David Starr Jordan renaming committee urges patience as process heads into 2020
It was in spring 2018 when the Burbank Unified school board received an appeal for a name change and a request for a christening.
Several local residents called to name Burbank High School’s main athletic field after school icons Dave Kemp and Frank Kallem, which resulted in a May ceremony that brought both men back to the campus.
The district’s other naming project, however, has not been nearly as quick or neat, after a Jordan Middle School parent asked that her daughter’s campus drop its namesake.
In both naming cases, the Burbank Unified school board established facilities-naming committees that held forums and ultimately offered recommendations to board members, who agreed with the recommendations on both counts.
While Burbank Unified’s board voted to remove David Starr Jordan’s name from the school this past spring, the process to find a replacement name will continue into a third year.
However, some members of the district’s nine-person facilities-naming committee said there’s no issue regarding how long it will take to agree on a new name.
“Kemp-Kallem Field naming was only a part of a school naming that hadn’t previously been named,” said Charlene Tabet, a Burbank Unified board member and naming committee chair.
“In the case of Jordan, we are renaming an entire school that has long been an important part of the community,” she added. “The renaming deserves time and effort to make sure we make the right choices.”
The facilities-naming committee was supposed to meet in December but postponed that meeting until January.
Since Burbank Unified’s school board voted to change David Starr Jordan in April, the committee has met only twice.
“I never expected this to be a quick process,” said Steve Frintner, a Burbank Unified board and committee member.
“We wanted to be deliberate in each part of the process, to make sure we were/are giving everyone — students, staff, parents and community members — a chance for input,” he added.
Perhaps the infrequent meetings are the cause of lackluster community participation since fewer than 10 people attended each of the past two meetings.
Only five people attended the committee’s last meeting in October.
“At the last meeting, we began talking about a plan to help the community have an opportunity to suggest names when the time comes,” Tabet said.
Tabet and Frintner both said they are convinced the numbers will pick up after the holiday season. It wasn’t uncommon last year to see anywhere from 30 to 60 members of the public speaking at Jordan renaming forums.
This upcoming year, however, it appears the emphasis will be on patience, according to a statement released by Jordan principal Jennifer Meglemre, a member of the facilities-naming committee, on behalf of the school board.
“We feel that a decision to change the name of a school should involve as many individuals as possible, especially students,” according to the statement. “In order to collect feedback, the process is taking some time. This is not a process that we want to rush.”
