Name Of Columbus School Officially Changed To Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration

“Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration” (FAME) is officially in. And ​“Christopher Columbus Family Academy” (CCFA) is officially out.

The Board of Education Monday night voted unanimously to approve FAME as the official new name of the Fair Haven K‑8 school at 255 Blatchley Ave., during a biweekly public meeting via Zoom.

The boards’ CCFA Facility Renaming Subcommittee submitted the name proposa last Tuesday after two rounds of ranked-choice voting narrowed down the top 13 choices to a single winner. (Read more about the committee’s preliminary vote here.)

The board voted 7 – 0 on the single name submission from the committee, officially approving the name Monday. 

“I absolutely love it,” said board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur. ​“I think the kids are going to love this name. I think the community is going to love this name.”

Jackson-McArthur organized the committee alongside board President Yesenia Rivera.

The committee met weekly for seven weeks. In its first weeks, the committee put together a set of school descriptors and identified the schools’ current values.Public input was also collected throughout the process from a survey that received more than 200 name suggestions from the community.

Multilingualism was identified by staff and students early on the process as a central school value.

“The idea behind the school is that everybody who goes there will speak more than one language,” said one of the committee’s chairs, Carlos Torre. ​“The multilingual aspect is a key part of the school.”

Before the board’s vote, committee member and Columbus FAME teacher Judith Leach said she feels proud of the committee’s final proposal and its process of ranked-choice voting, which allowed for the ​“most equitable choice.”

In addition, Torre informed the board that the statue on top of the school is not of Christopher Columbus but is actually the Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Triana, who is believed to be the first European to have seen the Americas. ​“Rodrigo de Triana already was what America became.” said Torre.“He was multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious, and multilingual.”

Several board members thanked the committee for its thoughtful process.

“It is the most accurate representation of what I believe that school and all schools should be about,” said board Secretary Edward Joyner.

The cost to make the school’s signage name change will be determined by the superintendent in the near future, said Jackson-McArthur.