Current, former Selectmen, School Committee clash over new school name

Jan 29, 2020

The Board of Selectmen, School Committee, and former Selectman Judy Whiteside clashed on Tuesday night over the naming of the new elementary school currently under construction on Minot Avenue.

Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood and School Committee member Joyce Bacchiocchi were at the meeting to ask the Selectmen to include an article on the Town Meeting warrant, drafted by the School Committee, which would name the new school the “Wareham Elementary School.”

The Selectmen argued that the school already had a name: “Decas School at Minot Forest.”

Thus, they denied the article a place on the warrant, with Jim Munise abstaining.

When Town Meeting voted to fund the new school in 2018, the article referred to the project as the “Decas School at Minot Forest.” The Selectmen asserted that that article simultaneously named the school, although that was not explicitly discussed at the time.

Selectman Peter Teitelbaum said that, back in 2018, he came up with the name that appeared on the article on the spot when the Selectmen were adding the article to fund the school to the warrant, and it was discussed publicly -- although it seems the School Committee and School Building Committee did not understand that that article was also naming the school.

Whiteside, who is a current member of the Charter Review Committee, argued that the Selectmen did not have the right to block the article from the warrant.

“Under the charter, the board of Selectmen are the gatekeepers of the warrant. However, any correctly authorized board or committee is able to bring to you articles to place on the warrant. Your discussion tonight, while it was interesting, was, in my opinion, off base,” Whiteside said.

However, Town Meeting changed that section of the charter in 2018 -- but the updated section was never added to the version of the charter that is published on the town’s website.

The Selectmen’s arguments against the article focused on their dislike of the proposed name.

“It makes me sad that the names of the families that originally donated the land will be dropped,” said Mary Mackey Bruce.

Bacchiocchi said that the names would not be dropped, but that wings in the new school will be named after John W. Decas and the Minot family.

“This article is only meant to give the naming of the school to Town Meeting,” Bacchiocchi said, arguing that the school has not been named. 

She added that, while the Selectmen say that they want to preserve the history of the schools, the name would be honoring the Decas family, not John William Decas, who is the namesake of the current school.

“I’m telling you, that’s its name. You can argue with me all you want, but that’s its name,” Tropeano said, insisting that it was the Selectmen’s responsibility to name the school.

Town Counsel Richard Bowen has said that the school should be named by Town Meeting.

Teitelbaum said that the Decas family continues to assist the school financially, and said that the town needs to continue to honor the families that supported the schools.

“I can pretty much guarantee you, if you take names off, they won’t” continue to donate to the school, Teitelbaum said.

He added that, if the school is named Decas School at Minot Forest, that opens up the opportunity for named benefactors for various parts of the building, like the Innovation Hub.

“No one is trying to minimize the contributions that either of these families made,” Bacchiocchi said, adding that if the Selectmen’s name prevails, the school’s name would likely be abbreviated to “Decas School” in casual speech.

“That’s up to individuals as to how they want to abbreviate it,” Teitelbaum said.

Bacchiocchi said that in surrounding towns that are building new schools, those communities held public meetings to discuss the name of the school, and argued that the community has not had a real opportunity to weigh in on the school’s name.

“People had every opportunity if they wanted, right then and there [at Town Meeting] to go ahead and say ‘I’d like to amend the article so it’s called the Wareham Elementary School.’ Not a single person did that,” said Teitelbaum.

Bacchiocchi said that she had not spoken to anyone who had understood that when Town Meeting voted to approve funding the school in 2018, they were also naming the school “Decas School at Minot Forest.”