7 finalists suggested for new name of Burnett school
The candidates to replace Peter Burnett as the name of a diverse San Jose middle school include an early mayor who was an Apache, the man who built a new Chinatown and a woman who led a walkout at Roosevelt Junior High in the 1960s.
Over the past few weeks, a committee of Burnett students, teachers and community members narrowed down a list of more than 500 public submissions to seven finalists after the district agreed that Burnett’s name should no longer be on the school, which was built in 1931. Burnett served as California’s first governor in 1850-51 when San Jose was the state capital. But the Oregon transplant proved to be wildly unpopular and resigned after just one year in office.
Some of his views, including proposing that California ban African Americans from living there and his later advocacy for the Chinese Exclusion Act, raised the question of why his name would be on a school on the edge of San Jose’s historic Japantown that serves a largely Latino community.
One popular suggestion — former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, an alum of the school — was apparently ruled out early because of a district guideline that facilities should be named only for people who are deceased.
The public can vote on their favorite Monday through Friday, and that input will be considered when the San Jose Unified School District’s board of trustees makes its decision on a new name at an upcoming meeting.
Three of the recommendations are geographic or historical in nature: San Jose Middle School, Guadalupe River Middle School, and Ohlone Middle School, which would honor the original Native American inhabitants of the Santa Clara Valley.
Here are the four finalists honoring people:
• José Manuel Gonzáles Middle School, for San Jose’s second mayor, a member of the Apache nation who built the structure now known as the Peralta Adobe.
• John Heinlen Middle School, after the
German immigrant and Coyote Valley rancher who offered his own land to build a new Chinatown after arsonists burned down the existing one in 1887.
• Fred Korematsu Middle School, for the Oakland-born Japanese American who fought the U.S. government over the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Sofia Mendoza Middle School, after the civil rights activist and organizer who helped organize a walkout at Roosevelt Junior High over the treatment of Latino students in 1967. She died at age 80 in 2015.
FOLKLORICO FOR ALL >>
Los Lupeños de San Jose, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is providing a great way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, with a free folklorico festival today at the Mexican Heritage Plaza.
“¡Gracias!,” which runs from noon to 4 p.m., will feature Los Lupeños and Los Lupeños Juvenil, as well as other performing groups, including Los Mestizos de San Jose, Madrigal Musical and Mariachi Tapatio. The celebration also kicks off 20th anniversary festivities for the Mexican Heritage Plaza, which is at the corner of King Road and Alum Rock Avenue in East San Jose.
ATHLETES OVERCOMING ADVERSITY >> NFL legend Ronnie Lott and soccer star Brandi Chastain presented six Santa Clara County high school seniors
with REACH Youth Scholarships from the San Jose Sports Authority on Friday morning at a breakfast at the Marriott San Jose. The program, which was founded in 1997 (and for which I am on the selection committee), awards college scholarships to students who have used athletics to overcome adversity in their lives, challenges that range from illness and injuries to financial hardship and even sexual abuse.
The scholarships ranged from $2,000 to $7,000, with the top prize going to Devyn Lopez, a crosscountry runner at Overfelt High in San Jose. The other honorees, selected from 34 applicants who were all invited to the breakfast, were Vanessa Burgos (Latino College Prep), Glen Falconio (Los Gatos High), Christopher
Mansilla (Eastside College Prep), Yuuki Okazaki (Santa Teresa High) and Kyle Yu (Saratoga High).
CELEBRATING WITH THE COOL CATS >> The New Museum in Los Gatos managed to make space for the dozens of movers and shakers who turned out last Tuesday for a celebration hosted by KCAT-TV, the public station that has been covering the goings on in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno for 35 years. The “Party for the Stars” put the spotlight on the station’s supporters and especially the guests who have appeared on Lissa Kreisler’s interview program, “Community Storytelling: Stories About People Doing Good Things.”
The show, which can be seen on Comcast Ch. 15 in those towns at various times of the week, is entering
its third season, and the former KBAY morning show host cajoled me into appearing and telling a few stories about my favorite spots in Los Gatos. But Kreisler says she’d love to get another full season of Los Gatos/Monte Sereno folks with interesting stories — she knows they’re out there — and people can nominate someone to appear by going to www. kcat.org.
HONOR ROLL >> South Bay students just keep racking up the awards. James Lick High grad and UC San Diego student Julie Le Bach was recently honored at the Lions Club’s multipledistrict convention in Sacramento for an amazing year.
Le Bach was president of the Leo’s Club at Lick before she graduated last year and turned the club into a powerhouse service group. The San Jose HostEast Valley Lions Club nominated her for Leo of the Year, which she won at the local, state and national levels. She was then awarded Leo of the World at the Lions International Convention in Las Vegas last year.
And let’s have a good drum roll for the percussion ensemble at Ida Price Charter Middle School in San Jose, which came home with the gold in the Scholastic Concert A division at the Winter Guard International championships in Dayton, Ohio, last month. The band’s 16 young performers are led by band director Catherine Lorigan, who started the program two decades ago.