(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
The Erie School Board will vote May 13 on a recommendation to maintain Harding Elementary School’s name.
The board at its May 6 meeting received an update from the Harding School name review committee. The committee has been evaluating a proposal to change Harding Elementary, which was named for a U.S. president, to John Boyd Elementary School.
Board member Linda Graff presented a resolution that would make sure that Boyd is honored while maintaining the Harding name the school has carried for more than a century. The board will vote on that resolution at its May 13 meeting at 6 p.m. at the school district administration building, 1910 Sassafras St. Meetings also can be viewed via the school district’s YouTube channel.
Erie’s Harding Elementary School is expected to keep its name.
The resolution, if approved, would affirm “the continued use of the name ‘Harding Elementary School,’ recognizing its longstanding significance to the school community and its identity as a place of belonging for students and families.”
The library at Harding, 820 Lincoln Ave., would formally be designated in honor of Boyd, likely with his name outside and a plaque inside.
Graff said it was clear from survey responses about the proposed name change that “people felt that Col. Boyd was worthy of naming a school after and that Harding maybe wasn’t the best person that we know now after the school was named but what really came out was that the community, the students, the staff, just their connection to the school and what it means and the Harding Dragons, it doesn’t mean Warren G. Harding to them. It’s a place and it’s a connection to the community and to the students and the staff. It was so overwhelming, that feeling.”
Board President Jay Breneman thanked Graff, who chaired the naming committee, for its work. The committee also included a Harding parent, a student and the assistant principal and two community members.
Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Harding School name vote coming May 13