Compton’s Clintonian Comeback

Hoping to finally reverse their district’s reputation for ineptitude, Compton school board members this morning will break ground on their first new school in more than three decades--and announce that they are naming it for a former U.S. president with reputation troubles of his own.

William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School represents a considerable milestone both for the district and for the 42nd chief executive of the United States. The 54,000-square-foot structure, with a tree-filled central courtyard and room for 1,000 students, promises to be a symbol of the Compton district’s emergence from state control. Associates and admirers of the former president said that outside of his home state of Arkansas, they know of no other school in America named for Clinton.

“This new school is a clear sign of a board going in the right direction toward rehabilitating our district for the children of Compton,” said Isadore Hall, president of the Compton school board. “Naming it William Jefferson Clinton furthers our message. It will give the school an identity and some recognition that people will remember.”

Hall and other school officials billed the new school as a perfect marriage between a district that serves a population that is overwhelmingly Latino and black and a president who was popular in those communities. Clinton’s impeachment and status as one of modern America’s most divisive political figures were considered insignificant compared to his accomplishments in aiding public education and race relations, they said. And they deflected questions about other characteristics the school district and president share, not all of them flattering.

Both are best known for the years 1993 to 2001. (During that time, Clinton served two tumultuous terms as president and the school district endured eight years of a state takeover launched to stem academic failings and corruption.)

Both continue to be dogged by prosecutors. (Clinton is under scrutiny for his last-minute granting of pardons; Compton’s superintendent is being investigated by New Mexico authorities for alleged open-meeting violations in his previous job, and the Compton board’s vice president is under indictment on election fraud charges.)

Both Clinton and the Compton school board entered new phases of their lives last year. (He left office, the board had its authority restored by the state.) As a result, both are eager to improve their standing in the public eye.

“To me, Clinton was the man because of his work in education and his work helping minorities--the other stuff doesn’t matter,” said Basil Kimbrew, the board vice president who is under indictment for allegedly lying about his address in election filings, which he refuses to publicly discuss. Kimbrew formally proposed the naming at a board meeting a few weeks ago. “And I thought we’d be one of the first Clinton schools of many.”

Some board members said they adopted the Clinton name in part to avoid ethnic controversy. The writer Toni Morrison may have called Clinton the “first black president,” but board member Marjorie Shipp said she supported naming the campus for Clinton “because he’s white.”

“Picking an African American or a Hispanic might have gotten a lot of people here upset,” Shipp said. “We figured Clinton would be a neutral name.”

Reaction in Compton has been positive mainly among those who know of the naming. The only loud objection came from community activist Lorraine Cervantes, who said she will not attend today’s ceremony in protest.

“Under no circumstances should you put on a school the name of a person like Clinton who has broken the Ten Commandments and betrayed the public trust,” Cervantes said. “It will reinforce the unfair perception people have of Compton. It makes it look like we think betrayal by public officials is OK.”

Clinton was not invited to the groundbreaking, though he may be asked to attend the school opening. His spokeswoman, Julia Payne, said this week that “the president is very honored whenever something is named for him.”

Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Library Foundation and a close tracker of all things Clintonian, said he is unaware of any American schools named for the former president outside Arkansas, where he was governor. William Jefferson Clinton Elementary Magnet School was dedicated in 1995 in the Arkansas town of Sherwood (pop. 21,500). Hope Primary School in Clinton’s birthplace was renamed for the president during his second term. And the University of Arkansas plans to open the Clinton School of Public Service, which will grant master’s degrees, in 2004.

Political opponents and bitter editorialists have made snide references to “the Bill Clinton School of Public Relations” (Buffalo News), “the Bill Clinton School for Scandal” (any number of congressional Republicans) and even “the Bill Clinton School of Tactile Touching” (Washington Post), but those are brickbats, not bricks-and-mortar institutions.

Clinton’s supporters have done better with public works projects. The town of New Square, N.Y., named a street after Clinton. During the 2000 Democratic National Convention, the city of West Hollywood briefly renamed Clinton Avenue Bill Clinton Avenue in honor of the president’s commitment to gay rights. And as one might expect of a president fond of building rhetorical bridges, there are any number of spans being contemplated for his name.

The Clinton name is popular internationally--there’s a piece of a highway in Ireland, a road in Nigeria, even a strip club in Reykjavik that bares his name.

“It’s still very early,” said Rutherford, the foundation president, noting that Clinton is just in his 50s and has been out of office less than 18 months. “My sense is that there will be over time many opportunities, and much of those will be based on the fact that his administration included more women and minorities than ever before.”

That reflects the thinking in Compton, a city of 93,000 whose predominantly black and Latino voters overwhelmingly voted for Clinton in the 1992 and 1996 elections.

For more than a decade, school officials have sought to build a elementary school, largely to deal with overcrowding in the eastern half of Compton, where immigrant families have settled and thrived.

But public confidence in the district was so low--and the state takeover so unpopular--that school bond measures that might have paid for new construction routinely failed to win voter support. In December, the state--citing improvements in facilities and financial management--returned authority to the board’s newly elected school board. That board--and new Supt. Jesse Gonzales--moved quickly to build the $16-million school with state money and loans not involving bonds.

Compton school board members said they did not debate the naming much.

Hall, the board president, first suggested the idea several weeks ago, and Kimbrew’s formal motion was approved in less than 10 minutes.

The board also discussed poet Maya Angelou and late Compton school board member Manuel Correa, a former police officer.

The new school “will have a park-like feel, with a courtyard and an outdoor amphitheater,” said Jeff Fuller, project manager of Clinton Elementary’s designer, GKK Corp. of Newport Beach.

The campus will consist of two-story modular buildings, brought to the site in trucks, allowing for completion by February.

The name will be prominently displayed at the school’s Compton Boulevard entrance, at the eastern gateway to the city.