The St. Paul school board could vote later this year to scrub Alexander Ramsey’s name from one of its schools.
Students and staff at Ramsey Middle School are asking for the name change, noting that the Minnesota Territory’s first governor called for the extermination of the Sioux Indians.
By district policy, building name changes must be initiated by that school’s community. Superintendent Joe Gothard on Tuesday gave formal notice that that process is underway. The school will spend at least four months on stakeholder engagement before bringing a new name forward for board approval.
Students and staff are expected to make their pitch to the board next month for dropping their school’s namesake.
The issue has been talked about for years.
In December 2016, the Student Engagement and Advancement Board — a group of high schoolers appointed to advise the school board — called on the elected school board to proactively change the name of any school whose namesake committed human rights violations. The only problematic school name they cited was Ramsey.
The school board, however, settled on only a minor change to its policy on school naming, writing that any namesake should have a “legacy that aligns with the values of the district.” They agreed name changes should continue to be initiated by the school community.
On Tuesday, board members expressed enthusiasm, and no reservations, about the name-change idea.
Chauntyll Allen, a board member who worked as an educational assistant at Ramsey, said she used to talk with students about what it meant to go to a school named for Ramsey.
“I’m excited about this,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
The St. Paul district’s last major name changes were in 2009, when Webster Magnet became Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary, and in 2019, when Linwood-Monroe Arts Plus — named in part for President James Monroe, who owned slaves — became Global Arts Plus.
Minneapolis Public Schools had its own Ramsey Middle until 2017, when it was renamed for retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page.