By Jon Chown
Cesar Chavez Middle School will be renamed Central Coast Middle School. The final decision was made by the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees at their Aug. 5 meeting.
The name change followed a two-month process led by a nine-member committee of parents, students, employees, administrators and community representatives. The committee, which met four times to review community suggestions and evaluate the proposed names, was unanimous in recommending Central Coast Middle School, mainly due to the ease and low cost.
District officials estimated that changing the name to Central Coast Middle School would cost less than $25,000. Much of the school’s existing lettering and clothing already uses the CCMS initials, including physical education clothing purchased by families.
Five names were submitted: Central Coast Middle School, Jeff Tagami Middle School, Mas Hashimoto Middle School, Albert M. Rojas Middle School and Watsonville Middle School. The committee evaluated the proposals based on their connection to the community, educational significance, historical relevance, alignment with district values and cost.
Tagami, a Filipino-American, was a 1972 Watsonville High graduate and a nationally recognized poet and social justice advocate. He taught at Cabrillo College. Hashimoto was also a WHS graduate and a Watsonville High teacher for 36 years. At age 6 he was placed in an internment camp with other Japanese-Americans during World War II. He would become a prominent civil rights activist and spoke about the history of the internment camps.
Both of their names received a lot of community support. Recognizing this, the committee voted 8-0-1 to recommend a combined name of Tagami Hashimoto Middle School as the second option. That option was estimated to cost about $110,000 because it would require new signs, branding and clothing designs throughout the school. There was also another consideration, which Board Chair Carol Turley explained.
“When he was alive, I remember Mas Hashimoto saying that buildings should not be named after people,” she said.
Marcia Hashimoto, his wife, has also reportedly told PVUSD staff privately that he would not have wanted his name on a school.
Trustee Gabriel Medina said that he thought the district owed it to the community to recognize the two men, and the contributions of the Asian American community as a whole, and wanted to see a mural painted at the school to tell the story. “If it’s going to be named Central Coast, let’s show the history of it,” he said.
“I like Trustee Medina’s idea, but I fear that school may not exist in two years,” said Turley. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”
After some discussion, a motion was made to change the name to Central Coast Middle School, with the amendment that a committee be formed to find an appropriate site for the mural recognizing the contributions of Asian Americans to the Pajaro Valley. The motion was approved unanimously.