Kanawha BOE president ‘will do what is best for the community’ on potential renaming of Stonewall Jackson MS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Board of Education President Ryan White says he will support what is best for the community when it comes to the potential renaming of Stonewall Jackson Middle School on Charleston’s West Side.

White told MetroNews on Tuesday that he can see the topic on a future board’s agenda if there is enough community support.

As of Tuesday morning, there is a petition with more than 3,800 signatures to change the name and a march on the subject planned for this weekend.

A march in favor of the name change is set for Saturday.

“My personal opinion doesn’t really matter, it’s what the community wants. I will support whatever I feel the community in the West Side wants on this issue,” White told MetroNews.

“They are the ones that go to the school. I am interested in what the students at the school feel about the name. My position is I want to do what is best for the community.”

580-WCHS in Charleston reported that the request to change the former Stonewall Jackson High School was the focus of a public meeting Monday on the city’s West Side.

Groups nationwide have been pushing for re-evaluating buildings, monuments and facilities named after Confederate leaders. The West Side school opened in 1940 and is named after Jackson, a Confederate general born in Clarksburg.

The petition is addressed to Gov. Jim Justice, the City of Charleston, and Kanawha County Schools while requesting the school be renamed to honor White Sulphur Springs native and West Virginia State alumna Katherine Johnson.

Johnson was a pioneer in the space industry, a black NASA mathematician whose research led to the first American orbit of Earth and was later highlighted in the movie ‘Hidden Figures.’

Ryan White

“If there are enough people that want to see the board make a decision, I would think that the board would want to put it on its agenda,” White said.

White, elected in 2014, has not been on the board for a name change before. In 2012, West Side Elementary School in Charleston added Mary C. Snow, the county’s first black principal, to its name in a 4-1 vote. Current board members Becky Jordon and Jim Crawford voted in favor.

The middle school has more than 400 students and the student population is 44 percent black and seven percent biracial.

White said he anticipates community members being able to speak in front of the board on the issue.

“There’s a lot of passion in this debate so I would think there would be some way for the community to be able to make their opinions known to the board,” he said.

The scheduled march on Saturday will go from Abundant Life Ministries to the Kanawha County Board of Education building.





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