County portion of Rancho Mission Viejo,” Reardon wrote Superintendent Joseph Farley in mid-December.

“Richard O’Neill’s contributions to the local area and his philanthropy generally make his name a fitting reminder and legacy of a true native son of California,” Reardon wrote.

Representatives from the ranch, however, have to think about it.

“Family members would like some time to determine if it wishes to accept the use of the name for the school,” Farley wrote in a staff report to the Board of Trustees.

In the meantime, they offered up the names of many streets that will surround the school – although the actual street fronting the school had not yet been named. They include suggestions such as: Chiquita Canyon, Adanza, Escalada and Saliente among others.

They also suggested the names of nearby pastures: Upper Mesa, Verdugo Pasture, Horseshoe Pasture and Lower Trabuco among others.

The school board will discuss the process for choosing a name at its next meeting. All trustees serve on the naming committee. The board meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, at the district headquarters, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano.