By Lorenzo Salinas

l.v.salinas@panews.com

 

Port Arthur Independent School District has started accepting suggestions for possible name changes for two of its elementary schools.

Dick Dowling and Robert E. Lee Elementary Schools were the topic of an Aug. 23 board meeting where trustees discussed the potential for changing their names. In the event the board does choose to rename them, the district has asked for input from the community.

“Let me say the discussion for the change (of names) of Lee and Dick Dowling has gone on for several years. This is not the first time we have discussed the changing of school names,” superintendent Mark Porterie had said during the meeting.

Both the board and the superintendent had made plain, though, that they would not voice their own opinions on the matter.

“I have to reserve my personal thoughts because I want the process to play out. I want the public to be involved just like the law requires,” board president Debra Ambroise said.

Ambroise made clear she did have her own thoughts on the matter, but did not want to sway public opinion one way or the other with her thoughts.

She also made clear that the name of the school would not affect the quality of the education in the buildings in the least.

“We have to consider the name is just a name,” Ambroise said. “It does not affect what goes on inside of the building or what’s being instructed.”

Ambroise said there have only been two people who have approached the board directly with requests to change the name of the two schools — one before the Aug. 23 board meeting (who had subsequently spoken during the meeting) and one after it.

Both Dowling and Lee schools had been named after Confederate military figures.

Members of the community who are interested in submitting new names are asked to submit their name, email and name changes for Dowling and/or Lee, as well as their reasons for the new names.

Responses are encouraged to be inclusive to the entire community while adhering to a set of guidelines on the district’s website by which the new names would be evaluated.

Such considerations for the new names would include the facilities being named after a local, state or national hero; someone who has served the district or community in a meaningful way; and/or those who have made a “significant contribution” to society or education.

The district will accept online submissions from the community from Sep. 4 through 28 by 11:59 p.m. It will accept written submissions during regular business hours.

Individuals interested in offering suggestions may go to the district’s website at www.paisd.org or else write it down on a sheet of paper and deliver it in an envelope to the Administration Building on 4801 Ninth Ave. in Port Arthur.