Last year, discussions began on the merger between Carson High School and Pioneer Academy, formerly Pioneer High School.
At the time, there was a vacancy for a principal at Pioneer, and merging the schools would result in a cost saving measure for the district since a second principal wouldn’t need to be hired.
Superintendent AJ Feuling also said that the merger would be a long-term cost saving measure as decreasing enrollment trends are expected to continue. By 2034, only 1,700 high schoolers are anticipated to be enrolled in the district, a decrease from the current 2,500 enrolled students.
Pioneer High was established in 1999, and became Pioneer Academy in 2021 after it began offering elementary and middle school online programs during the pandemic.
After the merger was finalized, the next question was what the school would be called, since it will now be an alternative campus rather than a standalone school.
After many options were discussed, students and staff landed on the name “Silver.”
Assistant Principal Sue Moulden-Horton said current staff at Pioneer were given the opportunity to come up with name options. At the end of a workshop day, a total of six names were provided, which were later pared down to three.
Rebecca Allen, English and Spanish teacher at Pioneer Academy, said that in “understanding that a name change is a rare event, we wanted to ensure that our new name carries significance. Since our school is located in the beautiful capital city of Nevada, we thought it would be fitting to connect our new name to both the state and Carson High School.”
She said that silver both as a mineral and a color is important to Nevada, and since the official colors of the state are silver and blue, and with Carson High School’s color being blue, “adopting silver as our new name complements the school’s colors while also honoring our state’s heritage.”
Silver, along with two other options, were provided in a survey to students, and 55% of them agreed on the name Silver, Moulden-Horton said.
Moulden-Horton said beginning next school year, the official title will be Carson High School — Silver Campus, but colloquially they’ll be known as the Silver Campus for short.
