Nearly a year ago, NOLA-PS outlined a plan to rename school facilities in response to recent public requests and in accordance with policy approved by the OPSB to ensure school facilities do not have names honoring figures from our painful past. The board believes all schools should be welcoming, inclusive, and inspiring places for all students. Our goal is to ensure the names of these physical school facilities and the people that we honor reflect the values of the school district.

As their policy states, the OPSB is fundamentally opposed to retaining names of school facilities named for persons who were slave owners, confederate officials, or segregation supporters.

 The OPSB shall have sole authority to name or rename any school facility (i.e., school campuses, individual buildings, athletic fields, stadiums, gymnasiums, libraries, fields, tracks, and multipurpose rooms) private drive, or street it owns. Public input has been a vital part of this process. The full Naming of Facilities policy can be found here.

Click here to see the rationales provided by the Historian Review Team regarding facilities not in compliance with the Facilities policy.

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The renaming process was guided by a Renaming Committee. In accordance with OPSB policy, this committee consisted of a school board member appointed by the OPSB president; a representative of the NOLA-PS administration; and community members approved by the superintendent.

After months of public input, hundreds of name considerations, and historical research, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) unanimously voted and approved NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.’s list of recommendations for the renaming of several public school buildings. Dr. Lewis’ recommendations took into consideration three months of public input through email, mail, and virtual public meetings. The District received more than 250 name recommendations that were vetted and considered by both the historical and renaming committees.

Find out more about the honorees by clicking the link below:

Renaming Initiative Honorees Biographies

It’s important to note NOLA-PS has the authority to change the outward facing name on any of its buildings. However, it cannot change the program name designated by a Charter Management Organization (CMO). CMOs are autonomous and are governed by their own boards and leadership. Therefore, for example, the OPSB could change a school building’s physical name to read Nelson Mandela School. But, if the CMO chooses to keep its program name, the school’s official name would be titled as follows: “McDonogh 7 Charter School at the Nelson Mandela building.”

Additional renaming recommendations

Public input during this effort also brought attention to six more facilities that do not violate the School Board policy, but may benefit the community at large by being renamed. These recommendations will be presented for consideration during the July OPSB Meeting. The administration welcomes feedback on the below proposal up to the July OPSB meeting via community@nolapublicschools.com.