Student Voices Matter Following a robust community engagement and consultation process, ACPS moved into phase two of The Identity Project as we consider new names for both T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School. The second phase of The Identity Project — the selection of new names — ensures that students, staff, alumni, families and the community are all heard. Most importantly, we want to keep the next generation and our students' voices at the heart of this process. To assist the community with suggested names for both schools, we invited all ACPS students to participate in an essay/poster campaign to submit names for community consideration. Following this process, the community is invited to choose one of the student selections or to submit a new nomination. The first community polls for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School will be open from Jan. 13 through Jan. 27 at 11:59 p.m. We are thrilled to have 119 student entries representing 50 different name suggestions for T.C. Williams High School and 29 different name suggestions for Matthew Maury Elementary School. Note: Please know that student entries that suggested keeping the same names of the two schools were not added to this document due to the fact that the Alexandria City School Board has already voted to change the names. At this point in time, only names different from the existing names are being considered. Additionally, name submissions that did not follow the posted criteria, did not add an essay or poster, or did not have a completed entry were not added to this document.
Names submitted by ACPS students to rename Matthew Maury Elementary Places
People
Concepts
Alexandria City Elementary Naomi Brooks Elementary School School
Blacks Lives Matter Elementary School
Rosemont Park Elementary
Kobe Bryant Elementary School
Eureka Academy/Elementary
Russell Road Elementary School
Gerald Ford Elementary
Piney Branch Elementary School
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Elementary School
Navy Blue Elementary School
King Henry The 6 Elementary Blois Hundley Elementary School Katherine Johnson Elementary School Helen Keller Elementary School John Lewis Elementary School Abraham Lincoln Elementary School Earl Lloyd Elementary School Matthew Elementary School John Muir Elementary School Barack Obama Elementary School Obama Elementary School Rosa Parks Elementary School Francis Pierpont Elementary School George Lewis Seaton Elementary School
Adam Smith Elementary School Harriet Tubman Elementary School Kathleen Wilson Elementary School Carter Woodson Elementary School
Names That Represent Places Alexandria City Elementary School (submitted by L. H.)
Rosemont Park Elementary (submitted by W. W.)
Russell Road Elementary School (submitted by O. C.)
Names That Represent People Naomi Brooks Elementary School (submitted by A. C.)
(submitted by C. C.)
Kobe Bryant Elementary School ​(submitted by T. S.)
Gerald Ford Elementary (submitted by L. H.)
(submitted by H. N.)
(submitted by A. N.)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg​ Elementary School (submitted by V. C.) I believe that Mathew Maury elementary school should be renamed after Ruth Bader Ginsburg. RBG was an amazing woman. She attended Harvard Law school with only 8 other women! While in school she also cared for her baby Jane and when her husband got sick she helped him with his work and only after both went to sleep did she start on her own work. She became one of only 2 women on the supreme court justice. She also fought for women's rights and equality. I believe that renaming the school RBG elementary school would be perfect. (submitted by S. D.)
King Henry The 6 Elementary School (submitted by J. R.)
Blois Hundley Elementary School (submitted by E. W.)
Instead of Matthew Maury Elementary School, I would like for the school to be called Blois Hundley Elementary School. Who was Blois Hundley? She was a chef in a school cafeteria in the City of Alexandria. She was also a mom. Her skin color was black, and Black Lives Matter. Black kids and white kids didn’t go to the same schools. Separate schools isn’t the best way for making friends. Black kids should be treated the same as white kids. That’s why Blois Hundley tried to put her kids into a white school. When T. C. Williams found out, he fired her. But that didn’t stop her, and she kept trying and trying and trying. During the COVID-19 crisis, I still eat school lunches, and they taste very very very yummy. My school lunches come from cafeteria workers who are trying very very hard to make sure the kids are healthy and eat well. I feel happy when I eat my favorite foods from my school lunch. Blois Hundley was a very good mom. Moms are working very hard during the COVID-19 crisis. Please vote for Blois Hundley Elementary School.
Katherine Johnson Elementary School (submitted by T. M.)
Helen Keller Elementary School (submitted by L. R.)
I think the elementary school should be called Helen Keller School because Helen Keller was a great women and I think we should name a school after an important woman.
John Lewis Elementary ​(submitted by C. H.)
(submitted by J. V.)
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (submitted by S. Y.)
(submitted by T. V.)
Earl Lloyd Elementary School ​(submitted by O. H.)
Matthew Elementary School ​(submitted by J. C.)
I believe that the school should be renamed, but not drastically. I understand the means of why they want to change the name, but the school has been around for quite some time now. It would be a big change for some that graduated or went to school. I believe that the school should be renamed to Matthew Elementary School.
John Muir Elementary School ​(submitted by B.M.Z.)
Barack Obama Elementary School (submitted by S. M.) I believe that Matthew Maury Elementary School should be re-named Barack Obama Elementary School. I am an Alumni of Maury, so I’m not so keen on renaming it, but I recognize why we need to change it, and I believe that we do indeed need to change it. The reason I chose the name ‘Barack Obama Elementary School’ is because he is a leader and someone that everyone should look up to. He was also our first black president. He did what people weren’t able to do for two-hundred-thirty-one years. He encourages people to not just work hard, but to achieve excellence and to go even farther. He helps us to push ourselves harder. He created the Healthcare reform, the Wall Street reform, he took multiple steps to combat global warming and climate change, he handled the global financial crisis, and he did a lot for LGBTQ+ Rights. I could sit here and list so many more things Obama did for us, but I’d like to say that he helped education so much. I believe we should honor him and all he’s done for us, by renaming ‘Matthew Maury Elementary’ ‘Barack Obama Elementary’.
Obama Elementary School (submitted by S. C.)
Rosa Parks Elementary School ​(submitted by A. S.)
(submitted by M. A.)
Francis Pierpont Elementary School (submitted by T. D.) My name is Theodore. Because I am in second grade I said it would be okay for my dad to help me submit a name recommendation. It seems that many people know that during the Civil War that Alexandria was occupied by Union troops. But, it seems that fewer people know that, during the Civil War, Virginia had two governments, one that was recognized by the Confederacy and the other that was recognized by the Union. The government that was recognized by the Union made Alexandria the capital of the state! The governor of the government that was recognized by the Union was a man named Francis Pierpont who was from Virginia and opposed having the state secede from the Union. Mr. Pierpont went on to lead the effort to create the state of West Virginia and, after the Civil War, advocated a policy of forgiveness towards people who served in the Confederacy. Calling our school Francis Pierpont Elementary School would be a nice way to remember Alexandria’s role in that part of Virginia society that wanted to remain in the Union.
George Lewis Seaton Elementary School (Submitted by Ms. Landis’s 4th Grade Writing Classes) We are students in Ms. Landis’s 4th grade writing class at Barrett Elementary School. We have been reading about changing the name of T.C. Williams and Maury this week, and we have also been learning how to write persuasive essays. We decided as a class to write a letter to the School Board to encourage you to change the name of one of the schools to reflect a very important Alexandrian named George Lewis Seaton. Mr. Seaton was born in the early 1800’s to parents who had been former slaves at Mount Vernon, but had gotten their freedom. He taught himself how to read and write, and trained as a carpenter. We think that George Lewis Seaton should be the new name of T.C. Williams because he built two schools in 1866 to educate newly-freed African Americans, he sat on the jury that convicted Jefferson Davis (the former President of the Confederacy) guilty, and he created the YMCA in Alexandria and was chosen as a delegate to the Virginia government. First of all, Mr. Seaton worked toward helping African Americans get an education throughout his whole life. He began helping by building two schools in 1866. This was important because it was right after the Civil War, when most African American men and women could not get an education. He knew it was important for everyone to learn, not just white people. He was involved in education his entire life and worked hard to help everyone achieve an education. He was a trustee of the First Free School of Alexandria, and also the President of the Colored Public School Building Association until his death in 1881. Secondly, Mr. Seaton was on the jury that convicted Jefferson Davis, who was the President of the Confederacy, as well as several other Confederate soldiers. This is important because it shows that Mr. Seaton was a smart and fair man, since he was chosen to be on such an important jury. It also shows that Mr. Seaton was very brave to go into a courtroom and face a man who stood for such opposite beliefs as him. Lastly, Mr. Seaton was a huge member of the community. He was the founding President of the branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association for African Americans in 1873, and a member and deacon of Alfred Street Baptist Church. This is important because it shows he was dedicated to his community, he was determined to do what was right even if people doubted him. And he wanted everyone to be treated fairly. As you can see, we believe Mr. George Lewis Seaton should be chosen. He did amazing things for our community and the people who live in Alexandria. Sincerely, Ms. Landis’s 4th Grade Writing Classes Charles Barrett Elementary School
Adam Smith Elementary School (submitted by I. M.) I think Mathew maury elementary should be called Adam Smith Elementary School because Adam smith was a great thinker.Adam smith was a great thinker because he viewed challenges as positive instead of negative like how his father died right after he was born. He was taught by a great thinker himself, Francies Huchtsen who was a famous philosopher at the time and also he went to university at the age of fourteen ! He was the creator of modern economics and also wrote two books that other great thinkers including Benjamin Franklin and great philosophers got influenced by .This makes me think that he had to be a great thinker because he influenced other great thinkers and made a modern way of economics that we still use today . He made many economic theories like the division of labor and the invisible hand. Another reason he is a great thinker is that others learned from the success of him instead of the other way around like the french economist who were arguing and debating new ideas and theories for who knows how long but when they saw adam smith's theories and after a few years added a couple tweaks and stuck with it. This makes me think that adam smith was very inspiring and helped develop more great ideas for more great thinkers to use and I feel like that's a chain reaction it's incredible that one person inspired more people and changed the whole economic system. He talked to himself and his close friend dave hume slightly tease him about it he also he got kidnapped when he was three my final reason is he persevere when faced by obstacles because he had a rough childhood being kidnapped his father dying and his father was also a poor man people called him a “poor man's son� and he was brave to start college at such a young age even though he had a rough time he still wanted an education and in the end it was all worth is because now he is known as the father of modern economics this makes me think that he was strong and perseverance and was a hard worker.For all these reasons Adam Smith was a great thinker
Harriet Tubman Elementary School (submitted by M. P.)
Kathleen Wilson Elementary School (submitted by O. D.) My name is Oliver. Because I am in kindergarten I said it would be okay for my dad to help me submit a name recommendation. We thought that it would be neat to name the school after Kathleen Wilson. Ms. Wilson once worked for TWA and became the company’s leading salesperson. She was so good that the company asked her to train new people. She got mad when she found out that the men she was training were being paid $100 more than she was! So, she moved to Washington to work with the National Women’s Political Caucus. At age 29 she was the chairman of the organization and it had 77,000 members. One time when she was being honored the speaker said, “This woman is so tough that when she burned her bra she kept it on!” Later, she became the director of the Abracadabra daycare center, which is just one block from the school. She was among the first daycare directors to advocate for a planned curriculum for daycares. She designed the Alakazam playground at the daycare because she knew that playing is an important part of learning. I would be proud to attend Kathleen Wilson Elementary School.
Carter Woodson Elementary School (submitted by N. P.) I think Matthew Maury should be changed to the name Carter Woodson. Carter Woodson was a journalist, author, historian and the father of Black history. He created Black History Month in February that started as a week-long study of African American History and expanded to a month long. He chose the month February because that’s Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincolns birthday month and they helped put an end to slavery. Carter Woodson was from Virginia and worked in D.C. as a dean at Howard University. He will be remembered in history as the founder of Black History and so much more.
Names That Represent Concepts Blacks Lives Matter Elementary School (submitted by J. F.)
Eureka Academy/Elementary (submitted by K. S.)
I think that “Matthew Maury Elementary School” should be renamed as Eureka Academy/Elementary. I think that using a word/name that is not so very often used as a school name is fascinating. I went to Maury for only 2 years, but this school was a great memory for me. The teachers did such a great job teaching, the former principal Mrs.Jackson was one or maybe even the sweetest principal ever. Eureka just describes the school, loving, accepting and most importantly kind.
Piney Branch Elementary (submitted by E. W.)
Navy Blue Elementary School (submitted by A. T.)