HUNTLEY – Everything is coming up new these days in Consolidated School District 158 in Huntley.
As the huge addition to Huntley High School just outside Sun City heads into its final year of construction (see a forthcoming story), district officials are making other major moves to improve its image and identity. Tonight (Thursday, May 21) the board of education is scheduled to vote on two staff recommendations:
1) Change its name from Consolidated School District 158 to Huntley Community School District 158. If approved tonight, this would be the first name change in the district’s 95-year history. 2) Adopt a new board logo that changes the nine-year-old flying horse and HHS logo to a stylized H with a road to the future.
The new name would change the district’s brand image and identity, according to Superintendent Dr. John Burkey. “While we serve parts of a number of communities (Lake in the Hills, Algonquin, others), we serve almost the entire geographic area of Huntley,” he said in a memo to the board. “The historical roots of the district are in Huntley, the district only has one high school, and it carries the name Huntley High School, and we are often popularly referred to as the Huntley School District. This would formalize how we are popularly known. Incorporating Huntley in the name puts us on the map, literally, for those outside the area, since most people outside the immediate area would not be able to locate “Consolidated School District 158” on a map.
“We are not the only school district 158 in Illinois (the other is in Lansing), but we are the only Huntley in Illinois,” he added.
He finished the memo by pointing out that the district currently serves 4,902 students from Huntley, 3,364 from Lake in the Hills, and about 1,000 in Algonquin.
As for the logo, Burkey said, “The current board logo, adopted in 2006, is effective in some ways, but lacks meaning in relation to our strategic plan and does not strongly convey the district’s identity. The district worked through a number of new designs submitted by a graphic artist and is recommending one that depicts a stylized block letter “H” with a road to the future cutting through it. “This clearly identifies the district, ties into our mission, and is simple and easy to identify by people seeing it,” he said. “The colors of red and black are consistent with branding that we have developed in recent years and closely connect with the colors of Huntley High School.”
The district serves more than 9,300 students in grades K-12 in one high school, two middle schools (grades 6-8), and five elementary schools (grades K-5). Two of the district’s three campuses are located in Huntley and the other is in Algonquin.
