Mrs. Curran was chosen to be the school's namesake because she was the oldest member of a pioneer family and was always interested in Murrieta's history.
In 1987 the school board of Murrieta Valley Unified School District realized that thousands of children were going to be moving into new houses in Murrieta and they would be needing new schools. At a school board meeting in 1987, the school board decided on a formula for naming new schools. The school board wanted the children to learn something about Murrieta's history. A school board member proposed that they name the schools after Indian tree names, pioneer families in Murrieta, and names of places. The first new school was named Avaxat which is an Indian word for cottonwood tree. The next school named was named E. Hale Curran.
E. Hale Curran (center) with her daughter, Kay, and son, Marv, at the school's groundbreaking