Alamance-Burlington Board of Education decides on name for high school set to open next August
After a false start, the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education has named the county’s seventh traditional high school Southeast Alamance High School by a narrow 4-3 vote, Tuesday.
While the redistricting process has not started in earnest, Southeast will take students from current zones of Southern Alamance south of Graham, Eastern Alamance west of Mebane and Graham high schools largely to relieve overcrowding.
Support local journalism as a Times-News subscriber
Three members of the board – Allison Gant, Wayne Beam and Patsy Simpson – advocated for Southeast Central or Central Southeast to better reflect all three communities and they cast the “nay” votes. Central was also the name of the old segregated county school district’s Black high school in Graham, and some board members wanted the nod to history and diversity.
“I don’t think this getting off in the right direction with only southern and eastern and not Graham,” Simpson said after the vote. “It saddens me but it is what it is.”
More: Alamance County's Camp Frontier faces allegations of abuse in the 1980s
Board Member Tony Rose said there wasn’t as much public support for Central and including it made the name longer and more awkward. It’s also hard to fit on a jersey.
The board got public input several times with two online surveys, a public forum and an informal committee. All that brought in about 400 suggestions, said Les Atkins, public information officer for Alamance-Burlington Schools including Haw River, Wyatt Outlaw, after the 19th Century local Black leader whose lynching effectively ended Reconstruction in the area, Scott, after the prominent local family from which three North Carolina governors came, and Terry Johnson, after the current long-serving county sheriff.
Most others just had one “vote,” Atkins said.
More: Alamance County District Attorney gets guilty plea, Lexington man gets 26 years in Huff's shooting
Hawfields – as the rural area south of and between Mebane and Graham is known – probably had the most support for the name of the new school just outside Swepsonville, but most of the board members said that left out even more of the communities from which the school will draw students.
Hawfields was the recommendation of an informal committee of about 30 parents, students and district staff gave the board earlier in August, but that committee was so informal board members didn’t know anything about it, and it apparently unintentionally violated state open meetings law. To make up for that, the board scheduled a public forum Tuesday, Aug. 30 just before it own meeting that drew 12 people, according to board chair Sandy Ellington-Graves.
While the school isn’t set to open until next year, the district was behind on the naming process, said Superintendent Dain Butler. It takes a lot of lead time to get athletic uniforms made, he said, and the school also needed a name to give to the Department of Public Instruction to get important bureaucratic processes started, Atkins said.
“No matter what we say here tonight, that’s not going to make this school,” said Board Member Ryan Bowden. The community – (Principal Eric) Yarborough and his staff and the community – is what’s going to make this school…So it’s important not to get caught up in the name.”
The next step, according to Atkins, is for a group of students to meet with the principal and come up with a mascot. A group already came up with the school colors – orange and blue.
The board will start talking about drawing the zones for Southeast High School in September or October, according to Atkins.
The $67 million school is the biggest project paid for with $150 million in bonds voters approved in 2018. It will be 221,000 square feet and have capacity for 1,250 students.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Alamance-Burlington Board of Education chooses new high school name
