Fresno’s Central Unified schools to examine ‘appropriateness’ of school names and mascots
Fresno’s Central Unified School Board on Tuesday launched a new committee to examine “the appropriateness of school names and mascots.”
The group, made up of 24 people, including school officials and community members, will review the district’s school names and mascots after Central Unified trustees voted to form a committee last month.
The committee’s formation came as a response to a conversation about school names prompted by a Central Unified student, Malachi Suarez, who launched a change.org petition to change the name of Polk Elementary.
The committee will solicit community input and provide recommendations to the school board to determine if any action is necessary.
The naming committee will be comprised of three board trustees and 21 Central Unified community members. Board President Yesenia Carrillo and Vice President Richard Solis will be on the committee, as well as a rotating third trustee.
The district received 43 applications from a mix of Central Unified parents, administrators, current and former students, and residents from the seven trustee areas.
The naming committee plans to meet later this month.
They plan to develop an “Equity Analysis Protocol” to study school mascots and names and use that framework to examine all school mascots and names. This committee intends to complete the review by January.
The committee plans to hold “stakeholder input sessions” in the spring to gather input from the community. The committee’s analysis and recommendations are expected to be presented to the school board in April next year, according to a district staff report.
The committee also expects to help the board establish formal policies and procedures for naming schools and selecting mascots. Those recommendations are due in May.
Here are the committee members:
Area 1: Marisol Chavez, Dupinderjit Kaur, Joshua Sellers
Area 2: Nabil Kherfan, Angelea Mejia, Simran Rakhra
Area 3:: Eman Almutawakel, Shereese Butler, Vanessa Rodriguez
Area 4: Annette Dilley, RaeLee Lake, Monica Meza
Area 5: Diana Gallardo, Michael Kurnosoff, Jr., Melissa K. Miner
Area 6: Michelle Robles, Gina L. Sellers, Gabriel Suarez
Area 7: Mandip K. Johal, Rohini Randhawa, Jaspreet Sekhon
Gabriel Suarez, of Area 6, is the father of Malachi Suarez, the student who initiated the school name change petition.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
