Amah Mutsun push to change name of school
Published on Page 4 of the August 7, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life:
By Staff Report
The Morgan Hill Unified School District is looking for five residents in its formation of a Citizens Advisory Committee to explore options for a new name for the newly renovated campus formerly known as Burnett Elementary School.
At the July 23 school board meeting, trustees voted unanimously to follow interim Superintendent Steve Betando’s suggestion to form the committee for the facility at 85 Tilton Ave. in the Madrone District of Morgan Hill.
The site will serve starting this month as the new home of Morgan Hill’s continuation school. The renaming of the school site came after a request made by Valentin Lopez, the tribal chairman of the Amah Mutsun tribal band of Indians, at the June 25 school board meeting.
The tribe asked for the name change because Governor Peter Hardeman Burnett, the man the original elementary school site was named after, was a racist who, during his term as California’s first governor, signed an executive order to exterminate all Native Americans in the state. Burnett’s term as governor lasted 13 months before he resigned.
The school board decided that the Citizens Advisory Committee be made up of a member of the Morgan Hill Historical Society, a former student or staff member of the former Burnett Elementary School, a community member representing the neighborhood surrounding the school site, and a student and staff member from Central High School. These five committee members will be asked to give the school board at least three suggestions for a new name.
At the Aug. 13 school board meeting, members of the public can also give trustees their suggestions for names for the school. Based on the input, the committee will select three final names to give the board for a vote at the Aug. 27 school board meeting.
Burnett Elementary School opened Oct. 10, 1855 to serve the children of Burnett Township, now known as Madrone.
Members of the committee to rename Burnett School have been selected but their names will be kept confidential until after the recommendation process is finished, said Betando.
“This will help prevent undue lobbying, coercion, influence and secure the chosen avenue for submitting names through the district rather than to individual committee members,” he said. “We will certainly announce the committee member names after the recommendation is made.”
MHUSD closed Burnett Elementary as a school in the summer of 2008 to save money during the budget crisis.
Gov. Burnett held strong views of racial intolerance toward blacks, Asians and Native Americans, Lopez said. In 1850, the governor signed a law that allowed for the state-mandated genocide of Native Americans, he said. Many Native Americans at that time hid their true cultural heritage by pretending to be Mexican to avoid Burnett’s racial extermination.
“The Amah Mutsun tribal band is very pleased with the decision to change the name of the school,” Lopez said. “We’re hopeful that the new name, whatever it is, will allow the students and parents to have a sense of pride in their school and inspire them to succeed in their studies.”
