PUT THE BEST NAMESAKE ON NEW SCHOOL

Some rules are made to be broken. Such is the case with the rule that only allows naming of buildings in the Cape Girardeau School District after people who have been dead at least three years. This restriction that was adopted by the Board of Education in August 1992.

An ad hoc committee is seeking public suggestions on naming the district's newest elementary school. The school is under construction near the corner of Sprigg and Bertling. It is scheduled to open next fall. Washington and May Greene schools will close at the end of the current school year. Suggestions for naming the new school can be forwarded to the district by Oct. 29.

The current board policy goes against a long-standing tradition in the district.

-- May Greene was named after one of the city's best known educators in May 21, 1921. She didn't retire from the school system until 11 years later.

-- In 1965, the district renamed the former high school building after L.J. Schultz when the structure was remodeled into a seventh grade center. Schultz had retired from the district in 1962 after serving 38 years in the district. He was probably best known for his 27 years as superintendent. He died in 1968.

-- Hawthorn School was renamed for its first principal, Charles C. Clippard, in 1991. Clippard, who served 35 years in the district, is serving on the current ad hoc naming committee.

The exception was Alma Schrader. But even she wouldn't have qualified under the district's current policy. Longtime educator Schrader died in January 1959. A new elementary school in the northern part of the city was named in her honor in June of that year. The cornerstone that bore her name was laid Aug. 9, 1959.

What about the other elementary schools? Washington and Jefferson are named for our presidents. Franklin honors that kite flier and Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin.

Cape Girardeau hasn't been alone in naming its schools for living educators.

-- In appreciation for her many years of service to the district, the new school in the Reorganized R-4 School District in northern Cape Girardeau County was named for Nell Holcomb in 1959. She died in 1963.

-- The Jackson Junior High School was named in honor of Russell O. Hawkins, former superintendent and mayor, on Aug. 22, 1967. He died in 1983.

In the 1930s, Southeast Missouri State University wanted to name its new library for Sadie Kent, the matriarch of the library. Construction of the library began in the fall of 1938 with partial funding from the federal Public Works Administration. University regents had long planned to name the library for Kent, who Regent I.R. Kelso of Cape Girardeau called "the best librarian in the United States." But PWA policy prohibited naming buildings for living people. Sound familiar?

And so the new library opened its doors unnamed. The university left a blank space on the stone above the front door. When the PWA became inactive in 1943, the university did the right thing. It named the building for Kent and etched her name above the door as was always planned.

In 1992, a proposal was made in the Cape Girardeau district to give all buildings and athletic facilities had a name. Specifically, the Central High School gymnasium and the vo-tech school were mentioned. Nothing could be decided. The board adopted its policy that summer, but it wasn't until December of 1993 that the gym was renamed Tiger Fieldhouse.

It is not often Cape Girardeau builds a new school building -- the new elementary school is the first in more than 30 years. It is time for the Board of Education to reconsider the naming policy that limits choices to people who have been dead three years. Anyone who has made an outstanding contribution to the district should be considered for the new elementary school's namesake.