Middle School Naming Committee Meets Without Controversy

Advocates for keeping Wilson's name
on new middle school gather.

The storm clouds were brewing on Facebook, and on local cable talk shows, but the formative meeting of the naming committee for the new middle school was conducted with a minimum of controversy.  That controversy may still rear up at the public hearing scheduled for June 19.

The controversy is based on one group's desire to retain the name Woodrow Wilson Middle School, and the viewpoint of others that the school should be renamed because of Wilson's racist past.

The group decided on an additional four meetings of the committee with the next meeting, on June 19, spent gathering public input.  The location of that meeting has not been set.

The committee.

Nearly a dozen residents, and graduates of the old Woodrow Wilson High School gathered at Snow School for the meeting.  The committee, appointed by the Board of Ed, consisted of two Board of Education members, two school administrators, two teachers, a student each from Keigwin and Woodrow Wilson, two parents and five community members.

Before the meeting, chaired by BOE member Lisa Loomis, could even begin former Common Council member Hope Kasper asked why the committee was meeting.

"Under what authority are you meeting, and taking up this task," Kasper asked before the meeting was gaveled.  "What's the statute that gives you authority to take this up when it's a Common Council responsibility?"

"We'll get to that," Loomis assured.  She then went on to inform the gathered residents that no public testimony would be allowed at the first, and formative meeting, where she explained that ground rules would be set for upcoming meetings, and a historical perspective of school names would be considered.  She also indicated that the BOE directed the committee to only consider name of individuals who were deceased, and who had a major significance in Middletown.  She noted that the committee could also consider geographical and other place names.

Loomis assured those gathered that the committee had the authority to consider new names for the middle school, granted by the Board of Education in a unanimous vote, and that under city ordinance 2322 the full board would vote on a name and pass it to the Common Council for approval.

Town historian Deborah Shapiro and WWMS assistant principal David Mierzdjewski,  provided background on the naming of the two high school in Middletown (Woodrow Wilson, and MHS), which were merged after the new high school was dedicated.

Ida Keigwin

Shapiro explained that Middletown High School began mid-nineteenth century in the basement of Middletown's Russell Library, and served students from Middletown, Cromwell, Haddam and Middlefield, and that the second high school, founded much later, served students from South Farms, and other rural areas of Middletown.  It was named after President Woodrow Wilson who was born in Virginia and spent his early life between there and Georgia.  He was later a professor for under two years at Wesleyan, and who then moved on to Princeton, where he became university president, and later Governor of New Jersey, and then President.

Bill Corvo talks about Ida Keigwin

Longtime resident Bill Corvo,  a self-proclaimed history buff, assisted by Keigwin assistant principal Dan Raucci, provided a history of Ida Keigwin, longtime educator in Middletown.  Corvo had a personal perspective because Keigwin taught his father Max Corvo, and was an inspiration to her.  Corvo later found success as head of US intelligence in Italy during the Second World War.

Corvo provide insights into Keigwin's dedication to educating immigrant children who were new to the US, and her advocacy of peace and understanding.  Corvo vowed to donate his collection of letters written by Keigwin to his father, and his father's notes from her class, to the library of the new school if the committee decided that the library would be named for the deceased teacher.