The People Have Spoken

It looks like the Phoenix-Talent School District administrators got blindsided, and now they are backtracking:

Because of the "enormous response" from students, alumni and the community, the Phoenix-Talent School District announced this morning it won't change its name as it had planned.

"Strengthening the District's identity is an ongoing objective of the Board, and the proposal was developed to be more inclusive of the multiple communities within the District's boundaries," school officials said in a release posted today on the district's website. "However, retention of the current name has always been an option of the Board."

"In recognition of the passionate response received, the School Board fully supports retaining the District name as the Phoenix-Talent School District," the release said.

The response against a name change was overwhelming. Not nice to try and pull something over on people.

link

What's in a Name?

It appears the sneaky attempt by Phoenix-Talent school officials to change the name of the school district and the names of the high school and middle school have gone over like the proverbial lead balloon:

Conversations with nearly three dozen others in the diner and elsewhere in the district turned up not one voice of support for the name change.

Rachelle Farly, a Phoenix High graduate, began circulating a petition this week. In three days, she had gathered 500 signatures. On Thursday, she was nearing 1,000. Farly said supporters plan to attend meetings to urge the name change be abandoned.

"This is hugely emotional for a lot of us because we have this history and it feels like they're trying to take that away from us," Farly said. "I'm starting to feel like the people who instigated this are embarrassed about our school district.

"They said this will unify our district and instill a sense of pride buy everyone I talk to says it will do the exact opposite."

The piece is behind a paywall, by the way.

Sneakiness and secrecy are typical of school districts. There is even a movement afoot to recall the school board.

Namegate

Here is what is perhaps the "ballot" people will be voting on regarding the name change to Phoenix-Talent School District, which includes the high school and middle school:

Note there is NO space for keeping the current names intact. THAT is one of the biggest complaints by those who want to leave the names of the high school and the middle school, at least, alone.

Open Enrollment, a Harebrained Idea, Is the Excuse

for the proposed name change to the Phoenix-Talent School District.

This article is behind a paywall, but a bit of the article:

PHS students said Monday they find the idea of renaming their campus insulting.

"I feel like our district is embarrassed to be in Phoenix," said Max Hamilton, a senior. "A lot of the reasons for changing the name just don't make sense."

Students made a banner Monday morning in support of keeping the school's name intact, and within a few hours more than a couple hundred students had signed it.

During a leadership course Monday afternoon, Hale asked students to try to understand the rationale of the district for considering a name change, and acknowledged the topic would be emotional.

"It takes a while to change a school's reputation," said Hale.

We're Loyal to You, Phoenix High?

Oregon, of course.

Despite widespread opposition to the proposed name changes to the Phoenix-Talent School District, Talent Middle School, and Phoenix High School, the current superintendent, Ben Bergreen, and presumably the school board have the notion the changes are a fait accompli. The "votes" for later this month by the students and the outside community are just formalities.

Get a load of this crock of shit:

May 1, 2012
Dear Parents, Patrons and Alumnae:
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and perspective on the renaming initiative. We have gone through a lengthy process and truly appreciate the opportunity to explain it further. The sole goal is to bring unity and clarity to a school district spread over a wide geographic area.
We have heard some concern about the potential cost of renaming. There are no plans to spend money from the general fund on the renaming project, especially in these challenging times for school funding. The District does have some limited funds in the capital projects fund that cannot be spent on staff, students or supplies, but could be used to change signs. Most stationery is electronic and can be changed easily. Uniforms would be changed as they need to be replaced; the “P” on the new high school uniforms stands for Pirates as no mascot names are being considered for change. The professional marketing and design people assisting the District have been an invaluable resource, and they are volunteering their services.
Change is never an easy and smooth path. In this case, the committee is looking forward to the long-term success and solvency of the District and how we want to be identified years into the future. For some, a name change proposal will evoke a large emotional reaction as students and alumni ponder what this could mean to them. After talking with others who have been through a name-change process, being part of a particular high school class is much more about relationships that are fostered and maintained. Phoenix High grads would always be Phoenix High grads. They would continue to identify and celebrate that way. Their identity, their history, and their pride would always follow them along with their connection to being a Pirate. That history would stay with them and become part of the story of the new identity.
The initiative to rename the District is just one component of what the Communications Committee has formed subcommittees on which to focus. Others include:
 Agriculture, FFA
 Advanced Placement
 Diversity/Multiculturalism
 Sports
 Outdoor Discovery Program
 Arts and Culture
School districts have entered a new reality with open enrollment. They need to promote what they do well to both current and prospective audiences. If we don’t take every opportunity to improve and spotlight services and offerings to students and actively seek to be inclusive of all constituents, then moving forward in the future could be more difficult. Being sandwiched between one of the largest districts in the state and a well-funded district (their local option levy generates an additional $2 million a year for the same number of students) is either a challenging situation or a remarkable opportunity.
The Communications Committee, fully supported by the School Board of Trustees, is committed to making the larger community perception of the District stronger by marketing the excellence of staff, programs and students and increasing the sense of unity and inclusiveness.
Sincerely,
Ben Bergreen
Superintendent

Translated, this means this is a done deal, and we don't care what you think.

Right now the petition against the changes is at 828 signatures. Of course there are many, many others against this idea.

Pirate Born, Pirate Bred, PHOENIX Pirate Till I'm Dead.

School Board Sneakiness?

One of the big stories locally, or at least in my little neck of the woods here in southern Oregon, is the attempt of the school district that I attended, Phoenix-Talent School District, to have not only the district's name changed, but also the names of the high school and middle school. Until I read about it on Facebook a few days ago, I didn't even know such an attempt was afoot. Now there is a firestorm of criticism by many of the alumni of PHS and TMS who believe the names should not be changed, at least not for the high school and middle school.

Yesterday, the local newspaper, the Medford Mail Tribune, which is under a paywall, had this to say about the proposed name changes:

More than 50 names and combinations were considered by a naming committee made up of school board members, administrators, teachers, a student representative and local marketing professionals. The committee's first step was to unanimously support a suggestion to drop "school district" as part of the new name in favor of simply "schools."

The four names under consideration are Rogue South Schools, South Valley Schools, South Rogue Schools and South Rogue Valley Schools.

Phoenix High School and Talent Middle School will adopt the preferred new first name, while the names of Talent Elementary, Phoenix Elementary and Orchard Hill Elementary will remain the same, accompanied b the new district name.

...

Phoenix High and Talent Middle students will have an opportunity to pick their favorite name by means of a written ballot vote on Monday, May 7.

Parents, alumni, school supporters and other community members can cast their votes at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 at Phoenix High School, 745 N. Rose St., and 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at Talent Middle school, 102 Christian Ave.

The school board will review and approve the new name at its June 7 meeting.

What kills me is there is no room on the ballots to leave the current names as they are. Now there is a campaign to write in the names "Phoenix High School" and "Talent Middle School."

There is also an online petition available.

I picked one of the messages on the petition as the title of this post. I loved it.