Naming Schools No Longer Easy

At a recent Oxnard School District board meeting, several parents rose to demand that the trustees name the district’s next school for a recently deceased Oxnard woman.

At another meeting, a school employee asked the board to name a new gymnasium for a retired Oxnard teacher. And on Wednesday a second group of parents added to the list of potential names an Oxnard man who had become a role model for neighborhood children.

By the board’s regular meeting Wednesday night, the trustees decided that rather than debating the issue, they would transfer the task of naming the school to a separate committee of 25 parents, teachers and school staff members.

The job of naming schools and buildings, said board President Jim Suter, had “gotten totally out of control.”

“This whole issue has become a distraction to what we’re supposed to be doing,” Suter said.

By leaving the naming process to a committee, several members said, the political heat generated by the selection process would be reduced.

“This has really become a political hot potato,” district Supt. Norman Brekke said. “At least if they leave it with a committee, you have to believe the decision will meet with a substantial body of support within the community. But I’m sure no matter what is decided, someone will be offended.”

The tension surrounding the naming of buildings and schools has never been so high, according to longtime board member Jack Fowler.

In the past, the board named schools without much debate, Fowler said. He said the board met no resistance when it renamed Seaport School to Christa McAuliffe School in 1986 after McAuliffe died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

Fowler said the same was true of the recently opened Emily Ritchen School, named for an Oxnard librarian in 1988.

And, Suter said, the naming of the Frank School, which will open in August, was politically benign.

What has changed since then, according to some members of the community, is that Latino parents have pushed for greater involvement in the naming process. That became evident last year when Juanita School was renamed for Cesar Chavez, a move applauded by the Latino community.

“I don’t think the door was ever open for our participation in the past,” said Carlos Aguilera, a parent in the district who said Thursday that he plans to run for a seat on the school board in November.

“There has been a reluctance on the part of the board to allow the community to become involved,” Aguilera said. “But we have realized that we have to do more than put our foot in the door. We have to kick the door down.”

Aguilera and others have suggested that the board consider naming the new school in honor of a Latino because the person for whom the school is named can serve as a positive role model for Latino children.

Suter said the people pushing to honor a Latino have “missed the point.”

“I don’t care if the person is black or Hispanic or white, we just want to name the school after the best person possible,” Suter said.

The naming of the elementary school, which will be built in northeast Oxnard, will now turn to the newly formed committee. The gym has been built at the Frank Intermediate School, set to open in August.

But the naming of the gym might never occur.

“I want the committee to consider whether it would be appropriate to name the gym for someone at all,” Trustee Dorothie Sterling told the board. “We haven’t done that in the past and I don’t think we want to set the precedent now.

“The process,” she said, “has become too difficult.”

Now that the job has been left to the committee, Brekke said, the school board can focus on more important issues.

“Hopefully, everyone will allow this debate to pass,” Brekke said. “Obviously the concern should be with the activities that go on inside our school buildings, not the names on them.”