SANTA PAULA : Hearing to Study Renaming School

A public hearing is scheduled Thursday over a proposal to rename a Santa Paula elementary school after a longtime city leader and current school board trustee.

The Board of Trustees of the Santa Paula Elementary School District will hear testimony on whether to rename Glen City School after Trustee Joe Bravo, but the item is scheduled as an information-only matter, and no decision will be made.

Every elementary school in Santa Paula except Glen City is named after a prominent local citizen, all of whom are white. The city is 60% Latino, and the name issue, which some community members claim is racial, has divided many in the city of 25,000 people.

Two months ago, former Trustee Bob Borrego proposed renaming the campus after Bravo, the former mayor of Santa Paula.

But others suggested the district would do better to honor Dorothy Pinkerton, who served as the Glen City School principal for more than 20 years until her retirement in 1974.

Pinkerton has said she would welcome the honor, but would rather see the school’s name remain Glen City, a reference to what the city was called before it was named Santa Paula.

The hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the district office at 144 Davis St.