Schools
Final Names Recommended For T.C. Williams, Maury Elementary
After a public survey determined the top three name choices for each, the superintendent recommended final names.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — The final name recommendations for T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School were presented to the school board Thursday.
Under Superintendent Gregory Hutchings Jr.'s recommendation, T.C. Williams High School would be renamed Alexandria High School, and Matthew Maury Elementary School would be renamed Naomi Brooks Elementary School. The finalist names for each school were announced at a Thursday school board meeting.
Three top name choices for each school were identified in a public survey open from Feb. 5 to 19. The survey included nine semifinalist names chosen after a community engagement process with thousands of entries from students, family staff and the community. The top name choices for T.C. Williams High School in the survey were Alexandria High School (34.20 percent from public survey) Titan Community High School (21.26 percent), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg High School (10.13 percent).
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The top choices for Matthew Maury Elementary School were Naomi Brooks Elementary School (30.46 percent from public survey), Rosemont Park Elementary School (20.72 percent) and Jean Reid Elementary School (9.36 percent). Naomi Brooks was a former teacher at Charles Houston Elementary School and Cora Kelly Elementary School who died in 2020.
The Alexandria School Board voted in November to rename the schools. The process started last summer after petitions for each school were submitted to the school board. T.C. Williams High School is named for Thomas Chambliss Williams, the former Alexandria superintendent from the mid-1930s until 1963 who promoted the school division's resistance to desegregation efforts. Matthew Maury Elementary was named for a Confederate commander and the "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology" for his contributions to charting winds and ocean currents.
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A public hearing on the name recommendations is planned for March 18, and the final vote is scheduled for April 8. The new names would be implemented on July 1 after the current academic year ends.
More information about the Identity Project is available on the ACPS website.
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