AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin ISD Board has approved the renaming of John H. Reagan Early College High school, to be changed to Northeast Early College High School.
Reagan High was named after John Reagan, who was Postmaster General for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The school board looked at two potential names for Reagan High. Either "Northeast High School" or "Barack H. Obama High School." The final decision came just before 10 p.m. Monday night to rename it "Northeast Early College High School."
This comes after the school board voted last year to rename five schools whose original names have ties to the Civil War Confederacy.
Those who opposed name changes had complained that it could be a waste of money to pay for the changes.
According to our partners at the Austin American-Statesman, district officials have said it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to rename a high school.
But at the meeting Monday night, some parents spoke in support of a new name for the school,saying students should be taught more about the history of John Reagan in order to understand who he was and the roles he played in the Civil War Confederacy.
"This needs to be educational beginning, end, all the way through -- find people who can talk about John Reagan, find people who can talk about AISD's history who can go into Reagan and teach these things to students, faculty, parents, everybody else," said Bryan Register, who is also an organizer of De-Confederate Austin.
The name change will go into affect for the 2019-2020 school year.