Civil rights heroine Rosa Parks made a rare public appearance last week to dedicate a San Francisco elementary school renamed in her honor.
| Built in 1927, the 362-student Rosa Parks Elementary School (formerly Raphael Weill) was given new life as well as a new look when it was targeted for reconstruction by the district in 1995. |
“We are privileged to have with us such an outstanding woman who has contributed so greatly to the movement for racial equality in our country and is one the major role models of the 20th century for our youth,” San Francisco Superintendent of Schools Waldemar Rojas said in a prepared statement.
Ms. Park’s refusal to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955 led to a wave of protest that ignited the civil rights movement.
Karl Hertz, the former superintendent of the Mequon-Thiensville school district outside Milwaukee, has been tapped to serve as the president of the Arlington, Va.-based American Association of School Administrators. Mr. Hertz, who retired from the 4,200-student suburban district last year, will begin a one-year term with the 15,000-member organization in July. Daniel Domenech, the superintendent of the Western Suffolk district in Dix Hills, N.Y., has been chosen as the AASA’s president-elect. ... The Council for Higher Education Accreditation has named Judith Eaton its first president. Ms. Eaton is the chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities in St. Paul. She will assume her new position in September. The Washington-based organization was established last year following a national referendum of college and university presidents, who voted to form the council to oversee the U.S. higher education accreditation system.
The academic-decathlon team from Taylor High School in Katy, Texas, set an all-time record in capturing this year’s U.S. Academic Decathlon championship. Taylor’s team posted the highest score ever recorded in the contest’s 16 years, with 52,260 points.
Teams from all over the nation traveled to St. George, Utah, to compete in four days of rigorous academic exams for the contest.
Six of the nine Taylor team members won scholarships of up to $3,000.
--ADRIENNE D. COLES acoles@epe.org
