A committee tasked with finding a permanent name for Southside Elementary School is culling the list of suggestions submitted by the public and beginning to score each proposal.
The building has been temporarily called Southside Elementary since it opened to students in 2023. A naming committee has already narrowed the original list of 175 proposals by removing names that don’t meet the district’s criteria, along with names that don’t warrant serious consideration, such as “Schooly McSchoolface.”
Under Madison School District policy, schools can be named after a prominent national or local figure who is deceased, a locally significant geographical site, a place of local significance or an idea or concept that represents a broadly respected civic virtue.
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Committee members started scoring each of the remaining proposals to narrow the list of recommendations. Although the scoring process is not yet complete, naming the school after Lori Mann Carey is the suggestion with the highest score, so far.
More than 50 people submitted proposals in favor of naming the school after Mann Carey, a Madison educator who died in 2020.
Mann Carey started the Mann Educational Opportunity Fund more than 30 years ago with her siblings. The fund primarily serves students of color in the Madison School District who face significant economic and personal challenges.
Other high-scoring suggestions include naming the school after former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, after former Madison educator and state government official Marlene Cummings or selecting a permanent name that would still highlight the school’s location on the South Side.
Abrahamson, who died in 2020, was the first woman to serve on the state’s Supreme Court. Gov. Tony Evers and current Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley both submitted letters in support of the nomination.
The committee will ultimately recommend four names to the School Board, two of which must be the name of a person. The board will have final say on the new name for the school.
After Southside, the district is set to consider new names for Elvehjem, Van Hise, Lindbergh and Stephens elementary schools, according to the most recent information provided by the district. The district typically takes up no more than two renaming proposals each year.
