Corvallis school board votes to remove racist president's names from schools

The Corvallis School District has removed U.S. presidents' names from three elementary schools due to their racist connotations after a 6-1 vote Thursday.

Clouds late.

Lows in the 50s.

As of today, three corvallis elementary schools are no longer named after u.s. presidents who the school board says were racist.

Kezi 9 news reporter chris lueneburg shows us how and why those schools will be renamed.

Diana finkenaur will soon be a corvallis school district parent.

"my oldest son will be at hoover elemntary next fall."

Only by then-- it will have a new name "well, i don't have any special attachments to the name."

In a 6-1 vote last night-- the school board removed the names for their racist connotations.

"everybody goes to school, so it's nice to see names that aren't, sorry, old white men.

Old dead white men as names of the schools.

It makes sense to me."

The board says the presidents' actions and beliefs don't mirror the district's values of diversity and inclusion.

"the board says jefferson is considered racist for his slave ownership-- wilson for promoting segregation..

And hoover for blocking aid to democrats in the south."

The board's only holdout was jay conroy-- citing a lack of time for public input.

"everything about those men being racist and bad may be right, but my fundamentals still remain that in the absence of an emergency, this board said it would be open to our community to listen."

Now superintendent ryan noss will establish a diverse task force who will work with the community to identify permanant, representative names.

"let's acknowledge that right now all of our schools are named for men and its not racially diverse.

We want all of our children to say, our school system, including the names of our schools are diverse.

And that's what we expect from the task force."

In the meantime-- noss will pick interim names for the schools... the beginning of a process expected to take around 6 months-- that finkenaur thinks will be for the best.

"the more inclusive we can be, i think, the better."

Reporting in corvallis, chris lueneburg kezi 9 news.