District intervenes in stalled Drake High renaming process
The postponement came as the group hit a dead end on March 26 when it was announced that the name Olema Trail - one of two final names along with Bon Tempe - would be scrapped.
After pulling a finalist for a new name for Sir Francis Drake High School, the panel in charge of the school’s controversial renaming process is pausing the effort to allow for discussion in a wider forum.
On Thursday, the Drake Leadership Council postponed its planned meeting “until further notice,” according to the school’s website.
The postponement came as the group hit a dead end on March 26 when it was announced that the name Olema Trail — one of two final names along with Bon Tempe — would be scrapped.
Trustees of the Tamalpais Union High School District, who are expected to make the final decision, will hear from district Superintendent Tara Taupier at the next board meeting at 6 p.m. April 13.
“As you know, the board cannot have discussions outside of publicly noticed board meetings,” Taupier said in an email. “Therefore I felt it was important that they have a chance to ask questions and get clarity prior to considering a new name.”
She said she also plans to review board policy 7310, which governs the name of a school or district facility.
The stopping point came after the panel voted to pull the name Olema Trail after three rounds of email and online voting over three months to narrow the options from 79 names.
School principal Liz Seabury announced at the meeting that she had been contacted by Buffy McQuillen, a representative of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a Rohnert-Park-based tribal government that represents the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo tribes in Marin and Sonoma counties.
McQuillen told Seabury there were problems with using Olema Trail, which has roots in Coast Miwok terminology. According to Seabury, McQuillen was not against the school using an Indigenous name, but the tribes wanted to have discussions with the school first.
Panel members voted not to engage in such discussions — although several people said they wanted to work with the native groups on other projects, such as land acknowledgements, curriculum changes or renaming different buildings.
“We are grateful for both the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for their guidance and insights into possible names,” Seabury posted Thursday on the school website. “The aid from both groups has provided us with learning that we embrace as an educational community.”
Neither McQuillen nor members of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin could be reached for comment on Friday.
The decision in November to remove the name Drake was made because of the 16th century English explorer’s ties to slavery. The school panel has maintained the name change would be a first step in addressing systemic racism against Blacks, Latinos, native people or other ethnicities.
They are supported in that view by a number of alumni and neighborhood residents working toward equity changes at the school, including those in the Marin Alumni Network for Equity and Inclusion and the Parent and Caregivers Equity Team.
But other alumni — including those in the No Name Change for SFD High Facebook group — say their objection has nothing to do with race.
They claim the school left them out of the process by what they said was a precipitous move to take down the Drake signs in July and by removing the name from the list of options in the voting process. After the signs were removed, the school then took on the ad hoc name High School 1327 — a reference to the school address at 1327 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
“I would hope that no monies from the taxpayers in any way supported this name change group,” alumnus Bill Hamm said in an email. “Having the school give permission to paint over the Sir Francis Drake names and logos was devastating to thousands of alumni. Fear of vandalism was the reason — well that, in and of itself, was vandalism at its worst.”
Alumna Danette Citi said she hopes the Tam district intervention will be a turning point.
“We will learn more from the board of trustees soon,” she said in an email. “That said, we have always advocated for a more inclusive, transparent and credible process on whether to rename the high school.”
Alumnus Rick Franceschini said the best outcome now would be a community-wide referendum.
“What we would like to see happen is that the decision to change the name be put up to the vote of the general community,” he said in an email.
Apologies would be nice too, said alumnus Brad Beedle.
“Apologizing to the alumni for the exclusion from the process,” he said in an email. “Apologizing to the students, parents and other stakeholders for not dealing with the question of racism in the classroom.
“Apologizing for using a pandemic as a crutch and using zoom as a medium that most alumni had a hard time accessing,” Beedle added. “Apologizing to the Miwok tribe as well as the Graton group for creating a unnecessary riff.”