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Community has opportunity to vote on favorite name for Elementary J

By MEGHAN BRADBURY / news@breezenewspapers.com - | Feb 2, 2022

Gwyn Gittens

The community will have the opportunity to choose which name they would prefer Elementary J to be called.

The top six names include Amanecer Elementary School, Gerald Gould Elementary School, Lee Ratner Elementary School, Roberto Clemente Elementary School, Sunrise Elementary School and Thomas Edison Elementary School.

School District of Lee County spokesperson Lauren Stillwell said the process of naming Elementary J began in December when an open-ended survey was provided with two questions — what name the community would suggest for the elementary school and why they think the name should be chosen. The survey was open for a week and received more than 300 submissions.

An Ad Hoc Committee formed with a representative from Lehigh Acres Municipal Community Services, Lehigh Kiwanis and parents from Mirror Lakes Elementary, J. Weaver Hipps Elementary School and Lehigh Acres Middle School, as well as personnel from academic services, as a principal has not been hired for the school.

The committee compared the names to make sure they met board policy, as well as narrowed down the list so it can be taken back out to the community for a vote.

The school name that received the most nominations was Sunrise Elementary School, the name of the boulevard that leads into the school, with 45 nominations.

Roberto Clemente Elementary School, received nine nominations. Clemente, Stillwell said, was a outfielder baseball player from Puerto Rico. She said he was the first player from Latin America to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“He joined the Major League in 1955 and spent 18 years with the Pittsburg Pirates. Thirteen of those years were spent at Spring Training at Terry Park,” Stillwell said.

Lee Ratner Elementary School received six nominations. She said according to the Lee County government website, Lee Ratner acquired 18,000 acres of land in 1955 that later would become Lehigh Acres.

Thomas Edison Elementary School received five nominations. Stillwell said Edison Park is named after the neighborhood and this school would be named after the person.

The Ad Hoc committee also provided two nominations, Amanecer Elementary School and Gerald Gould Elementary School.

Stillwell said Amanecer is the Spanish word for sunrise, or dawn. She said the committee thought it was a wonderful way to recognize the Hispanic influence in the minority, majority district.

The committee made the recommendation of Gerald Gould as he was one of the first founders of Lehigh Acres and the first president of the Lehigh Corporation.

“Probably my favorite is Amanecer. I actually really like and love that is another word for sunrise. You get the best of both worlds by doing that, but in another language and I really like that,” Board member Melisa Giovannelli said.

With the consensus from the board to move these six names forward, a subsequent survey will be given to the community to rank the name recommendations.

School board member Gwyn Gittens said with the digital divide in  Lehigh, a paper ballot should be offered at the schools to ensure they are able to contact the people in the community who will be affected by the school.

After the survey closes, Stillwell said the Ad Hoc Committee will again review the results on Feb. 14 and provide a top and secondary recommendation for the board.

A school board workshop will be held on Feb. 22 for discussion of the recommendations and voted on at the March 8 action meeting, so the school can be named before its groundbreaking in late March.