What is in a name?

Over the past several months, the Mariposa County Unified School District has been working to rename a few of its facilities in honor of those who have dedicated so much of their lives to children in the community.

A committee was formed, which held several meetings in regard to renaming some of the buildings on MCUSD campuses.

After collecting and considering applications during the process, a public hearing was held and the committee presented the school board with its nominations.

After previously voting on those nominations, the board acknowledged the recipients and honored them during the school board meeting on March 12.

The sites will be renamed later this year.

“Celeste (Azevedo) has done a wonderful job leading this committee,” said Superintendent Jeff Aranguena.

The committee consisted of former Judge Dana Walton, Stormi Smith and several others who were not present at the meeting.

“We had classified staff representation as well as members from each of the different areas of our county,” Azevedo said.

While Sierra Home School will be renamed Sierra Independent Study, the Alternative Education campus will be renamed to The Judy Eppler Alternative Education Center.

A plaque was presented to Eppler which states, “The Judy Eppler Alternative Education Center will be dedicated in the year 2026 in honor of the many years of service and many lives Mrs. Eppler has touched through her many years with the Mariposa County Unified School District, presented March 12, 2026 on behalf of a grateful community and the MCUSD/MCOE school board.”

“Thank you for your service to the district,” trustee Bob Morse said.

The new building on the lower campus at MCHS is to be renamed LaNotte-Hayes Hall for the Humanities.

A plaque was presented to Lauralynn LaNotte-Hayes stating the building will be dedicated in 2026 on the lower campus of MCHS for “contributions made and embodying the core values and culture of the MCUSD/MCOE.”

The the last building to be renamed for now is the multipurpose building at Woodland Elementary School.

“The WEL multipurpose building is to be renamed The Rose Varney Multipurpose Room,” said Morse.

A plaque was presented to the family of Varney, who were present in honor of their mother.

“With these three ladies there’s 150 plus years of experience teaching students and guiding young minds while being a part of the community,” said trustee Wayne Forsyth.

“It’s truly amazing what they’ve done.”

There haven’t been many facilities named after women in the district.

“How lucky and blessed are we to have these ladies,” Forsyth said.

“We don’t have very many ladies with their name around campus, and now we do.”

“It was a very unexpected honor and I tear up every time,” LaNotte-Hayes said.

“It’s been an amazing experience to be in this community and deal with generations of kids.”

Eppler thanked the committee and shared a story about when she was earning her administrative credential.

“I said to the professor, “how does one person know how to run a school,” and he said you surround yourself with good people and get out of the way,” she laughed.

“I was surrounded by good people in every aspect.”

Varney’s children spoke highly of their mother.

“We come from a long line of educators on my mother’s side of the family, all seven of her siblings were a part of educating people with compassion and immersing themselves,” they said.