Board to Consider Renaming School

The Santa Paula school board is scheduled to decide next month whether an elementary school should be renamed for a Latino school board member.

Speakers for and against the proposal to rename Glen City School voiced their opinions on the issue at a hearing this week.

Several people spoke in support of the proposal to rename the school after longtime Santa Paula civic leader Joe Bravo at Thursday’s school board meeting, said Bob Borrego, who requested the name change.

Bravo, a former mayor, is a member of the Santa Paula Elementary District school board.

Borrego told school board members that he and several others favor the proposal because every elementary school in Santa Paula except Glen City is named after a prominent local citizen, all of whom are white.

Naming Glen City after Bravo would give the city’s Latino majority a model to look up to, Borrego said.

But other speakers told the board that they want Glen City’s name to remain the same. If the school’s name is changed at all, it should be renamed Pinkerton Elementary, in honor of Dorothy Pinkerton, who served as the school’s principal for more than 20 years, they said.

Trustees made no comment on the public testimony, said district clerk Celia Meza. The board is scheduled to make a decision on the proposal at its May 26 meeting, Meza said.