Redington or Dena’ina?: Board to decide school name

KNIK — On Wednesday, the Mat-Su Borough School District School Board will again consider which moniker to bestow upon its newest junior/senior high school.

On Aug. 7, the board voted to support the name that received the most votes in a district survey: Joe Redington Sr. Junior/Senior High School.

But at its Aug. 21 board meeting, district administrators will ask to revise that decision and instead name the new school after the survey’s other option: Dena’ina Junior/Senior High School.

The school board meets at 6 p.m., Wednesday in school board chambers in the administration building in Palmer, 501 N. Gulkana.

In the community survey, the Redington name won 57 percent of the votes compared to Dena’ina’s 43 percent, the district reports.

Superintendent Deena Paramo wrote in a memorandum to the board in preparation for Wednesday’s meeting that the Knik Tribal Council had a meeting with administration to discuss the name.

“The tribe thanked the district for its work with the Alaska Native community and wants to strengthen the bond with a high school being named after a ‘people’ rather than a person,” she wrote. “As the first people of this land, the Dena’ina name would bring significant recognition as a high school rather than an elementary school.”

The district also has plans to eventually build another elementary school in the area.

The names of high schools, she pointed out, are displayed in the community more since they field sports teams that compete with other high schools in the state and host activities throughout the year.

Paramo said honoring Redington — a famous Knik-area resident who died in 1999 and is known statewide as the “Father of the Iditarod” — could be accomplished with an elementary school.

“In my professional opinion as the superintendant of the district, this proposal will accomplish what the board desires — community input and participation in its school,” Paramo wrote. “Support of the Dena’ina Jr./Sr. High name will build significant good will with the first indigenous people of the Knik area.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.