Board begins drafting formal naming policy after community requests

Glen Rock Public School District trustees opened a preliminary discussion on creating a formal naming and renaming policy to guide requests to name schools, rooms or facilities, and asked board members to review sample policies before the next Committee on Administration and Logistics meeting.

The board discussed recent community requests and past, informal practices in which names were sometimes handled by resolution rather than a codified policy. A trustee said she had spoken with former board members and found prior requests — including one to honor a former employee, “Mr. Hawkins” — but that the district lacks a retained, detailed policy. To inform drafting, Trustee Cohen solicited sample policies from other districts through the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) channels and shared examples with the board; the Jersey City policy (75-15) was singled out as a detailed model.

Trustees said a district policy should specify who may submit a naming request (any member of the community, staff or students), the level of community feedback required depending on whether the request is for a building, a room or a smaller space, and whether a naming request should proceed by resolution or by formal policy process. One board member asked that the group compile suggested elements from the sample policies and return recommended language at the next CAL meeting; the president said the board will use the suggestions to produce a draft naming policy for later review and approval.

The board did not adopt a policy at this meeting. Instead, trustees asked each member to highlight policy elements they favor and directed staff to compile the input into a draft to be discussed at a future CAL meeting and then returned to the full board for possible adoption.