SANTA PAULA : School Won’t Be Renamed for Latino

After hearing public testimony, the Santa Paula school board decided that Glen City School should not be renamed for a current Latino school board member.

Trustees Wannette Jauregui and Janet Grant voted in favor of a motion to leave the elementary school’s name unchanged, while trustee Gene Marzec voted against the measure. Marzec supported a rival proposal to change the name to Joe Bravo School.

Bravo, a current trustee on the board, abstained from voting at Thursday’s meeting, as did trustee Benjamin Saiz. Saiz did not explain his reason for abstaining, said Bob Borrego, a community activist who proposed the name change.

Saiz was not available for comment Friday.

Jauregui and Grant have said they received many letters urging them not to change the name of the school and that influenced their decision.

Borrego said he underestimated the sentimental attachment that many longtime Santa Paula residents have to the name Glen City School. Santa Paula was once referred to as Glen City.

“I raised the issue and explained the reasons why I felt it would be good for the school district,” Borrego said Friday. “But a lot of people just didn’t want it changed.”

Borrego said he suggested the name change so that Santa Paula’a Latino youth would have a positive role model to look up. Besides being a school board trustee, Bravo is a former mayor of the city and a native son.

About 60% of the tiny city’s residents are Latino.

“Santa Paula is a strange community,” Borrego said. “People like to think it is a friendly, quaint community. But there is another part of the population that is always ignored, and that is the Latinos.”