Board narrows approach to facility naming; will reserve final authority while creating a public form

The Ithaca City School District board discussed a draft policy on naming and renaming district facilities and the process for public proposals.

Dan led the presentation, describing criteria the draft considered: ties to community history, academic program connections and public service, and how facilities and grounds are defined. During the discussion, members raised whether a facility can be named for a living person; Dan said he found "no law that says it cannot be a living person," while cautioning that naming a living person carries risks if the person's reputation changes.

Several board members said the policy should be concise and primarily state that the board reserves the authority to name, rename or revoke facility names. They favored keeping procedural elements—including a public form, community support requirements, and potential hearings—outside the main policy and handled instead through administrative practice and a publicly available form.

"The board reserves the right to approve, deny, modify, revoke or rename any facilities," one presenter read from the draft, and other members suggested a short policy with a companion website page or form for proposals, modeled after other districts.

What's next: Staff and Committee members will redraft a shorter policy statement reserving board authority and produce an administrative form and web page describing how residents can submit naming proposals; no formal vote was taken at the work session.

Direct quotes and paraphrases come from the meeting transcript.