By James Wright
AFRO Staff Writer
Plans for proposed elementary school in Prince George's County, Maryland.
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(June 24, 2009) - The Prince George’s County Board of Education will consider a resolution to name an elementary school after President Obama on June 25. If the measure passes, which is expected, it will be the first newly-built public school in the country named after the president.
There are schools that bear Barack Obama’s name in California (Compton and Oakland), New York (Hempstead) and New Jersey (Plainfield). However, the school in Prince George’s County, scheduled to be located next to Henry Wise High School in Upper Marlboro, will be the first to have Obama as its original name.
Verjeana Jacobs, president of the board of education, said Obama’s name was by far the most popular choice for the new school.
“I am one that believes that messaging is important when you name schools,” said Jacobs. “Most of the schools in the county are named after people who are deceased and left a certain legacy. Naming a school after Obama is a message that we want to send to our youth, not just because he is the first African-American president but because of what he represents in terms of perseverance and the pursuit of excellence. We want our youth to be able to live up to the names on the building.”
The sponsors of the resolution are Ron Watson (At-Large), the board vice chair and Patricia Fletcher (District 3). It passed on the first reading on June 15, the second reading is June 25.
If it passes, it would be the fourth school in the county named after a president. The others are Andrew Jackson Middle School in Forestville, James Madison Middle School in Upper Marlboro and Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Laurel.
The school is scheduled to open in August 2010. It is presently referred to as Sub Region VI Elementary and, like Wise, is expected to draw students from throughout the county.
Jacobs said when public hearings were held in April and May no one showed up to speak on what the new sub region elementary school will be called. That is when Watson and Fletcher took the initiative and spearheaded the Obama name. “We had a discussion as to whether it should have been the president or the first lady, but decided on the president,” said Jacobs.
Jamal I. Miller, lead organizer for VisionPrinceGeorge’s – an organization that encourages civic activism in the county – and a leader in the newly-formed Prince George’s County Manhood Initiative said that the board would be right on the mark if they named the school after Obama. “Obama is a person who exemplifies the potential in every African-American child,” he said. “Having a school named after him in real time or in a time in which he is functioning is definitely a plus. He is showing our youth that they can be leaders under adversity and he is someone our young people can relate to.”
Jacobs said that the board has not had any communication with the White House over the resolution. “If it passes, we are going to engage in a public campaign to get him to come to the school when it opens in 2010,” she said.
Jacobs said this process will also open up discussion on how schools in the county are named and if it needs to be tweaked.
When asked whether an elementary school, as opposed to a middle or high school, named after the president had any special meaning, Miller referred to the famous Obama story of when his mother would get him up in the wee hours of the morning to review his lessons when he was a boy. “Obama’s mother understood that was where personal growth starts,” he said. “It starts in elementary school. It is in elementary school where you plant that seed to watch it grow."
Miller, a former teacher at Longfields Elementary School in Forestville, said that if children at that age could go to school and understand that the president went through the same things that they are going through, it will help develop their character and push them to excel.
“If there is anything that Obama symbolizes, it is fortitude and stick-to-it-ive-ness,” he said. “That is the one thing that they learn in elementary school and it will stay with them in life if they learn it right.”
The June 25 hearing will begin at 7:05 p.m. at the board’s headquarters at 14201 School Lane in Upper Marlboro.
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