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What’s in a name?

FD school board mulls renaming Early Childhood Center

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
The Fort Dodge Community School Board of Education discussed the possibility of renaming the Early Childhood Center on Monday night.

The Fort Dodge Early Childhood Center — which opened this fall to serve the preschool and kindergartners in the Fort Dodge Community School District — may bear a new name in the near future.

During the FDCSD Board of Education meeting on Monday night, Board President Stu Cochrane introduced the discussion, saying that it was sparked by a conversation with Messenger Sports Editor Eric Pratt.

“He made the comment to me that the ECC, it seems like a kind of unusual name and the community still kind of identifies with Arey,” he said. “What about the possibility of going back to Arey?”

The ECC, located at the corner of First Avenue South and South 17th Street, used to be known as Arey Elementary School.

The first Arey School was built in 1889 and named after Melvin F. Arey, who was superintendent of schools at the time. The current building was built in 1965 and operated as a neighborhood elementary school until 1990, when it closed to students and became the district’s central office building for much of the next three decades.

Cochrane said his hope was that this discussion would continue over the next several weeks while board members talked with each other and members of the community for ideas.

“To me, ‘Early Childhood Center’ is a little bit vanilla,” he said. “I do think the community continues to identify that facility as Arey.”

Cochrane added that he’d like to discuss other naming options as well.

School Board Vice President Lisa Shimkat proposed considering naming the school after Jane Burleson, a long-time Fort Dodge resident and longest-serving Fort Dodge City Council member.

“She had a huge impact on the community,” Shimkat said. “An activist, very, very involved and gave a lot to the community, of herself and her time.”

Board member Bill Kent noted that in the renovation of the Arey building into the district’s Early Childhood Center, the school board never actually voted to change the name of the building.

“The name Arey has a very historical significance of the school district, so much so that a previous school board — I realize, many years ago — they named the facility for that person,” he said. “I do not think the current board should revoke an honor that a past school board gave an individual in the community even though it was that many years ago.”

Board member Diane Pratt agreed with the idea of changing the name of the school in some form, stating that simply calling it the Early Childhood Center doesn’t make it clear that it’s part of the FDCSD.

“Another name would help show ownership of the district,” she said.

Cochrane asked the board members to continue to think about ideas and come back during the board meeting in December to discuss the idea further.

In other business, the board approved the investment of $40,000 to $60,000 for an overhaul of the district’s English Language Learner program.

“Our demographic of students who need support to learn English as a second language is growing and changing,” explained Dr. Kirsten Doebel, director of secondary education. She added that this year, the district’s number of ELL students has doubled.

“The way we’ve served students in the past might not continue to work the way we’ve done it,” Doebel said.

The contract is with Kids Count and Read Too, which will audit and assess the district’s current ELL programming and then support staff with learning and professional development to more widely support those students in an academic setting.

Doebel noted that the Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency will be reimbursing the district up to $40,000 for this expense, and if there are any expenses over that amount, the district will pay for it out of teacher quality dollars.

Shimkat noted that it was strange that the cost of the contract was a range varying by $20,000, but Doebel explained that it is because they weren’t able to set a “super-specific scope of work” since part of it is analyzing the district’s current programming to determine what needs they have.

The next school board meeting will be at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, at the Fort Dodge Middle School Auditorium.

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