A proposal to re-name Buffalo's East High School has already been declared dead on arrival by alums before it was officially submitted to the school board. There is a proposal to re-name the school for former Deputy Superintendent Claude Clapp and his teacher wife Ouida. It's not officially in the process for re-naming, which involves community meetings, board hearings and finally a board vote.
Someone apparently told the very active East High School Alumni Association about the proposal. Vice President Dwayne Kelly says the name will stay.
"The alumni is virulently opposed to a name change. We polled them over the weekend and it's taken us from Saturday to today to peel them off the wall. They're very upset. We didn't fight two years to save this school, to turn around and have it re-named and we have no say in it. Nobody came to us. There weren't any community meetings," Kelly said Wednesday.
With several East alums on the school board, the proposal may die. Kelly says there is an alternative under discussion, naming the new Medical Campus high school for the Clapps, which would be easier because it will be a new school when it opens in the fall.
