PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland's Wilson High School is getting ready for a name change.
On Tuesday night, the board of Portland Public Schools decided the change was necessary, in light of the racial justice movement. The Southwest Portland school was built in 1954 and named for former President Woodrow Wilson, whose administration segregated federal offices.
Wilson also wrote a book considered sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, an advisor to the school board said they are "responding to the energy in our community about the name changes."
The board will wait until students return in some form in the fall to allow them to weigh in on the school’s new name.
Some school board members also heard from a parent and former teacher who wants the Robert Blanchard Education Service Center, which houses the District's headquarters, renamed.
Gerald Scrutchions said he's started a petition pushing for the change. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had gathered more than 1,100 signatures.
"Although there is no statue of Mr. Blanchard, I find it offensive and disrespectful," Scrutchions said. "Blanchard's resolution ... implemented mandatory busing of African Americans to predominantly white schools. Blanchard's ideals amount to an assimilationist, racist ideology, and it also supports the thought that Black kids can only prove themselves by attending white schools."
Board members also heard from students who want Madison High School renamed. President James Madison owned over 100 slaves and helped with the practice of counting Black people as 3/5 of a person.
"I won't truly feel comfortable being anywhere where white supremacist culture is allowed," said Madison High School student Jaya Provbasco-Mitchell. "Attending Madison high school has been a very positive experience for me, but knowing the history of my school name is disheartening because there is still that lingering history of racism and slavery in all parts of the country. And it feels like a constant reminder that my people are still not truly free."
Board members said Tuesday they support that change, adding Madison could get a new name before its grand reopening next year. The school is currently undergoing renovations.
The calls for change have been building for years, but it's no coincidence progress is being made now. Amid historic protests over racism and police violence, statues of Confederate heroes and white historical figures have been toppled across the U.S.
Last month protesters tore down a statue of Thomas Jefferson at Portland's Jefferson High.
RELATED: Large protest at Jefferson High School; another group topples Washington statue on Sandy Blvd.
At Tuesday night's meeting, administrators said they're serious about changing course, explaining that they're re-tooling the name-changing process to include more student voices.
In an interview Wednesday, the district's senior advisor for racial equity and social justice, Dani Ledezma, added it's hard to nail down when more changes might come.
She said administrators hope to see big progress during this school year. Meanwhile, they're proud of the kids who are speaking out. And the district had a message to critics who worry about erasing history.
"We're trying to tell a counter narrative of a fuller picture of history," Ledezma said. "We want to make sure that we're disrupting a sort of cultural norm that the history that some of these names represent is the only history. And in fact it's very problematic. It's proven to be racist and that supports the history of colonization, and that's not part of our values at PPS."