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Orange County plans a public process to rename schools linked to racism, inequality

The principals of Cameron Park Elementary and C.W. Stanford Middle schools will lead the community process to rename their schools, the Orange County school board decided Monday.

The school board voted 5-2 to let the principals choose district staff, residents, parents and potentially students to serve on separate renaming committees.

The decision follows the board’s Feb. 8 vote to rename Cameron Park Elementary School and its Feb. 22 vote to rename C.W. Stanford Middle School. The district’s Equity Task Force identified both schools as having historic ties to racism and racial injustice.

The renaming effort is part of the district’s 15-step plan to create an environment of equity and multiculturalism and to counter unfair and discriminatory policies, programs and practices.

Board members Bonnie Hauser and Will Atherton voted against the plan after asking whether the district should make renaming schools a priority at this phase of the COVID-19 response.

Both said they like the plan to put principals and schools in charge of the process. But Hauser said she’s “just not comfortable with the timing,” noting the challenges facing the schools and the search for a new principal of Stanford Middle.

“Our teachers are already exhausted and overwhelmed. They’ve not been vaccinated. They’re just starting under Plan B, and we have not put together our plan for summer school,” Hauser said. “People want to know what we’re doing as far as going back to school full-time. I just don’t know how we can ask our schools to take this on now.”

Superintendent Monique Felder said her staff will be available to support the schools, starting with a public input process this month. More details will be posted to the district website.

“I agree that this is a very stressful, difficult time for staff, but I don’t know that it will be any less stressful or difficult into the early part of next year,” Felder said.

The district’s policy does not allow for naming schools for people and says there’s a preference for names reflecting a geographic or historic significance. But the board also voted 5-2 Monday to leave open the possibility of naming a school for a person.

Atherton and Hauser also voted against potentially considering a person’s name.

In May, the committees will provide the school board with two or three choices for each school.

The board could make a final decision about the names in June, giving staff time to make changes before students return to school in late summer.

In addition to new signs, the district will need to buy new athletic uniforms and equipment, new band and cheerleader uniforms, scoreboards and new mascot decals for schools walls, floors and other spots on campus.

The board received an update on the ongoing work to address equity Monday.

Dena Keeling, the district’s chief equity officer, reported in December that most county schools are named for Black educators, Native American history or historic, local places.

Cameron Park is named for a noted Orange County slaveowner.

Stanford Middle is named for Charles Whitson Stanford Sr., who served on the Orange County school board during segregation from 1941 to 1967, including 16 years as chairman.

Last month, Stanford’s relatives spoke to the school board to object to removing their family name. They said the public didn’t have all the facts about the decision.

Grandson Don Stanford told the board his grandfather worked within the existing political system to make life better for all people.

“His prodigious efforts on the Board of Education were complicated by a century-old system of laws that enforced discrimination by segregation against persons of color — a system that was slowly but surely being dismantled,” Don Stanford said, The News & Observer reported.

Board members said last month’s vote to change the name isn’t an indictment of former school board leader C.W. Stanford, but an acknowledgment that his board upheld separate but unequal education for Black students.

A few other district schools also are named for local figures, including A.L. Stanback Elementary School, named for the principal who led the all-black Central High School from 1942 to 1964; and Grady A. Brown Elementary School, named for the former principal of the all-white Hillsborough High School who also was associate superintendent during desegregation.