Jefferson Davis Magnet International Baccalaureate Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi, will get a new name starting next year.
The idea to change the name, came from a student, NBC News reports. Ninety eight percent of the student body is black.
“They know who [Davis] was and what he stood for,” PTA President Janelle Johnson said at a PTA meeting Tuesday. “This has a great impact on them, because [Obama] is who they chose out of anybody else they could. This is the person that the whole school supported. He was their Number One choice.”
The PTA asked the Davis Magnet community to submit suggestions for the new name, Jefferson said. Students gave presentations persuading their classmates to vote for the candidate of their choice. Two weeks later, parents, students and teachers voted, and Obama was the winner.
School buildings must be named “for persons of good character and prominence who have made outstanding contributions to the school system,” according to the school board’s facility-naming policy. “A facility named to honor a person shall not be renamed except for compelling reasons.”
