Florence school named ‘Riverfront’

By: Stephanie Prokop
   FLORENCE —The school complex on Front Street has a new name: Florence Township Riverfront School.
   Superintendent Louis Talarico said the name is what the Board of Education selected after collecting ideas from the public.
   The board members chose the names that they thought would suit the building the best, and eventually narrowed the choices down to two: Florence Township Intermediate School and Florence Township Riverfront School.
   The naming of the school was an opportunity for everyone in the community to give input, said Dr. Talarico.
   The school board received input via e-mails, letters, phone calls, and on the schools’ designated Web site.
   The board voted 5-4 on Feb. 26 in favor of the Riverfront School name.
   The buildings once housed the township’s high school and middle school, but last fall the district opened a new high school on Cedar Lane and closed the old one for renovations.
   The two attached buildings, which overlook the Delaware River, are slated to open this September for students in grades four through eight.
   Currently, the old high school portion of the complex is getting a complete overhaul, with work under way on the floor, windows and lockers.
   "Hopefully we can get a lot of work on the building in the summer after all of the middle school students are cleared out and we can proceed with renovations," said Dr. Talarico.
   He said the board did not want to call the school a "middle" school, because it would be serving students in fourth and fifth grades.
   The board wasn’t interested in naming the school after a particular person, because it would be difficult to decide which person to name it after.
   The words "river" and "intermediate" were used in at least 65 percent of the entries, said Dr. Talarico.
   In total, the board received approximately 110 suggestions for names, but many were redundant. About half of the names were unique.
   "The board was very happy and content that we had as much community involvement as possible," he added.