Maya McFadden Photo
King Lanson, honored with Dixwell statue: Next, a school?
King Lanson School?
How about Momauguin Family and Cultural School?
Or Four Winds Family Academy?
Those are among the 240 name suggestions submitted so far for the Fair Haven school currently known, but not for long, as Christopher Columbus Family Academy (CCFA).
The names were disclosed Thursday night during a public forum held by the New Haven Board of Education’s School Facility Naming Committee, which included breakout groups wrestling with whether to rename the school after a person, a place, or a theme.
Click here for the current list of suggestions, which ranged from “shaggy,” “Adam Sandler” and “Winfred Rembert” to “Roots & Wings” and “No Limits Academy. “
The committee will continue to receive suggestions through this survey until Sunday.
Twenty participants ranging from the school’s staff to parents gathered on Zoom Thursday night to discuss how to proceed. According to the responses gathered from the survey, 28.6 percent of responders would prefer that the school name highlight a theme of the school’s mission. The next highest preference was for the school to be named after a person.
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If the new name happens to be a person, participants Thursday night urged the committee, make it someone from New Haven.
Some members of one breakout group said the school should be named after local historical leaders.
Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA) member Alexis Garcia suggested Momauguin, a Quinnipiac chief who signed the First Treaty with the English in New Haven in 1638.
Irene Logan: We are multicultural and multilingual
One submitted suggestion would rename the school “Sonia Sotomayor Academy.”
“Not that Sonia Sotomayor is not worthy to have a school named after her,” committee member Toni Criscuolo said. “But I think it would have connection to people if there were local people of note that they could say, ‘Wow, right from New Haven just like me; look what they did.!”
Criscolo added that she os a fan of the suggestion of Four Winds Family Academy.
“Naming a school after a person often leads to more of a disagreement. It’s harder to come to a consensus because no one is perfect,” said CCFA Special Education teacher Kerry Hayes.
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Survey respondents thus far.
Tulani Dial, a parent of a CCFA student, suggested the school be named after William Lanson. Lanson, an early 19th century local engineer, entrepreneur, and Black political leader who freed himself from slavery and was elected “Black governor” in 1825, helped build the Farmington Canal and Long Wharf during his time working and living in Antebellum New Haven. (An honorary statue of Lanson was installed last year in Dixwell)
“If we’re going to name it after someone let it be about someone in New Haven,” she said.
CCFA first grade English teacher Debbie Pires said she dislikes the idea of naming the school after a place. She argued that it would be repetitive to put Fair Haven or Quinnipiac in the school’s name.
CCFA Literacy Coach Irene Logan added that her breakout group supported the idea of putting discovery in the school name to push its mission to “discover lots of education.”
Garcia disagreed with putting ‘discovery’ in the school name. “It can refer to old name of Columbus,” he said.
Participants reached a consensus that the school name reflect its mission of inclusion and cultural diversity.
Logan shared that a Guatemalan parent in her breakout group suggested the name “The Very Cultural and Multilingual Family Academy” to highlight the school’s values.
“We are a community of many different cultures. We all speak not just English and Spanish,” said Logan.
CCFA Special Education Paraprofessional Jacqui Vasquez added that it is common throughout the school for staff and students to educate one another about cultural difference during classroom lessons.
After the survey closes this Sunday, the committee will meet June 8 to begin the selection process of two submissions. The two names will be confirmed and submitted to the Board of Ed by June 15 to then make the final selection.
