A name is needed for the new southend school which will replace
Las Animas Elementary School
Gilroy – Soldier or politician?
That’s the question a group of Gilroyans are striving to answer, as they leaf through a stack of name suggestions for the new facility that will replace Las Animas Elementary School.
A few locals submitted proposals during the meeting staged by the seven-member renaming committee Thursday evening. Art Barron, a planning commissioner, local mailman and one of the committee members, said he doesn’t have a clear favorite yet but he is leaning one way.
“I’m just taking them all in but I’ll see,” he said. “But (Charles) Gubser sounds kind of strong to me personally.”
Barron said he’s also a fan of the suggestion Reginald Desiderio, the soldier who received a Congressional Medal of Honor, the military’s most prestigious award.
“I think it’s between those two,” he said.
Ardy Ghoreishi, a committee member and Gilroy Unified School District board candidate, said he hasn’t decided one way or the other. But there was definitely a consensus on a couple of the names, he said, adding that the meeting was interesting because there was so much history in the room.
“On Tuesday we will put everything on the table and hash it out and see where everybody goes,” he said. “We’re trying to create a matrix to kind of wait out all these names, to come out with something meaningful.”
Barron was surprised that no one attending the meeting suggested Jeramy Ailes, a 22-year-old Marine who died in battle in Fallujah, Iraq on Nov. 15, 2004. Ailes, a Gilroy High School graduate, was the first Gilroyan to die in battle since Vietnam.
His name was proposed by a letter writer in this newspaper. One attendee said the name should not be changed, pointing out that Las Animas wasn’t closing, it was simply being replaced by another facility in a different part of Gilroy, Ghoreishi said.
The new school, set to open in the fall of 2007, will replace Las Animas and the district hopes to sell the plot of land where the school is currently located. Since the replacement school will be located off of Luchessa Avenue, nowhere near its Spanish land grant namesake, Superintendent Edwin Diaz suggested that the district give the facility a new name.
When making a selection the committee must make sure the name reflects one of the following: an individual who has made a major contribution to local schools or the city; has state, national or worldwide significance, geographic area where the facility is located, historic significance or a former school that was demolished.
Tuesday is the deadline to submit suggestions. The committee will meet in the evening to review all proposals.
