East Austin group emerges to help change Confederate school names

Days after the only black member of the Austin school board was criticized for publicly calling out his peers for delaying a vote on changing school names with ties to the Confederacy, more than a dozen parents, educators, lawyers and community leaders have formed a work group to push the changes forward.

The group of 15, formed by the East Austin Coalition for Quality Education, said it will conduct research, engagethe Austin community and develop strategies to create a name-changing process for Austin schools. Several of the members in the group have » experience conducting historical research, lobbying and advocating for social justice issues.

Group members said they hope their efforts — which will be independent of school administrators’ work on the issue — will help inform the work of Trustee Ted Gordon in his advocacy for chang- ing the names of five schools.

Gordon said forming the work group was not his idea. However, he added, “it’s not a bad one.”

“I welcome any and all Austinites who are interested in this issue and interested in fast-forwarding the efforts to name our schools in ways that are consistent with our values,” Gordon said.

In November, Austin district administrators said they planned to move ahead to rename five Austin campuses with ties to the Confederacy. Trustees had mixed responses, with a few saying they felt the change was important and others calling the timeline aggressive and the decision very top-down.