Outside the Beltway

Barack H. Obama Elementary School Closing

Apparently, being named after the sitting president wasn't enough to keep Ashbury Park, New Jersey's Barack H. Obama Elementary School open.

James Joyner · Friday, March 18, 2011 · 4 comments

Apparently, being named after the sitting president wasn’t enough to keep Ashbury Park, New Jersey’s Barack H. Obama Elementary School open.

YahooNews The Ticket (“Barack H. Obama Elementary to close“):

The Barack H. Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, N.J. will be shuttered this summer, largely due to low enrollment, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Bruce N. Rodman, the official who oversees the district’s finances, determined that it was necessary for one of the district’s elementary schools to close and the Obama school’s enrollment had dropped 35 percent in the past 10 years, the newspaper reports.

The Bangs Avenue School elected in 2010 to change its name to Barack H. Obama Elementary.

At the time that the school acquired its new name, administrators took a lot of flak for ostensibly focusing on the name change instead of the plight of its students. But the city resident behind the movement, Myra Campbell, believed it would “send a subliminal message” to the students.

Unless that 35 percent happened mostly since the name change, this is one thing Obama can’t be blamed for. But I’m sure he will.