Around 100 community members flocked to Lori Mann Carey Elementary School June 2 to celebrate its official ribbon-cutting since its renaming.
Lori Mann Carey Elementary, 501 E. Badger Rd., is the newest in Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) portfolio of schools. The elementary school was built following MMSD’s 2020 facilities referendum and opened initially as Southside Elementary School in September 2023. Its old name was intended to be a placeholder as it sought input from the community and settled on the South Side’s own long-time educational advocate, Lori Mann Carey. The name became official for the 2025-26 school year.
“There are moments in the life of a school that become a part of its history. Tonight is one of those moments,” said Percy Brown Jr., Lori Mann Carey Elementary’s principal. “Tonight is about more than a name. Names tell stories. Names communicate our values. Names help the future generations understand whose shoulders they stand upon.”
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
Brown, who grew up on the South Side, feels naming the school after Lori Mann Carey is a full-circle moment.
Mann Carey spent her life fighting for students to have access to educational materials. She was known as a trailblazer and force within the South Madison community. She, along with family friends and siblings, started the Mann Educational Opportunity Fund in 1992 in honor of her parents, Bernard and Kathlyn Mann.
The program is driven by her parents’ legacy for their commitment to education and community. It created the Mann Scholars Program, which provides scholarships to MMSD middle school students who face significant financial and personal challenges. Those students receive academic scholarships, mentoring and support throughout school to reach their full potential.
“She didn’t just talk about change, she created it,” said Ciera Carey, one of Mann Carey’s children, who is a third-grade teacher at Onc City Elementary School. “She was an avid dreamer. No dream too big. She still was convinced it was a lottery, the sky was the limit, and she made sure every child she came across believed that.”
Her legacy now lives on forever in the school’s history, Carey said.
For MMSD Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard, the move is emblematic of the community Mann Carey strove to build up and its impact on its children.
Two third-grade students at Lori Mann Carey spoke on what the school meant to them. When Dr. Gothard spoke to them before the ribbon cutting, he asked them, “What do you love about your school?”
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
Eden Riser said to Dr. Gothard, “My school feels like a big family.”
“Think about what that would mean to Lori Mann Carey. To hear third graders say that about their school, to say that about their community, to say that about their educators, to say that about one another,” Dr. Gothard said. “This is truly something special and amazing that we’re all part of tonight, and I hope everybody can feel a sense of that.”
The event wrapped up with an unveiling of a portrait of Mann Carey that will be hung in the school, the official ribbon cutting with members of the Mann Carey family and tours led by the school’s fifth graders.
