School board tables changing James Blair Middle School's name
Board agonizes over community support for name
The Williamsburg-James City County school board tabled next steps in changing the name of James Blair Middle School at a work session Tuesday night.
Board members spent half an hour discussing the pros and cons of changing the name, and how much weight to give a community survey where a majority voted to keep the name.
“The community had spoken and they are the ones who live with the name,” said Roberts District Representative Daniel R. Cavazos. “We asked them what they wanted and that’s what they said….the board should be respectful of the community opinion and move forward.”
Proponents of the name change said the middle school should not be named after a slaveholder like James Blair, who was a founder of William & Mary.
Vice Chair Andrea M. Donnor and Berkeley District Representative Randy J. Riffle felt the board should move forward with the name change process.
“I think our community is a little bit wrong on this,” Riffle said, urging the board to move forward with the name change process.
Board Chair Sarah G. Ortego told the board that it should not be pressed by an artificial timeline and asked those who wanted to make the name change an action item now to raise their hands.
Only Donnor and Riffle did so.
Earlier, the committee charged with considering the name change presented the school board with five names chosen from a survey in which 397 students, staff and parents participated. They were:
Integrity Middle School
Kiskiack Middle School
Longhill Middle School
Powhatan Creek Middle School
Willow Oak Middle School
Before the meeting began, the school board met behind closed doors to agree onhiring Acting Superintendent Daniel Keever as the new superintendent. The board voted right after opening the public session to approve the hiring.
Keever replaces former Superintendent Olwen Herron, who retired earlier this year.
Ortego said Keever’s hire “was not a foregone conclusion”. But during a nationwide search, she said, “Dr. Keever emerged at the top every time.”
Keever’s contract runs from June 1, 2025 to 2028.
The amount of hateful responses associated with the effort to change the name of a middle school that honored an enslaver who secured slave labor for both the college and his own household is sad but not surprising. We need to pull our collective heads out of Virginia's Massive Resistance mindset and move forward. Diversity makes us stronger. Equity promotes justice and inclusion fosters growth. Anything less falls short.
Great outcome on the name change but worried about the new Superintendent. Hopefully he prioritizes improved scores over mindless diversity proclamations.