JEFFERSON TWP — The South Butler School District superintendent wants to take a major swing at making positive changes districtwide, and he says beginning with a new name would Knoch it out of the park.

David Foley told the school board at its Wednesday night meeting he believes that changing the district's name from South Butler County School District to Knoch School District, or something similar with the Knoch name, would help the district move forward.

A new name, Foley said, could coincide with a new attitude in every hallway, classroom and office in the district.

“I'm trying desperately to change the culture of this district,” Foley said.

He said employees and parents continue to bring up negative issues in the district's past, and he wants to move forward instead of looking back.

Foley did not specifically identify those issues, but added that morale was low last winter during a negotiation breakdown and teachers strike.

He referenced a parent who spoke during the meeting's public comment session. Trisha Bogan said a mentality exists in the district that “teachers are lazy and greedy” and that they are “surrounded by toxic stress.”

Foley said he has initiated new programs, such as videos showing students talking about their favorite teachers and personal letters thanking teacher mentors.

“We've done a lot of things, I believe, but we keep going back to things that have happened in the past,” Foley said. “It's important to put a fresh coat of paint on the place and be done with the past, and move forward by possibly putting a new name on the district.”

He said many people already know the district as “Knoch” because all sports teams are the Knoch Knights and the district's two secondary schools are Knoch High School and Knoch Middle School.

The Knoch name came from the former owner of the property, Eva Knoch, who gifted her farm to the district decades ago.

Foley said the district's highest priority should continue to be its academic programs, and that a push for higher academic scores should be initiated.

“I'm imploring everyone to start thinking ahead,” Foley said. “What can we do to move forward?”

The biggest expenses in changing the district's name, he said, would be changing the floor mats, the marquee along Dinnerbell Road, and letterhead on district stationery.

The primary and intermediate elementary schools would require a name change if the move goes through.

“I'm sure there will be somebody (who) comes back and says, 'Is the expense of (a name change) worth it?'” Foley said. “I don't know what could be more worth it than forward thinking.”

He said a new logo to be used in every instance in which the new name is used would go along with the name change.

“We need to develop some type of consistency,” Foley said. “We need to say, 'We are the Knoch School District and we're doing some really cool things.'”

Board members did not comment on the potential change.

Foley said he will bring an inventory to a future meeting of the items that would be affected in a name change.

In other business, the school board voted unanimously to permit an unnamed student onto school property for the remainder of the current school year as well as next year for school activities.

Foley mentioned chorus and graduation as examples of times the student would be allowed on campus.

Foley declined to reveal the student's name, citing student privacy policies.