Although more than half of survey respondents oppose changing the name of a Williamsburg-James City County middle school, the school board still wants to hear possible alternatives.
During a work session Monday to discuss the possibility of renaming James Blair Middle School, board members said that they don’t want to discount public opinion, but they want to give the community time to learn more about the issue.
A group calling itself the Campaign for Honorable and Inclusive School Names has been pushing to change the name of the middle school, which is named for the founder of William & Mary, a minister and slaveowner who argued in favor of slavery.
A survey set up to gather input from the community over four days drew results from 1,724 people, including 409 current James Blair students, 29 staff members, 148 parents/guardians, 215 parents/guardians who live in the school attendance zone and 923 members of the general public.
When asked, “Do you think James Blair Middle School should be renamed?” 53% of respondents said no, 37% said yes and 10% said they were undecided. Among the students, 192 voted no compared to 124 saying yes and 93 being unsure. Of the staff members who voted, 14 said no compared to 11 yeses and four unsures.
Kara Wall, a spokeswoman for Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, said James Blair students were told about the issue and its history during a morning announcement, then participated in the survey during class time. Eighty percent of students answered the survey and 44% of the staff responded.
Of the parents/guardians who voted, 93 said no compared to 33 yeses and 22 unsure votes — a 22% response rate. Parents/guardians who live in the attendance zone tallied 78 yes votes and 113 no votes, with 24 unsure — only a 15% response rate. Finally, among the general public who voted, 498 said no compared to 398 saying yes, with 27 being unsure.
Of the 923 general public votes, 847 self-identified as city or county residents.
After reviewing the survey data, the 15-member committee polled itself. Through an anonymous poll, 11 members were in favor of renaming the school, while one member abstained. Two members did not vote while one member was not present.
Board member Michael Hosang emphasized that all five categories objected to the renaming, noting he received citizen comments on priorities needing to focus on the budget and funding.
“If we’re not going to listen to these surveys from our society, from our constituents, they’re not going to take these anymore,” Hosang said. “I’ll just say that I think the community has spoken. The community does not want the name change, and I don’t think that we should move forward with that.”
Other board members, however, said they were unsure of how familiar everyone really was with the history of the school. James Blair opened as a high school in 1955 as a segregated school; it became a junior high school in 1973. Board members Kimberley M. Hundley and Amy Chen suggested allowing more time for the public to be educated on reasons behind a name change.
Board member Andrea Donnor, one of two school board members on the committee, said she was “disheartened” by the results of the survey.
“Because I think I naively believed that our community was different,” Donnor said. “And that our community would understand that having the name of enslaver on a K-12 building is not something that we should do 70 years later, especially in the context in which this was created.”
Donnor also read a student comment from the survey that stood out to her, which said “almost everyone” had slaves then and how it was “basically an equivalent to us having pets.”
“As a parent of (a) child who will come to James Blair next year, I’m really concerned that she would sit in a classroom next to someone that thinks like, owning someone like her is just like having pet. Like having a dog. Having a hamster.”
In a letter to the WJCC School Board, Mary Lassiter, a member of the Campaign for Honorable and Inclusive School Names, said the next 75 years of James Blair students should be considered on the issue, noting that those from the last 55 years were not.
“There were over 400 students surveyed. Does it not bother you that only 51 students said they knew a lot about Blair? You really have no way of knowing what a middle school student considers a lot,” Lassiter said. “It was disturbing to hear the few lines of Blair’s history were read to the students over the speaker and they later took the survey.”
Board Chair Sarah Ortego asked the committee to come back to the board’s May 6 meeting with suggestions for school names, which she stressed should not be after people, alive or dead.
“We can’t know people’s motives, but it could just be lack of knowledge. And, ideally, that’s how you change hearts and minds over time, is you educate, right?” Ortego said. “That’s the whole purpose of education, is to enlighten and to broaden and to understand the reasons for evolutions and the reasons for things in society.”
If approved, renaming the school is estimated for a one-time cost of $92,334.50, representing 0.05% of the fiscal year 2025 budget.
James W. Robinson, 757-799-0621, james.robinson@virginiamedia.com