The Appleton Area School District is asking for public comment on the proposal to change the name of Lincoln Elementary to the Ronald C. Dunlap Elementary School – Home of the Lincoln Lions.
The deadline to submit feedback is 4pm on Friday, February 19. You can submit that feedback here.
There are several reasons why I disagree with this proposed name change.
(1) AASD is in the midst of an educational crisis. Over 25% of their high schoolers failed at least 1 first semester class and the Board of Education and the AASD Administrative team have laid out no concrete plans for what they will do to fix that issue or set any deadlines for when programs to help struggling students will be implemented.
Given that, it is inappropriate for them to be spending time on an action item that is neither necessary nor time sensitive. This proposed change could easily be put off for one or two years while district energies are directed toward more immediate needs. The fact that the Board doesn’t see that speaks poorly of their priorities during this current crisis.
(2) AASD states “[t]his renaming is in honor of Ron, not an effort to eliminate a current school name. The Lincoln name will remain as the school slogan.”
Unfortunately, the fact remains that they are eliminating Abraham Lincoln as the school’s name and relegating him to a slogan. Abraham Lincoln is widely considered to be one of our county’s greater Presidents–certainly one of the most influential. It’s difficult to not view turning him into a slogan as disrespectful.
(3) It does also need to be pointed out that for the 02/08/2021 Board of Education meeting, the Board received three letters for public comment on the matter of renaming Lincoln Elementary and one of them took it as an opportunity to advocate for the renaming of Stephen Foster Elementary due the fact that Stephen Foster composed minstrel songs which is an activity that is not considered appropriate in 2021.
AASD may claim this is not about removing Abraham Lincoln and is rather about honoring Ron Dunlap; however, making this change absolutely will open (in fact has already opened) the door for people to advocate for the renaming of other schools for political reasons.
Ron Dunlap seems like a worthy man deserving of honor, and there are multiple other ways in which he could be honored while also not diminishing Abraham Lincoln or opening the doors to removing other historical names from our schools.
(1) While Ron Dunlap was the principal of Lincoln Elementary for 16 years which is why that particular school was chosen for the name change, he was a community member whose influence spread beyond just Lincoln Elementary. It would perhaps be less poetic but still very appropriate to rename a different school after him. Badger, Highlands, and Horizons all appear to not be named after anyone. Perhaps one of them could be chosen to carry Ron Dunlap’s name.
(2) The Board could vote to change Lincoln Elementary’s name to Lincoln Elementary – Home of the Ron Dunlap Lions. This would maintain the location where he served for so many years, and, as Barry O’Connor mentioned, Ron was the president of the Lions Club, so there would be more poetry to this change than to renaming a different school.
(3) The District naming protocols mention that not just schools but also specific facilities can be named. Perhaps an auditorium or a park or a learning center could be named after him.
(4) AASD could commission a sculpture or a mural to honor him. Appleton is home to some very artistic murals. A big one on an exterior wall of Lincoln Elementary that could be viewed by the public would be really cool. I know I would take pictures of it.
(5) AASD could work with the City of Appleton to find a way to honor Ron Dunlap in a more communal manner that highlights all of the positive ways he impacted the community instead of just focusing on his influence at Lincoln Elementary.
All in all, I think the Board of Education needs to (a) put this off for the time being and (b) think this through a lot more than they seem to have and come up with some other more creative way to honor Ron’s legacy. The Board is no stranger to own goals, and I think if they charge ahead and approve this proposal as is, they will come off, as they already have multiple times this last year, as being tone deaf to the actual needs and desires of the community.
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