The Morgan Hill Unified School District wants the community’s suggestions on a new name for its facility at 85 Tilton Ave. property and invites residents to speak during Tuesday’s public hearing as part of the Aug. 13 Board of Education meeting.
All school board meetings begin at 6 p.m. inside the district’s office at 15600 Concord Circle in Morgan Hill.
The northwest Morgan Hill campus, formerly Burnett Elementary School, will welcome Central Continuation High School students Aug. 15 for the first day of the 2013-14 school year. The site, however, is expected to also house other district alternative educational programs.
In July, the Board instructed interim Superintendent Steven Betando to appoint a five-member Citizens’ Advisory Committee to recommend three options for renaming the site. The committee, which met for the first time Aug. 8, is comprised of: a former student or staff member from Burnett; a Central High School student; a member of the Morgan Hill Historical Society; a community member who lives in the area of the Burnett site; and a current staff member.
If an individual is unable to attend the public hearing but wants to make a name suggestion for consideration, the district encourages them to call (408) 201-6001 or (408) 201-6052, or send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].
The committee will introduce the three final name options at the Aug. 27 school board meeting at which time the Board will vote for the new designation for the 85 Tilton Ave. site.
Burnett Elementary, which was closed in summer of 2008 in a cost-cutting move by MHUSD brought on by the state budget crisis of the time, was the first Morgan Hill school and was built at a different location in 1856. In 1897, a new, two-story school house was built at the corner of Burnett Avenue and Monterey Road. Further growth warranted another new school, the current site at 85 Tilton Ave., which most recently was used as the search headquarters for Sierra LaMar, the Morgan Hill teen who went missing March 16, 2012.
This summer, the Board approved a $7 million modernization plan – the first funds taken from the $198 million, voter-approved Measure G capital improvements bond – at the northwest campus.
Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez of the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band spoke at a previous school board meeting, requesting a name change since the site’s previous namesake, Peter Hardeman Burnett – California’s first governor for whom many other sites in various school districts are named for – was considered a racist.
“The Amah-Mutsun believe our request is being made to correct an injustice and we feel it is important for all students to be proud of what their school is named after,” concluded Lopez at an earlier meeting.
Principally associated with Mission San Juan Bautista and the surrounding areas of Hollister and Gilroy, the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band occupied the San Juan Valley “long before the Spanish arrived in the late 1700s,” as noted on the tribe’s website. The indigenous peoples were subjected to a subservient existence beneath the Spanish Catholic regime when European colonization of the Pacific coast began in the 1770s.
