Central Unified’s reputation is on the line with the effort to rename Polk Elementary

Changing the name of a school, a town or a sports team should be an inclusive process that invites community input.

In July 2021, students and community members called upon the Central Unified School District board to rename James K. Polk Elementary School. After a lengthy process, the Committee to Study School Names & Mascots was formed; however, the general proceedings of the committee have so far demonstrated poor management, lack of transparency, and little desire for community input.

Committee meetings are not adequately promoted to the public, are not accessible to remote attendees online, and are not recorded. These actions communicate a lack of respect for the Central Unified students and their families who have asked to be included.

In contrast, when the rename of J.C. Forkner Elementary in Fresno Unified School District was proposed, that board acted swiftly to vote on the change and to form a committee to evaluate future proposed name changes in the district. When the antisemitic views of Fresno State Library’s namesake, Henry Miller Madden, were revealed in early December 2021, university administrators moved quickly to form a task force. That group is now completing their investigation and making recommendations.

Changing the name of Polk Elementary or any other public institution is a conversation worth having. Anyone who is quick to dismiss the reasoning behind these renames is not showing respect to these students’ and families’ concerns.

A common rebuttal is that changing names erases history, but that logic is selective. Whose accounts of history are immortalized and whose are buried, whose legacies are dishonored and whose atrocities are forgiven?

Before James K. Polk and before any school building in Central Unified was erected, Indigenous Yokut and Mono people were stewards of the land we now call the Central Valley. Is that not a history that has already been erased? If we want to discuss history, let’s be comprehensive and inclusive.

It was through a Polk Elementary Gifted and Talented Education program (GATE) student project that the campaign to change the school’s name was made. The student critiques the concept of manifest destiny, which Polk used to rally support for the western expansion of the United States. Was it worth the death, violence, and genocide that it cost?

The purpose of education is not to memorize facts, but to ask these difficult questions. We can learn from the past, and through our education systems, we ask the future of our society, students, to wrestle with history through the context of our modern world. How hypocritical to then silence students’ research and honest inquiry.

This is about more than just a name. The root of this controversy stems from a debate over the values Central Unified endorses through the symbols and figures the district upholds. If even a few people in our community feel that their identities are demeaned and trivialized by the names and mascots of our schools, why shouldn’t we change them? The reputation of Central Unified is in question.

Education does not only happen in the classroom. We could approach the controversy at Polk Elementary as a learning opportunity for everyone — teachers, students, and community members. Through this process, leaders in our community can model to our youth how to acknowledge past mistakes and have the courage to correct them.

Want to join the conversation? The next Central Unified committee meeting will be held at 6 p.m. May 3, at 5652 West Gettysburg, Room 4.