San Jose Unified to pick new name for Peter Burnett Middle School
The journey toward a new name for Burnett Middle School is close to a final stop, as San Jose Unified School District’s board of trustees is set to make a selection at its meeting Thursday night.
After a public vote on seven suggestions, three names are still in the running: Ohlone Middle School, San Jose Middle School and Sofia Mendoza Middle School. Those were the top three point-getters after students, staff and the community voted. Ohlone Middle School, a name that honors the indigenous people who lived in the Santa Clara Valley, came in first among staff and community voting and second among students, who preferred San Jose Middle School.
Naming the school for Mendoza, a Latina mother and activist who led a walkout at San Jose’s Roosevelt Junior High in the 1960s, came in third among students and staff and second in the community vote. Mendoza died in 2015.
The school, which opened in 1931 at the corner of North Second and Hedding Streets, originally was named for Peter Burnett, who served as California’s first governor in 185051 when San Jose was the state’s capital. However, Burnett proved wildly unpopular as the state’s chief executive and resigned just over a year into his term. In recent years, some of Burnett’s views — including keeping blacks out of California upon statehood and his later advocacy for the Chinese Exclusion Act — have resurfaced, prompting students and faculty to wonder why he was being honored with his name on a school.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the district office, 855 Lenzen Ave.
EMERGING ARTISTS WANTED >> A huge challenge for Santa Clara County lately has been figuring out how to keep its creative community around. The term “starving artist” rings very true for many creative residents who are trying to keep their heads above water while building careers as actors, painters, sculptors and poets.
That’s one of the key reasons for the existence of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artists Awards. A program of the Rotary Club of San Jose, the awards honor the longtime Mercury News columnist and my predecessor in this space, who died in 2012. Now in its seventh year, the program is giving away four unrestricted $5,000 grants to artists who live in Santa Clara County but have not yet gained widespread recognition.
The deadline to apply is June 30, and all the details are available at www. weimersawards.com. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have the privilege of chairing the program again this year but I don’t have a role in the selection process.)
MUSIC AT THE TRIANON >> There are very few live performances for the public to enjoy at downtown San Jose’s Trianon Theatre, which has been sold and is expected to soon become the home of New Beginnings Community Church. But one of the last events taking place at the venue is the 19th annual San Jose International Piano Competition, which opens Sunday night with an opening concert, “A Night in Napoli,” hosted by Antonio Pompa-Baldi, the Italianborn president of the competition’s jury.
Thirty contestants, ranging in age from 18 to 32 and coming from 13 countries, will take part in the competition, which runs through June 23. There are a combination of paid and free events at the Trianon, 72 N. Fifth St., and all the details are available at www.sjipc. com.