The names of several schools in Albemarle have recently been changed to new ones per a policy initiated by School Superintendent Matthew Haas in October 2018. Now Charlottesville City Schools has resumed the process of determining whether its own facilities are appropriately named and Clark Elementary and Venable Elementary are up first.
“Like many communities, universities, and K-12 schools across the country, Charlottesville City Schools is aware that our schools’ names send a message to our students, staff, and community and should therefore reflect our values,” reads a webpage on the topic on the school system’s website.
Phil Varner, a member of the city’s Historic Resources Committee, has compiled a list of resources for namesakes that was first published in October 2020, but the work was put on hold while the search for a new superintendent took place.
According to the options in a survey, the three choices are:
- Keep the names and their association with George Rogers Clark and Charles Scott Venable
- Keep the names but end the association with those individuals
- Find new names entirely
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