On 06/28/2021, the Appleton Area School District Board of Education voted 4-3 to remove Lincoln as the name of the elementary school at 1000 N Mason Street and rename is Ronald C. Dunlap Elementary School – Home of the Lincoln Lions.
Board members Deb Truyman, Gary Jahnke, and Kay Eggert voted against the name change. All three of them thought that Ron Dunlap was worthy of recognition and would have supported naming another school after him, but they did not support renaming a school. Deb said that she didn’t support renaming history. Gary saw a compelling reason to name a school after Ron but not to remove Lincoln as the name of the school. Kay thought the board was in a pickle with a very divided community and thought they had options other than renaming the school.
Board members Ed Ruffolo, Barry O’Connor, Jim Bowman, and Kris Sauter voted in favor of the name change. Ed thought that AASD has a tradition of neighborhood schools and that the Board should follow the desires of those in the Lincoln attendance area. Barry thought Ron was a trailblazer and he wanted a school named after someone who matters to the community. Jim thought the current names of schools in the district do not reflect the demographics of the community, and Ron was particularly special to that school. Kris thought they were in a challenging position and appreciated that many people had gone through Lincoln and knew it by that name but thought that they needed to do more to reflect the diversity of the district.
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