Sadly, no one is making the case that William Learned Marcy, who popularized the phrase, "To the victor go the spoils," has relevance for the Southeast school that bears his home.

taken from the Southeast Angle

A community meeting last month at Marcy Open School elicited an inconclusive discussion about whether to change the school's name to honor the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.

The consensus was that more meetings and surveys are needed to reach a decision. The meeting drew about 25 participants including parents, teachers, alumni, the school's principal and assistant principal, and residents of the neighborhood.

Arvonne Fraser opposed the name change. Her five children went to Marcy, as did her husband Don, the former Minneapolis mayor. "I come as a preservationist," she said. "This is the oldest part of the city. It has a long history and a lot of alumni who will be unhappy if the name changes."

Sherrie Lessinger, a Marcy parent, said she favors changing the name, although her seventh grader feels a sense of loyalty to the name and is opposed to changing it. "Evolution, change, progress, that's what we need in our society, that?s what Wellstone was about," she said.

Jay Hatlen Linnell, parent of a second grader at Marcy, said he was concerned about the unintended political messages that might be sent with a name change, messages that go in the face of Marcy's encouragement of independent thinking. "I am very afraid of shutting a door to dissenting opinion," he said.

Jay Scoggin, a middle school social science teacher at Marcy who has been involved with the school for 32 years, was in favor of the change, speaking out for Marcy's resilience in the face of change. "Marcy goes through lots of change and always lands on its feet like a cat. We make changes, we're messy, we make mistakes, and we always land on our feet," he said."The school is at its best when it stands for something."

Marcy began discussions about changing the name soon after the plane crash last October that killed the senator, his wife Sheila, and six others. A desire to honor his legacy, a legacy that for Marcy includes respect for the individual, the importance of education and celebration of diversity, prompted some Marcy parents and faculty to begin discussions on making a change.

Parent Julie Mattson Ostrow found that, short of ensuring that the impetus to change the name must come from the school?s greater community, Minneapolis Public Schools didn?t have much of a process to follow. At a school that draws students from as far as Blaine and has a widespread support network of faculty, residents, and parents, the boundaries of that community are hard to define. "What is the Marcy community?" Ostrow said. "Is it the people that work here? The neighbors? The residents? Where does that community end, and how do you get a sense of that? The borders are fuzzy."

Still, Mattson Ostrow and Principal Jane Ellis presented the renaming idea to the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association last month, where resident Ted Tucker's motion to recommend the school keep the Marcy name passed unanimously. "Why does Marcy need a new name?" he asked after the meeting. "Marcy means something. It means open schools in Southeast Minneapolis."

Marcy has been recognized for its open philosphy, which began as part of Southeast Alternatives, a 1970s federal program in which Southeast?s six schools each pursued a different approach to education.

"It's so important that we don't lose that identification," Ellis said. "We're well known. How do we possibly recognize someone who was a great individual without losing our own identity?" Several meeting attendees focused more on the process of changing the name than on what the Marcy or Wellstone name represents.

"We want to be different," said veteran Marcy teacher Greg Krueger. "Even if we're not renamed, I hope this movement can continue to evolve. It's not who you are, it's what makes you who you are."

Ron Wacks, a parent of a Marcy fifth grader, concurred with Krueger's approach. "It doesn't matter where it goes," he said. "It's the process. This school is about the Marcy culture of open-mindedness, reaching out, discussion and acceptance. This is what a school should do. It should discuss, involve, educate."

The cost to change the name would be about $5,000, a pricetag that incorporates changing the letters on the front of the building and reprinting letterhead and other print media materials.

At the close of the meeting, Ostrow said the meeting's turnout wasn't high enough to get a clear idea of overall opinion, and participants adjourned without a formal resolution.
"This is not even close to getting a representative cross-section," she said. "Ultimately, we will have a vote among the parents, who are the main stakeholders. The parents need to make a decision first." In addition to naming the school after Wellstone, the possibility of attributing his name to a room or program within the school was suggested. Participants also discussed whether to name the school after the senator alone, or after both him and his wife.

"We need more meetings and surveys," Ostrow said. "The legacy that I learned from Wellstone is grassroots activism, talking to people."

The school's name derives from a 19th century Democratic party leader and public official named William Marcy, a namesake that all sides acknowledge doesn't have a lot to do with the school. The Wellstone connection to Southeast is far less tenuous than William Marcy's to some local eyes.

"He was fighting for the society that this community wants to see. That's as big a connection as you can have," said Tom Sengupta, owner of Schneider Drug, 3400 University Ave. SE, where he hosts political salons and held a memorial after Wellstone's death. "We have a different idea of how society should be. This community is orphaned in terms of ideas [and someone to carry them forward]."

Marcy is not the only Minneapolis school that has identified a connection between its values and the Wellstone name. Last month, the International Center for Accelerated Language Learning (ICALL), a school for English language learners age 17?21, made a bid to change its name to Wellstone International High School, associating itself with Wellstone's championship of immigrant rights.

"All the students know Wellstone," said ICALL coordinator and teacher Dixie Olmstead. The senator's office helped many of them with immigration problems.

Miriam Queensen and Chris Steller contributed to this story.

last revised: March 29, 2006