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Voting opens for name of new high school in southwest Forsyth
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SOUTH FORSYTH — Forsyth County’s sixth high school needs a name, and it will not be Southwest Forsyth High School.

Residents can visit the school system’s website through April 27 to vote on the three proposed names for High School No. 6, which is being built on 118 acres between Fowler and Mullinax roads.

Here’s a look at the choices:

 

Isaac Clement

 

The school could be known as Clement High School, named after the first county school commissioner, or superintendent.

Isaac Clement was appointed in 1872 by the Forsyth County Grand Jury and established the first public school district, serving 1,510 students, in 1873.

Clement was a lawyer, according to the school system’s website, and worked for two newspapers — the last being The Cumming Clarion that he owned and edited for 16 years.

He also was Cumming’s postmaster and retired as superintendent after 20 years.

He died in December 1891.

 

Dr. Leila Denmark

 

If chosen, the school would be called Dr. Denmark High School.

The school’s land is adjacent to where Leila Denmark, one of the first female pediatricians in Georgia, lived and operated her last medical office.

She worked with Eli Lilly and other researchers at Emory University, helping develop a successful vaccination for whooping cough in 1932.

At age 103, Denmark retired. She was the oldest practicing physician in the nation at the time.

She died in 2012 as the fifth-oldest living person in the world at age 114.

 

Union Hill

 

In the third option, the school would be named after Union Hill road in southwest Forsyth, which is just south of where the land sits.

Union Hill has been associated with the area since the 1830s, two years before Forsyth County was formed as a result of Cherokee County being divided into smaller counties.

Public voting results will be shared with the School Naming Committee, which will make a recommendation to the school board in May.

The land purchase and construction is being funded by a voter-approved bond referendum from 2014.

Attendance lines likely will be determined in fall 2017, with a projected opening of August 2018.