Cesar Chavez Elementary's name will be changed after a Unanimous vote at the Las Cruces School Board meeting last night.
The school board has been exploring the idea of a name change since last month. A special session earlier this month was held at Cesar Chavez Elementary where the board took in public comments regarding the name change. The public was also encouraged to email the board.
LCPS Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz said 55 emails were received.
“We had 38 that were in support of changing the name, 11 to leave as is, and we had 6 that had basically neither no preference,” Ruiz said.
Concerns over how expensive the change would be were brought up at every meeting. Ruiz broke down the price of the three major expenses, the school marquee, building letters, and 8 floor mats that would total up to be about $14,000.
Board Vice President, Robert Wofford said cost was also on his mind, but he thinks this name change is necessary.
“It’s inconsistent with our mission, with our values, there's an ethical imperative here which says we cannot wink at this, we have to change this name. To support our students and stand behind the values we say we do,” Wofford said.
Board Secretary Patrick Nolan echoed Wofford's beliefs that keeping the name would be against LCPS values. "One in four women in New Mexico are the victims of sexual assault,” he said as he talked about the allegations against Cesar Chavez.
“What we do here matters, the values we put out in this world matter as a school board as a district. So, keeping this name on there is contrary to everything that I think we believe and fight for every day,” Nolan said.
The board voted unanimously to change the name.
The new name will be officially adopted on July 1st. Jeannette Covarrubia, the school's principal, said a main priority would be to gather as much feedback from the school community as possible.
On May 19th, a list of possible names will be presented to the board. These names will be discussed and voted on by parents, students, and teachers.
