Fort Bend ISD's newest high school will be known as Ridge Point High.
The name was approved by the school board Monday. The school is set to open in the fall.
The name was one of 38 suggested monikers submitted by residents for the school, which is at 500 Waters Lake Blvd. in Missouri City.
A naming committee comprising parents, students, campus staff members - including principal Karin Grisdale - as well as school board trustees Laurie Caldwell and Daniel Menendez helped sort through the various suggestions.
“The opinions of parents and students were highly valued,” Caldwell said. She said the popularity of the names, “River Ranch” and “Ronald Thornton,” trailed Ridge Point.
“Ridge Point” stems from “Blue Ridge” and “Stafford’s Point,” which represent two industries responsible for the economic growth that led to the establishment of the area’s communities, according to the school district.
Other names that had been suggested included President Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Commissioner James Patterson and the late television reporter Marvin Zindler.
But the committee embraced the east end’s local industrial roots.
Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railways built the first operational railroad in Texas in the 1850s that ran through the northern part of Missouri City and ended at Stafford’s Point, now the city of Stafford.
The rail line was later extended along what is now Texas 6, providing transportation to markets for crops and livestock while serving as a shipping point for the Blue Ridge Oil Field and salt mine.
People drawn to the area’s economic opportunities settled down and commuted by railroad to nearby towns such as Stafford’s Point and Sugar Land.
The new campus is being built in the Hillwood residential development adjacent to Sienna Plantation.
Mike McKie, assistant superintendent for high schools, said students who will attend Ridge Point have picked purple, white and silver as the school's colors. A mascot has not yet been chosen.