Edict: Schools have bad name
Changes requested at 44 S. F. sites — including Washington, Lincoln and Feinstein
A third of San Francisco public schools could see their names changed as officials push to replace “inappropriate” ones honoring presidents, writers, generals and even Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Parents and principals at 44 sites were forced to scramble this week to brainstorm new school names while also juggling the demands of distance learning in a pandemic.
Those names on the school buildings, including Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson, that have connections to slavery, genocide or oppression should be changed, according to a committee recommendation heading to the school board.
More than a third of the district’s 125 schools made the list of objectionable names, which also included Balboa, Lowell and Mission high schools, as well as Roosevelt and Presidio middle schools and Webster, Sanchez and Jose Ortega elementary schools.
The move comes amid a national reckoning on racism, but it also arrives in the wake of
another controversial move by the district to address the country’s painful past: covering a mural depicting slavery and Native American mistreatment. Some of the alumni involved in the mural fight are gearing up for another battle over the renaming.
The request for name changes shocked many principals and families, who questioned whether changing a name was a midpandemic priority when their children cannot physically attend the school in question and parents are scrambling to help students with distance learning.
“Principals are devoting resources to this,” said parent Jonathan Alloy, whose children attend Commodore Sloat, one of the schools on the list. “We’re being presented with it as a fait accompli.”
It’s not a done deal by any stretch, however. The school board will have to vote on any recommended name changes, likely in late January or early February. But in the meantime, each school on the list is expected to come up with alternative names by Dec. 18.
The timing, Alloy said, is absurd, given the demands related to distance learning, which is having a greater negative impact on Black and brown children than their peers.
“We’re not actually helping disadvantaged children by changing the name of the school they can’t attend,” he said.
District administrators appeared to add to confusion about the stillpending process, sending a letter last week to principals advising them that “the panel found that your school’s name met their criteria for renaming,” and that they were asked to “generate and offer alternative names.”
The principal of Commodore Sloat, Fowzigiah Abdolcader, notified parents Wednesday of the need to come up with a new name, because John D. Sloat was a colonizer who “claimed/ stole” California from Mexico, according to the committee.
“I understand that this may bring up mixed emotions within our community, because we love our school,” the principal said.
Board President Mark Sanchez confirmed that the 44 schools on the list are requested to come up with new names in the middle of a pandemic, even while students are struggling at home with distance learning.
“I don’t think there is ever going to be a time when people are ready for this,” he said. “Predictably people are going to be upset no matter when we do this.”
In addition, Sanchez said he didn’t anticipate that the board would change the name of all 44 schools, but those on the list “should be prepared.”
The panel includes 12 community members appointed by the superintendent and approved by the school board, as well as district staff members and board President Mark Sanchez. It was formed in January and has since met 10 times, with members doing their own research, looking at newspaper articles, among other resources to identify whether the name on a school met the criteria for renaming, which includes anyone or anything associated with slavery, genocide, colonization, exploitation and oppression, among other factors.
Committee members did not respond to an email requesting comment.
In a September meeting, panelist Mariposa Villaluna urged the committee to include Thomas Edison Elementary School on the list to change, saying he euthanized animals, including Topsy the elephant, according to a video of the meeting.
“He euthanized them without scientific research,” Villaluna said. “It wasn’t like hamsters in a cage, you know what I mean.”
The committee, however, said that didn’t meet the criteria.
“Long live Topsy,” Villaluna said after the decision.
El Dorado Elementary came up next for discussion, with board members questioning whether the criteria should apply to a mythological place associated with settlers or colonists.
“The concept of El
Dorado, especially in California, had a lot to do with the search of gold, and for the indigenous people that meant the death of them,” said Mary Travis Allen during a September panel meeting. “I don’t think the concept of greed and lust for gold is a concept we want our children to be given.”
While some on the panel questioned whether an imaginary place filled with gold met the criteria for renaming.
“That’s how we justified Mission and Presidio, as places of human rights abuses or environmental abuses,” said Jeremiah Jeffries, saying it was similar to naming a school “Manifest Destiny.”
El Dorado was added to the list for renaming.
The school board actually waited two years to implement a resolution passed in 2018, requiring a blue ribbon panel to study school names and submit recommendations for changes.
“This is important work,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a reckoning as a country and a nation. We need to do our part.”
That work includes a recommendation to change the name of Dianne Feinstein Elementary, a name given by the Board of Education in 2006 when the new school opened.
The school made the list because, as mayor in 1986, Feinstein reportedly replaced a vandalized Confederate flag, one of several historic flags flying in front of City Hall at the time.
Abraham Lincoln High is also on the list, based on the former president’s treatment of American Indian and native peoples.
Officials from five high school alumni associations criticized the process, saying the committee did not consult professional historians or diverse ethnic communities.
“We need an inclusive process that will allow all communities to be heard, use professional historians applying verifiable data, issue a written report why a school name might be changed, so the community can make a considered decision,” said the alumni association presidents from Balboa, Galileo, Lincoln, Lowell and Washington high schools in a letter to district officials last week.
They encouraged the board to “suspend the current process until everyone can safely return to school sites for the robust and thoughtful conversations you directed in the original board resolution.”
Currently, the panel is expected to meet in early January to consider the alternative names from school communities, district officials said, and submit final recommendations to the board in late January or early February. It’s unclear what the cost would be to rename the schools, but it would likely be tens of thousands of dollars for each school to pay for new signage and other needs.
“This is a process being led by an advisory committee,” said district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe. “SFUSD staff will convey the concerns expressed by some school community members regarding the challenges of making recommendations at this time given that we are in distance learning.”