New York school changes name to Barack Obama Elementary

Not so Barack Obama.

In what appears to be a national first, the school board in Hempstead, N.Y., has voted unanimously to change the name of its 460-student Ludlum Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School.

Officials hope to hold a name-changing ceremony shortly after the new year begins. Such quick action could put the 47-year-old president-elect's name on a public institution even before his inauguration Jan. 20. "I think we were still caught up in the moment," principal Jean Bligen said.

Like many across Long Island, Hempstead students followed the campaign closely. Students at the former Ludlum School held a mock debate, and a straw ballot there in grades 3-5 produced 257 votes for Obama, 28 for opponent Sen. John McCain.

The school's enrollment is 62 percent Hispanic and 36 percent African-American. Several students come from Africa, and many more come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and Puerto Rico.

"For me, we made history," said Teonte Jackson, 11, a fifth-grader who played Obama in the debate. "I feel really proud to have an African-American president. I don't think it's a racial thing. I think he will bring everybody together."

Clear Stream Avenue School in Valley Stream will also consider a renaming resolution next month, The Associated Press reported.

Eileen Garbe, who teaches fifth grade at the former Ludlum School, said the election provided a "monumental" opportunity to bring history alive for students. She plans to retire in about a year and a half after 20 years of teaching. "Isn't this a wonderful way to go out?" she said.

A photo of Obama already hangs in the school's office. Coincidentally, since September the school has been sending hundreds of books to an orphanage in Kenya, the home of Obama's late father, even before the idea of a name change took hold.

The idea began to jell after another fifth-grade teacher asked students Jalani Johnson and Samantha Alburez, both 10, to write essays on why their school should be named for Obama.

Interim Superintendent Joseph Laria praised both students and adults for urging the name change at the Thursday school board meeting. The board's vote was 5-0.

As he voted, board president Charles Renfroe thought of his own fifth-grade teacher, Artiebelle Lowe, who worked in a segregated, two-room schoolhouse in rural Alabama.

Renfroe still recalls her joy at the news in 1955 that a Montgomery, Ala., seamstress named Rosa Parks had defied Jim Crow laws by refusing to move to the rear of a bus. "I just wish she could be around today to see how far we've come," Renfroe said of his former teacher.

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