SOUTH SHORE — The 8th Ward Republican committeeman wants to rename South Shore International College Preparatory High School and alumni are coming out in force against the idea.
In September, Margarite Faulkner proposed changing the name of the school at 7529 S. Constance Ave. to honor Willie Barrow, a co-founder of Operation PUSH with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
On Wednesday, alumni rallied against the name change after discovering the Local School Council is required to take Faulkner’s idea seriously and hold multiple meetings and public forums to debate the proposal.
“We love Willie T. Barrow, but she was not an educator, she lived in the community, but she did nothing for our community,” said Karen Lewis, who was an all-state champion in track and field the year she graduated from the school in 1984.
Lewis echoed the concerns of the approximately 100 other alumni at the meeting and said she was not opposed to naming the library or something else in honor of Barrow, but said she felt the council should not have to seriously consider the name change.
Leverette Bryant, chairman of the Local School Council, said he was only aware of two supporters of the name change, Faulkner and one of her associates.
Bryant said his understanding was that the council must seriously debate the proposal and must hold two public forums, which are scheduled for 1 p.m. Jan. 9 and 6 p.m. Jan. 28.
A Chicago Public Schools representative was not immediately available to confirm the process for renaming a school.
Bryant said people at the two forums will be surveyed on whether they’re in favor of changing the name and then the council will vote on the issue.
“The motion has to come to the floor,” Bryant said. “If the motion fails, that’s the end of the discussion.”
It's unclear why Faulkner has proposed the name change. Neither she nor her three children attended the school, according to news reports.
Faulkner did not respond to requests for comment.
If Wednesday night’s meeting was any gauge, the current name is broadly supported in the neighborhood as no one spoke in favor of changing the name.
“I would like to see, if nothing else, the name stays the same,” Aundrea Holland said.
Holland said it has been sad to see a lot of the school’s past glory literally thrown away.
She said after graduating in 2004, she got a summer job at the school clearing out school’s old south building. She said one of her jobs was to throw away all school’s oldest trophies and plaques from state championships and other accomplishments.
“There was this big vault that all had to be cleared out,” Holland said.
Principal Janice Wells said some of more recent trophies were saved before the school moved into its current building in 2011.
Many of the alumni dressed in the school’s Kelly green and royal blue colors said they were still pained by the loss of their community’s hard-won honors.
Michael Martin, a 1986 graduate of the school, said he was opposed to the change but said he had nothing against the desire to honor Barrow.
“While I respect that, sometimes a community is bigger than one individual.” Martin said.
Wells said the burden is not on the alumni to defend the name, but on those who wish to change it.
“The lift is on why the name should be changed, the lift is not on it staying the same,” Wells said.
The Local School Council is expected to vote in February on whether or not to recommend the name change to the Chicago Board of Education.
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