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After two years of fierce debate, the parents, students and staff of Jefferson Elementary School will decide if they want their building to continue to bear the name of a slaveholder. 

Earlier this week Jefferson Principal Betty Delaney released a list of eight names for the school community to vote on in an election scheduled for early April. The top vote getter will then be placed in a runoff election against Jefferson in late May. 

“I’m for getting the name Jefferson off the school,” said Dora Dean Bradley, the parent of a third grader. “I don’t care that he wrote the Declaration of Independence. He didn’t write it for me.” 

Bradley served on an oversight committee of parents and teachers that sifted through name change suggestions offered by students and parents. 

The proposed names include four people: Cesar Chavez; Ralph Bunche, a Nobel Prize winning African-American diplomat and graduate of Jefferson High School in Los Angeles; Sojourner Truth, a freed slave who became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and Florence McDonald, a former city councilmember and the mother of Berkeley musician Country Joe McDonald. Other proposals are Ohlone, Peace, Rose and Sequoia. 

The oversight committee rejected one suggested name, Wavy Gravy Elementary, in honor of the Berkeley-based artist. 

“We were hesitant to propose someone who was still alive, because we didn’t want someone who could still make a mistake,” said Chris Hudson, a parent who also served on the oversight committee. 

Not everyone is in favor of a name change. Hudson said he remains cool to changing the school’s name. “I don’t think the name change process should have started at all,” he said. “There are many more important school issues to deal with.” 

Berkeley has a history of changing school names. Shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., James Garfield Middle School was renamed in his honor. Abraham Lincoln Elementary became Malcolm X under a groundswell of community support, and four years ago Christopher Columbus Elementary was rebuilt and renamed after Rosa Parks. 

In 2003, supporters of renaming the school collected signatures from more than 20 percent of parents and teachers. Last year, more than 20 percent of students also voted to move ahead with the name change, a move which triggered the formation of the committee. 

Some parents and teachers have been leery of having younger students vote on an issue that they fear they might be unable to grasp fully, but Superintendent Michele Lawrence has insisted that the school follow district policy and allow all students to vote. 

“That’s a dangerous road to go down saying young children can’t be educated on issues that are controversial in nature. I don’t agree with that as a parent or as an educator,” she said previously. 

According to a letter from Principal Delaney, over the next two weeks students will attend assemblies and have classroom discussions on the proposed names, while parents will receive a voter information packet. A town hall meeting with historians discussing Jefferson is planned for before the final vote in May. 

While Bradley said she was leaning towards Ohlone Elementary, she expected her daughter and many of her classmates to choose Cesar Chavez. “They’ve all studied him, it’s a name they are all familiar with,” she said. 

Country Joe McDonald was in Italy, his wife said, and not available to comment on his mother’s nomination for the school. As for Wavy Gravy, he said he won’t be mounting a write-in campaign. “I never though I stood a chance,” he said. “All they have to do is Google me and there’s my checkered past. It’s enough to be an ice cream flavor.” 

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