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Madison district hears split public views at Lindbergh renaming hearing
Summary
Five in-person speakers and 36 written statements left the Madison Metropolitan School District with competing proposals for Lindbergh Elementary, including names honoring disability-rights advocate Jeffrey Clay Erlanger, educator Darlene M. Hancock, aviator Willa Beatrice Brown, community leader Songhu, and several geographic or non-person options. The district opened a 14‑day comment window.
The Madison Metropolitan School District held a public hearing on renaming Lindbergh Elementary on the evening the district opened a 14‑day written comment period, the associate superintendent said.
“We received a total of 36 written comments for this public hearing,” the associate superintendent told attendees and summarized the breakdown of preferences and major themes from those submissions. The district also noted a technical failure prevented live streaming; the hearing was recorded and will be posted to the district’s YouTube channel and the Lindbergh naming webpage.
Speakers at the live hearing presented competing recommendations. Commenters argued for honoring disability-rights advocate Jeffrey Clay Erlanger, for the educator Darlene M. Hancock, for aviator and educator Willa Beatrice Brown, and for Songhu, a community leader and early Hmong UW–Madison graduate. Several speakers urged a neutral, place-based name such as Sandhill Crane Elementary to avoid future renaming controversies.
District staff read a written-comments summary that assigned counts and percentages to the options (13 comments, 36.1%, favored Jeffrey Clay Erlanger; 13 comments, 36.1%, favored Songhu; six comments, 16.7%, favored non-person or geographic names; two comments, 5.6%, favored Shirley Abrahamson; and single comments each, 2.8%, favored Clarence Kalin and Clarence Sherrod). The associate superintendent said the district will keep the formal 14‑day comment period open and publish all submissions and materials on the district naming webpage.
