March 16 meeting of the Prince William County School Board. Image courtesy of PWCS.At the request of Brentsville school board representative Gil Trenum, the Prince William School Board will reconsider the renaming of Mills E. Godwin Middle School located in Dale City.
“See, two weeks ago, this board failed Godwin Middle School; two weeks ago, I failed Godwin Middle School,” Trenum said during board matters at the Mar. 16 school board meeting.
Trenum said while he believes the school board failed to do the right thing on Mar. 2, its members should choose to do the right thing on April 6. They should reconsider keeping the Godwin name and naming another school after Dr. George Hampton.
“I have to believe that as a board we can come up with a better solution. I have to believe that we can find a way to give the Godwin Middle School community a voice, honor Kyle Wilson’s sacrifice and honor the life’s work of Dr. Hampton,” he said.
The vote to rename Godwin was an attempt to please two camps presenting worthwhile names for the “Ferlazzo Elementary School” in the Coles District.
One group wanted the school to be named after Kyle Wilson, a Prince William Fire Fighter who lost his life in 2007, at age 24, while in the line of duty. Another group proposed the elementary school be named for 87-year-old, Dr. George Hampton, an educator, philanthropist, and respected leader within the Prince William African American community.
Board members thought they had come upon a solution to please everyone when they voted to name the elementary school after Kyle Wilson and to rename Godwin Middle School for Dr. Hampton.
That night, the decision was considered a celebrated compromise by both fractions.
“However, while we were caught up in celebrating our own wisdom and patting ourselves on our own backs, we lost sight of the fact that were disenfranchising the Godwin Middle School community,” Trenum said. “In our exuberance, we rushed ahead with a vote without adequate discussion, without giving the Godwin community a voice.”
Trenum said at the time of the vote the board did not fully consider the consequences of their actions, which he said included stripping the Godwin Middle School community of its identity, and a financial cost that could range between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Trenum also said he decided to revisit the issue after being prompted by his constituents.
“[I am addressing this] partly because I’ve had a number of people in my district who are concerned, because they’ve said, ‘If it can happen to them, it can happen to us,’” he said.
Prince William County Schools does have a regulation requiring the creation of a naming committee when schools are build; there is no regulation that addresses renaming schools and facilities.
However during citizen’s time, several residents (and one Stafford County School Board member) argued that is no excuse for renaming a school without community input. Among them were Del. Rich Anderson and former Neabsco District school board member Lisa Bell.
The board also heard from some community members who supported the decision to name the community after Dr. Hampton. One man explained it is a name African Americans could be proud in a nation where textbooks tell them their history began with slavery. He told the board not to get hung up on the process when they have done the right thing.
There has also been some attempt made to listen to the Godwin community. Chairman Ryan Sawyers, Lillie Jessie (Occoquan) and Diane Raulston (Neabsco) visited the school to talk with its staff earlier in the month.
Potomac School board member Justin Wilk, who proposed the compromise, said he would like to hear from members of the Neabsco district to learn if they are happy with the proposed renaming.
As for Trenum, as the longest serving member of the school board, said he should have done things differently the night of Mar. 2.
I should have made an effort to slow things down and throttle things back. I should have called for more discussion and more consideration. We are all human. We all fail both individually and corporately; there is no shame in that. But to fail a community that did not have a voice and not to attempt to make it right when you have an opportunity, I think there is shame in that. There is dishonor in not trying to right a wrong.
Trenum also said in the past, board members had deferred to the wishes of the board member within whose district a school resides, and that had served them well. In this case, that would have meant supporting Willie Deutsch's recommendation to name the Coles district school for Kyle Wilson.
Wilk proposed renaming the Godwin school since Mills Godwin was a segregationist. However, the history is more complicated. Although originally a segregationist, Governor Godwin later ran as a Democrat and even received the support of the NAACP.
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