When former WW-P superintendent Dick Willever retired in 1991, the Millstone River and Community Middle School area was named the “Richard H. Willever Campus.” He did not want CMS named after him, because, he said, “that’s Art’s school.”
Arthur Downs led the opening of Community in 1987 and served as principal until his retirement in 2010. He was drafted by the administration to set up the new middle school. Before that he was principal at Maurice Hawk and Dutch Neck, and before that he taught science at Dutch Neck, starting in 1960. No A&E math needed for this one: Downs worked in the school district for 50 years.
Seven current and retired Community faculty members have asked the school board to rename Community after Downs. It is not just his lengthy service. Based on the testimony of Downs’ former faculty, if there is such a thing as a Platonic Ideal for an educator, he is as close as it gets.
The group collected 928 signatures and scores of comments in an online petition. In addition, more than two dozen administrators and faculty, colleagues of Downs, and teachers he mentored, sent letters of support. From current Dutch Neck and Wicoff principals David Argese and Michael Welborn to former administrators Michael Zapicchi, David Lieberman, and Gerard Schaller, numerous administrators and supervisors support renaming Community in honor of Downs.
The School Board’s Administration & Facilities committee reviews school naming requests, and at the April 12 school board meeting, committee chair and board vice president Michele Kaish said the committee decided not to move the request before the board because it “did not satisfy the criteria.”
When asked after the meeting which specific criteria were not met, superintendent David Aderhold said he did not know and referred the question to Kaish.
“The end result is the committee does not want to consider moving it forward,” Kaish said after the meeting.
Added Kaish: “When the newest schools were opened, none of them were named for people. The committee put a lot of respect and consideration into the decisions that prior boards made. There really wasn’t support to rename a building that was already named. We like the names of the schools decided by boards and public participation, and it was difficult to accept a renaming of the school.”
This could be the start of another naming controversy in the WW-P District. After the sudden death of North baseball standout David Bachner in 2009, debate continued on and off for five years before the Board ultimately voted to rename the baseball field at North after him in September, 2014.
Community Middle School opened in 1987 and was known simply as “the Middle School.” When the Thomas Grover Middle School was opened in 1999 (the Grover family previously owned the site), the Middle School was renamed Community Middle School, following Downs’ “Unity in Community” theme.
“When Grover opened WW-P Middle School needed to be renamed. I guess the question is, you change a name when you have to, when you don’t have to, what’s the threshold?” Kaish said. “There was a lot of conversation about that. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Downs. The first request is not one we could support, and we hope the next one is one we can support. We would happy to consider an alternative, maybe something that hasn’t already been named.”
The district’s school and facility naming policy was adopted in 2012 and revised last June. The amendment stipulated the school board would not initiate the process for renaming “absent substantial and compelling reasons for renaming.”
“We would like a little bit more of an explanation,” said Donna Gil, a Plainsboro resident and one of the seven current and retired CMS staffers leading the renaming initiative. “We believe we met the criteria. Not to even bring it up to a vote to the board is hard for me to understand. We’re very disappointed with the outcome that we have so far, that I can say for the whole committee. We feel this is a valid request, and we’d like to see the board consider it.”
The other members of the Community faculty who requested the renaming are Patrick Lepore, Morty Levine, and counselors Ellen Burgess, Colleen Pedersen, Faith Scibienski, and retired counselor Lynn Fisher.
The group met with the Administrations and Facilities subcommittee last October and were asked to provide community support to substantiate their request.
“When we went to the community, the support was huge,” Gil said. “Every person reacted the same way — it’s a no-brainer.”
Gil and Fisher are both retired district staff who worked under Downs and sent their children to WW-P schools.
Gil taught for 24 years in the district. Fisher worked 28 years in the district, first as an elementary school teacher at Maurice Hawk and then as an elementary and middle school counselor.
They first reached out to former colleagues for letters of support. An online petition garnered more than 900 signatures.
Referring to stories they received from the community, Gil said: “He was quiet about what he did. Who does this?”
“He would come to the hospital, a wake, a funeral, whether a teacher, student, or administrator,” said Gil, recalling a trip she made with Downs to New Brunswick to visit an ailing colleague. “He dedicated himself personally to hundreds of people. I’ve worked in 10 buildings, and I’ve never had an administrator like that. The kind of things he’s done weren’t done then or now.”
And when the district established Grover Middle School, the programs established at CMS under Downs were a model for the new middle school to copy. Project Pride, Outdoor Education, the STARS plan, and Special Olympics were a few of the programs Downs supported and helped implement.
“When you had a request of him, the bottom line was, is it best for the kid?” Gil said. “So many programs he instituted are still there. Sometimes we used to think he slept there. He just was an administrator who went above and beyond in all aspects.”
At Community’s Eighth Grade Salute, Downs would be assume a zany student-selected role in the end-of-year video. He always gave a speech and “knighted” the eighth graders ascending to High School North.
Though he retired in 2010 he continues to serve as advisor to Community’s Science Olympiad team, which recently won the state championship for the 15th consecutive year.
“If a board member has a concern of setting a precedent, Downs worked in the district for 50 years!” Fisher said. “And it’s not just that he came and put in time. One of his talents is taking the time to know his staff, to cultivate them to do what he wanted to do. People saw him, kids knew him. Teachers were in charge of field trips, but he was always there with them.”
