The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Vote proposed on keeping name of middle school
MIDDLETOWN — The city’s Republican Town Committee leader is asking that residents, not the Common Council, be the ones to decide whether to rename the new $87.35 million middle school in honor of local abolitionists.
William Wilson, chairman of the RTC and a 1982 Woodrow Wilson Middle School graduate, said the vote should to referendum.
The council was expected to discuss the longtime controversial measure at Monday night’s meeting. The council has sole authority to name all city property, according to the charter.
“This is the only way to make it a valid decision,” Wilson said. He started a change.org petition about a year ago, Keep the Woodrow Wilson Middle School name, which so far has approximately 1,700 signatures.
“We need to continue to sign and fight to keep our school name,” Wilson wrote Saturday as an update to the petition. He said some members of the Board of Education’s Middle School Naming Committee have no ties to Middletown, and others joined the debate only in the past decade or so.
Institutions across the nation named after the former president have come under fire in recent years because of his segregationist views.
He also taught history at
Wesleyan University from 1888-90 and lived in Middletown during that time.
Because of those facts and the concerns of alumni, the name should remain, the GOP leader said. “How many presidents have lived in Middletown?” he asked. “There has only been one.”
Common Councilman Ed McKeon said he supports renaming the school for the Beman family.
“I have said and written for many years that we should not be naming a school after an avowed racist. The Beman family is the perfect family for a lot of reasons. Historically, they have not been recognized in the way they should be,” McKeon said.
Jehiel Beman (17891858), Jesse Baldwin and Benjamin Douglas formed the Middletown AntiSlavery Society in 1834. Beman was a minister at the AME Zion Church on Cross Street. The family was instrumental in Middletown’s participation in the Underground Railroad.
The Bemans, an African-American family, had a huge influence in the city and region, McKeon said.
“It is a moment in our history where we all have the opportunity to stop and reflect on where we should go. It seems the perfect opportunity to move forward in a positive way and to name it after an African-American family,” McKeon said.
Wilson is seeking a yes-or-no referendum question. “It is time to let the public decide the name of our middle school,” he said. “That’s the easiest way to do it.
“Don’t leave it up to the council. Don’t leave it up to 12 people to make this decision. Don’t leave it up to a naming committee,” Wilson said.
“Talking to people in Middletown, I don’t know one person — besides the people on the committee, or who have special interests — that want to change the name to the Beman school,” Wilson said.
“I think this is a fantastic opportunity for Middletown to recognize some of its history and move forward into the next century, and show we value the history and experience of all our students, particularly those who haven’t been included in traditional curriculum,” naming committee Chairwoman Lisa Loomis has said.
The new middle school will incorporate sixthgraders there into a facility that consists of seventhand eighth-graders. The future of the Keigwin building is uncertain.
As a second choice, Wilson would agree to calling the school Middletown Middle School, an idea proposed early on in the process at the naming panel meeting.
Loomis said resident input has been ongoing for more than a year.
“I think public input on the name of the school is essential,” she said. “For the sake of unifying the community, and for ensuring the construction of the new school to remain on schedule, it would not be wise to drag this process any further than the council’s vote Aug. 3.”