Secondary school named for JFK

By Trisha Marczak (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Local residents may have to get used to more than just a new look for the Fergus Falls secondary school — they’ll also have to remember the name. The school board announced the name for the 2009-10 remodeled secondary school at their meeting Tuesday night.

Students at the middle and high schools cast ballots last Tuesday in favor of naming the building after late president, John F. Kennedy.

Superintendent Jerry Ness, said the move to turn the decision over to the students came about after countless attempts by the school board to decide on an appropriate name.

“We didn’t want the name to be divisive in the community,” said school board member Tarma Carlson.

She said the board was concerned that naming the building after a former politician may spark controversy.

“I hope people will come together in the community and support the name that the students chose,” Carlson said.

And as school board president Matthew Lemke said, “They got to experience democracy.”

Ness said all names had to fit specific criteria which stated that the building would be named after a deceased president, and that the name could not have previously been used within the Fergus Falls school district.

School board members and students heavily involved in History Day events decided two weeks ago on the following presidents for the ballot: Calvin Coolidge, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Woodrow Wilson.

John F. Kennedy won by some 150 votes, Ness said.

Ness said naming the buildings was important in ensuring clarity.

“The goal here is to make sure that it is not called the old middle school forever,” he said.

Following in that suit, the school board also announced that the current high school will be referred to as the Roosevelt Education Center, starting with the 2009-10 school year. Ness said was decided based on the fact that the building was originally named Roosevelt Park High School when it was built in 1951.

The Roosevelt Education Center will host classes for community education, the Area Learning Center and will serve as the vocational wing.

“There will be a lot of education happening in that building as well,” Ness said.

Naming the school after Kennedy follows a long-standing tradition of the school district naming its schools after presidents.

The current high school is named for Theodore Roosevelt while elementary schools are named for William McKinley, John Adams, and Grover F. Cleveland.

Another school facility is named for Dwight D. Eisenhower.