School board reconsiders how it names schools, facilities

A request to name the George Hildebrand Elementary School gym after longtime educator Milton Rhoney prompted the Burke County Board of Education to reconsider how it honors community figures and whether its current naming policies are sufficient.

Ultimately, the board decided to hit pause on the idea, fearing the vote in early June to dedicate the new Table Rock Middle School gym floor to Janet Greene had set a precedent for naming facilities after living individuals.

Greene is a former educator and coach at Table Rock with nearly 44 years of teaching under her belt. She still substitutes for the district.

“I think it’s great that our communities have special people within them that meant a lot to the communities as they are, and that they stand recognizable even many years after they’ve retired,” board member Sonya Rockett said. “But we’re going to have to find a lane and stay in it.”

Rockett said the topic of naming facilities and buildings after people has been raised a few times, often being challenged by board members or school administrators when there were certain aspects of the person that they didn’t like, and being supported when the person was liked.

“We either need to stick with the precedents that we have set,” Rockett said. “We need to stick with handling it the same way. We don’t need to push it off because somebody has a bad taste in their mouth about somebody or whatever. Or we need to take them all out and say, ‘We’ve got a great hall of fame in our central office, and we’d be happy to talk with you about that.’”

“We’re already setting the precedents, this board, with the gym floor the other day,” she continued.

Board Chair Tiana Beachler aligned with Rockett, saying, “We are gonna run out of space in our county, because we do have so many great individuals who have contributed so much over the years and decades.”

Beachler also highlighted the “future potential” that the board names a facility after someone and “something (criminal) happens, God forbid.”

Swan offered to evaluate the policies on naming facilities in surrounding counties and bring that information to the board for review in August.

Current Burke policy aligns with state policy, allowing for the superintendent to receive suggestions from the community and bring them to the board when deemed appropriate.

Some districts, such as Catawba County, have strict provisions against naming schools and facilities after living people, while Caldwell’s policy only requires the person to have been retired from the school system for at least three years.

“Our policy, 9300, doesn’t really delineate between alive or deceased,” Swan said. “Some districts do.”

DELAYING NAMING THE NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Leslie Taylor, who chairs the naming committee for the new school alongside Jamie Wycoff, asked if this same policy could affect the process for the new elementary school in Hildebran.

Of the proposed names, Randy K. Sain Elementary School, would honor a living person.

The other committee-proposed names and write-in suggestions from the community were mainly either geographical or honoring deceased individuals.

Public voting for the school’s name closed on June 12, although there have been community complaints about the list of possibilities and the methods for gathering votes, which mainly consisted of QR code-scanning and use of the internet.

“We’re backing up and we’re punting again,” Taylor said after the board meeting. “We’ve got to work on our method. We’re gonna meet again in late July, early August, as a committee, and all talk about it and get a better action and a more true survey.”