Posted on 07/20/2004 8:36:35 AM PDT by Chummy
New Berlin - School Board members have backed away from a plan to rename West High School after the late President Ronald Reagan.
Instead, the board voted Monday to consider bestowing the Reagan name on an elementary school, perhaps when a new one is built to replace Center Elementary.
Shortly after Reagan's death on June 5, School Board Vice President Matt Weiss had suggested renaming one of the district's two high schools in Reagan's honor. The district's other high school is named after President Dwight Eisenhower.
In July, Steve Ziegler, a Muskego business owner who lives in the Town of Oconomowoc, offered the New Berlin, Muskego-Norway and Waukesha school districts $60,000 to cover the cost of new supplies if they pledged to name a school after Reagan by this fall. If more than one district accepted his offer, he said, the money would be divided accordingly.
But public outcry against the idea of renaming New Berlin West has been strong, board members related Monday, saying they had received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls on the topic.
About 80 people crammed into the site of Monday's board meeting, many of them students or parents of students at West. Although some spoke in favor of naming the high school after Reagan, many were passionately opposed, convincing the School Board to drop the idea.
Some speakers from the audience said the cost of the change would be too high, while others noted the sentimentality attached to high school names by alumni. But most people argued for or against the change based on their opinion of Reagan.
"The problem is that Ronald Reagan is a modern president, not a historic one," said Mary Recktenwalt, a School District parent. "All of the adults here lived through his presidency." Because people have conflicting opinions of his legacy, she said, "school names should be non-partisan."
Some even disapproved of Ziegler's offer. "I am outraged that we would take an outsider's money for this," Cindy Stigler said. "To me it seems like tainted money."
The board eventually voted 4-3 to consider naming an elementary school after Reagan. Weiss said the logical choice would be New Berlin Center Elementary, which the district proposes to replace with a new building.
Superintendent James Benfield presented a facilities plan to the board Monday evening, calling for the district to spend about $15 million to build the new school. The plan also calls for $288,000 in repairs to Poplar Creek Elementary School and $18 million to upgrade the library, gym and auditorium at West.
"That's the real story tonight," Weiss said. "As far as I know, we're the only school district in southeastern Wisconsin that has found a way to build a new school and upgrade our high school without going to referendum and raising taxes."
It must be brain freeze. I guess they don't need the money, and there were no hero liberals to memorialize anyway. They could name it PS123.
"I am outraged that we would take an outsider's money for this," Cindy Stigler said. "To me it seems like tainted money."
She’s president of the Franklin Wisconsin Education Association. She’ll support endlessly raising taxes to pay for school funding, but taking it from somebody willing to give it of their own free will is verboten.
Freaking socialists are so annoying.
Sounds like Mary is dealing with the fear of being old. Such fear is rooted in pure emotion not fact.
"Because people have conflicting opinions of his legacy, she said, "school names should be non-partisan."
Ohhhh..... now the truth is coming out! And everyone will have conflicting opinions about someone else. What else is new. You can't change that.
What does she want: a school named Carter-Reagan-Bush-Clinton High?
Preparing to spend all that on a new school and didn't need a referendum to get it? They must be getting REAL tainted money, that's mind-boggling, at least for a school district in Wisconsin.
Those same adults may have also lived through the Kennedy years, yet none of 'em even think about the bust on the half dollars they may carry in their pockets.
What a bunch of empty cans...
Silly people! My high school was named Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater was still alive at the time.
..got a kick, too, about claimed allegiance of alumni to the dear old, hallowed name "West".
Hail to thee, West.
Perhaps a subliminal reference to the Left?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.