the rix mix

Asbury Park considers renaming elementary school

If the board votes Wednesday night to change the name of Bangs Avenue School to Barack H. Obama School, Asbury Park would become one of the first communities in New Jersey and the nation to take action so soon into the president's administration.

"I'm so glad this is coming to a head finally," said Greg Hopson, the board's vice president. "This goes hand-in-hand with our new motto: 'embracing change.' Change is happening. Change is inevitable."

For a city that for decades has been mired in stagnation and decay, change is a big deal. Eager to shed its reputation as a crime-ridden waste of prime oceanfront real estate in Monmouth County, Asbury Park is starting to attract large numbers of tourists again as a massive redevelopment project on the east side slowly takes hold.

But like most of the west side neighborhood where it's located, the Bangs Avenue School has not experienced the resurgence seen along the oceanfront. The school's population is primarily black and Hispanic. Many of the 440 children in grades pre-K-5 are poor and come from broken homes
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Built in 1912, Bangs Avenue School was segregated early on but was integrated in the mid-1940s, long before other schools in New Jersey. But [Myra] Campbell said that in her view, Nathan Bangs lost some historical significance after she learned he was part of a committee of Methodist ministers working to oppose the abolition of slavery.

There's a boardwalk town solution: Give the arcade the fresh coat of paint but inside it's the same old prizes.

Also seems premature.

Asbury Park was always a city divided by railroad tracks, an east side & a west side.

Plainfield has a Barack Obama alternative high School for "at risk" students, meaning it basically achieves the positive goal of removing some of the most sociopathic teenage gangbangers from the general high school population until they can be expelled or sent to jail. Does Asbury Park have one of those schools yet?

Elizabeth has a Ronald Reagan Academy, established three years ago, supposedly a higher academic standards public grammar school, with a longer school day & required uniforms. Why Ronald Reagan represents higher academic standards or what he did to help urban schools are mysteries to me, but if his selective academy achieves test results anywhere near what Jersey's suburban schools routinely average, it serves its purpose. If I was raising children here they'd be attending a Catholic School in another town, no disrespect intended toward our public school teachers.

I'd advise Asbury Park to hold off & concentrate on improving what's inside the schools. Anyway, it isn't like President Obama went from 'hood to White House. He attended an elite private high school in Hawaii guaranteed to make any Jersey public school kid envious. There are plenty of African-Americans deserving of having their names on schools, although who they are & why they inspire might need to be explained to kids. Too many of those kids are impressed only by wealthy musicians & athletes, & by the local criminals perversely filling the bleak empty spaces in the lives of fatherless youths.

Labels: Asbury Park, Barack Hussein Obama, education, Elizabeth NJ