Last month, local Catholic school officials announced they were closing one Sacramento school and folding it into another. Parents and students at St. Peter and All Hallows Elementary schools were not happy.<\/p>\n
Officials assured them that it would be a new school – with a completely new name. But what?<\/p>\n
The name of the school was picked by students. It will be called John Paul II Elementary School, becoming the first school in the state named after the former pontiff, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.<\/p>\n
"It’s a tremendous tribute to the pope," says Dom Puglisi, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Sacramento. "Although it came from the kids, everybody else thought it was perfect."<\/p>\n
At first, school and church officials were leaning toward calling the new school Blessed Sacrament. But a group of students – moved by coverage of John Paul II as he lay ill – came up with a name on their own. They told their parents and school administrators, who loved it.<\/p>\n