The Prince George’s County Board of Education have voted unanimously to name a new elementary school in Upper Marlboro after the nation’s first black president.
Barack Obama Elementary School, located in Upper Marlboro, is the first school in the Washington area to bear Obama’s name.
“Everything that President Obama does is focused around education,” said board member Pat Fletcher. “So how apropos to name an elementary school after him, where education begins.”
Several schools across the nation already have been named or renamed after Obama, beginning with Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead, N.Y., which changed its name just days after Obama won office in November.
Verjeanna Jacobs, chairwoman of Prince George’s board, said before the meeting Thursday night that she received calls from people challenging the choice. Some wanted to name the school after someone from within Prince George’s, such as Jesse J. Warr, the first African-American to serve on the county’s school board, in the 1950s.
Some school boards in the Washington area, including those in Arlington and Prince William counties, require schools to be named after deceased leaders.
Some critics called the proposal to name the school after Obama premature given that he has only been in the Oval Office for five months. Jacobs felt that was irrelevant given what he has surmounted and accomplished already to get to the White House.
“I don’t care what happens after four years. He’s still the first African-American to be president, and I think that warrants recognition,” she said.
Fletcher contended that “especially for students of color,” having a living role model like Obama who “they can see and relate to” will provide a unique source of inspiration and greater motivation to succeed academically.
