The Morgan Hill Unified School District’s defunct school site at 85 Tilton Ave. – formerly the Burnett Elementary campus – will have new occupants for the start of the 2013-14 school year and, before the end of August, a new facility name.
The property’s $7 million modernization plan – the first funds taken from the $198 million, voter-approved Measure G capital improvements bond – are on schedule for completion prior to the welcoming of Central Continuation High School students who will soon call the northwest campus home.
However, the site will not be called “Central” since additional programs apart from the continuation school will be housed on the campus – one being a post-secondary program for special education.
A group of local Native Americans is also passionately throwing its weight behind the name change. The campus, they argue, acknowledges figure who doesn’t deserve to be honored.
The site’s previous namesake, Peter Hardeman Burnett – California’s first governor for whom many other sites in various school districts are named for – brings intense ire to the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band of Costanoan/Ohlone Indians.
Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez explained during a June 25 board meeting that Burnett was a racist who, during his term from 1849-1851, signed an executive order to exterminate all Indians; paid bounties of 25 cents to $5 for every dead Indian; and paid for military excursions to hunt and kill Indians.
Valentin’s brother, Al Lopez, spoke on Valentin’s behalf Tuesday, reiterating the tribe’s stance. Lopez noted that in 2011 the San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously to change the name of their Burnett Child Development Center to Leola M. Havard Early Education School.
“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,” Lopez concluded.
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.
The board was receptive to Al Lopez’s input and thanked him for attending the meeting.
Trustees voted unanimously during its regular meeting Tuesday to form a five-member Citizens Advisory Committee to come up with at least three new names for the vacant campus, which most recently was used as the search headquarters for Sierra LaMar, the Morgan Hill teen who went missing March 16, 2012.
The five-member committee will consist of a Central staff member, a current student at Central, a parent or community member from the area surrounding the facility, a former student or staff member from Burnett Elementary School and a member of the Morgan Hill Historical Society. Additionally, there will be a public hearing during the upcoming August 13 school board meeting where residents can offer their suggestions. The Board will then consider the three final names offered up by the advisory committee and put it to a vote at its Aug. 27 meeting.
Trustee Ron Woolf hoped the site name would include “Education Center” because there will be various programs located on the property.
“It’s more than a name,” said trustee Shelle Thomas, who is leaning more towards something that takes into account the geographical area surrounding the school and the long-time residents who previously attended.
Trustees will also look at individuals who have “made outstanding contributions and financial donations to the school community” or someone who “made contributions of statewide, national or worldwide significance.”
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.
