The new school district being formed by the merger of the Center Area and Monaca school districts will be named either Central Valley School District or North Bend School District.

The two school boards in separate meetings last night agreed to those two names as the finalists, a compromise forged after the naming process stalled last week.

The 18 members of the two boards will meet together Feb. 12 and will vote. The two school boards will then have to approve the chosen name separately; since the merger will not be official until July 1, the 18-member joint board has no binding decision-making power. Both boards committed to ratifying the name.

"Central Valley" and "North Bend" were among the top four choices of students in both Center and Monaca when they voted from a board-chosen list of seven possibilities Dec. 18. "Central Valley" reflects the new district's position on the Ohio River valley in the center of Beaver County; "North Bend" reflects the fact that the curve in the Ohio where the district lies is the river's northernmost point.

They were chosen for the final vote by a committee of board members Tuesday after the two boards, meeting jointly, deadlocked last week. Under the original process, the boards together were to choose from among four finalists --- "Mid-Valley" and "Moncentral" were the other two -- selected in the student vote. But when six Center board members wanted to toss out the list and make the name either "Center-Monaca" or "Monaca-Center," the issue got kicked back to the committee.

The name needs to be in place soon so the Web sites and computer databases for the new district can be started.

First Published: January 16, 2009, 4:30 p.m.