Long Beach >> The Long Beach Unified school board voted unanimously at its meeting Tuesday to rename two schools: Burnett Elementary will become Bobbie Smith Elementary and Hill Classical Middle School will become Eunice Sato Academy of Math and Science.
Press-Telegram reports about the elementary school’s namesake, Peter H. Burnett, prompted the board to rename it. Burnett, who served as California governor from 1849 to 1851, backed legislation to keep free slaves out of the state and supported Native American genocide. Burnett’s background came to the attention of the Press-Telegram after the paper received a tip from history teacher Doug Heath of Cubberley K-8 School.
The board did not discuss the controversy behind Burnett’s name change at the meeting, instead praising the groundbreaking achievements of both Smith and Sato. Smith became the Long Beach school board’s first black member in 1988, and Sato became the first female mayor of Long Beach in 1980.
“It is truly, truly an honor,” said Smith, 82, after the meeting. “It’s really, really like God’s grace. We don’t deserve it, but God does it. I would have never thought in my wildest dreams of a school being named after me.”
Smith served as president of the school board for four terms. She also worked as a librarian at Long Beach City College for more than 20 years. Felton Williams, the school board’s vice president, expressed appreciation for Smith’s legacy.
“The first time I ran for office was because of Bobbie Smith, who asked me to run,” said Williams, who succeeded Smith as the board member representing District 2.
Superintendent Chris Steinhauser described Smith as “a pillar of this community, a person who all kids in all walks of life can look up to, one they could grow up to be like.”
He described Sato similarly, characterizing her as “a great representative of Long Beach.”
The board voted to rename Hill after Sato because the school will become a magnet school modeled after the California Academy of Mathematics and Science. Next fall the first class of freshman will attend the school, in the 1100 block of Iroquois Ave., at the same as the last class of Hill eighth graders, the superintendent said.
In addition to serving as Long Beach mayor and as a city councilwoman from 1975 to 1986, Sato, now 93, served as president of the California Conference for Equality and Justice.
Board member Jon Meyer noted how both Sato and Smith faced fierce racial discrimination in their lifetimes. Smith hails from Mississippi, where racial segregation laws resulted in discrimination against African Americans until the 1960s.
Sato, a Japanese American from Northern California, fled the state during World War II when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered all Japanese Americans on the Western Coast to relocate to internment camps. By escaping to Colorado with her family, Sato avoided the fate of at least 110,000 Japanese Americans during that time.
Meyer marveled at how she overcame that experience to become Long Beach mayor and “a wonderful supporter of education for our kids.”
Retired Long Beach teacher Cliff Kusaba thanked the school board for naming the new math and science magnet after Sato.
“This will be the first Asian American/Pacific Islander that any of our schools have been named after,” he said, noting that about a year ago he suggested that the board name a school after the former mayor.
An official naming ceremony in honor of both Sato and Smith will likely take place in November, the superintendent said.
Contact Nadra Nittle at 562-499-1291.
