Compton school is named for Barack Obama, a first in California

First there were Obama T-shirts and bumper stickers. Now there's a Compton charter school named after the president-elect.

The former Qued Charter Elementary School changed its name to the Barack Obama Charter School earlier this week. The original name was always intended as a placeholder -- "Qued" is a mash-up of "quality" and "education" -- and parents at the school overwhelmingly wanted the school to be named after Obama.

The board approved the change unanimously, said Glenn Noreen, the executive director of Ingenium Schools, the group that operates the campus.

"Nobody really liked the Qued name," Noreen said.

It's apparently the first school in California to be named after Obama, although campuses in Missouri and New York have already done so. The campus plans to open its doors this fall and enroll 316 students. Enrollment has already begun.
 
--Jason Song

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[steve rodriguez]

What's the drop-out rate in that school 50%?

[Warner Todd Huston]

Um, can we wait until we find out if he is going to be worth the adulation before we start renaming things??

[Concerned Taxpayer]

Perhaps the TImes should investigate stories a bit more carefully. If you check out this school's website, you will see they are not even open yet! So exactly what parents are they referring to?

[wendy isbell]

This school is a charter school. As with most Charters, they have a group of parents who want something new, they recruit students and parents to participate. The school must have obligated, engaged concerned parents before they can open their doors. Those are the parents the Times is referring to. I live in Alaska and had the great fortune to meet these students and administrators at a Reinventing Schools Coalition, they are motivated to teach students a standards based model. This model by the way is being used in Colorado, UK, Maine, Washington DC, Australia and Alaska and has a no fail rate, it is the school of the future. So concerned taxpayer, no money out of your pocket

[EnowTakang Marcel Ebot Gage]

i would like to apply as a student in the Compton School (Barack Obama)

[MeMe'D]

Though the school should be named after Erin Grewell for founding the idea behind and moving the idea of charter schools forward, it is not so much who the school is named after as long as the administrators and teachers are people with accurate credentials, are compassionate individuals, and live their lives with the utmost of integrity--no philanders, gamblers, or closet drug addicts. Children, resilient as they may be, are effected by the secrets of the people around them...including their administrators, staff, and teachers.