Oceanside Unified has decided to change the name of Cesar Chavez Middle School to Senda Middle School, months after the late labor leader for whom it was named was accused of sexual abuse.
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The new name was approved in a 5-0 vote by the school board Tuesday evening.
The decision follows a community survey, months of meetings by a renaming committee and recommendations from it of several options.
The 11-person committee — five school staffers, three school students and three school parents — had met five times since the board voted April 14 to move forward with a name change, the district explained in a slide presentation Tuesday night.
A community survey was sent out, and more than 300 people responded — most of them students at the school. Then the panel provided three names for consideration; the other two were Adelante Middle and Solimar Middle.
The slideshow explains that “senda” is Spanish for “path” or “journey,” and district spokesperson Donald Bendz said the students on the naming committee wanted a tie to their future high school, El Camino High.
“As students prepare to continue on to El Camino, which translates to ‘the way’ or ‘the road,’ the two school names create a meaningful connection,” it says. “Metaphorically it describes a chosen course or direction in life.”
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In March, The New York Times reported allegations that the late labor leader Cesar Chavez — who led the farmworkers movement and broader Chicano movement in the 1960s and 1970s — had sexually abused young girls for years and raped fellow labor leader Dolores Huerta.
In the aftermath, local leaders and government agencies across San Diego County began to rename parks, schools, streets and a holiday that has been named in his honor.
Days after the revelations, the mayor of San Diego directed staff to rename institutions named in his honor there. In April, the Oceanside City Council voted to consider new names for that city’ assets named for Chavez.
And San Diego Unified is pursuing a name change for its own Cesar Chavez Elementary School. The board voted in late March to create a naming committee, the first step in a process the district overhauled last year.
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