Michelle Obama Elementary? California parents seek to ditch ex-president for first lady

Parents and kids at a California school named for former president Woodrow Wilson say it’s time for a new name honoring ex-first lady Michelle Obama, KPIX reports.

A West Contra Costa Unified School District committee will on Thursday take up the request to rename the school in Richmond, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, KNTV reports.

A letter by Maisha Cole, head of the school’s PTA, says the 28th president’s name doesn’t reflect “who we are as a community,” KTVU reports.

Children going to the newly rebuilt school should be surrounded by a “positive attitude about what the future holds for them,” Cole’s letter says.

Wilson, who served as president from 1913 to 1921, was considered a progressive leader at the time but has more recently been criticized for pro-segregation actions by his administration, The Richmond Standard reported.

Michelle Obama was recently named the most-admired woman in the world for the second year in a row by the Gallup poll, Good Morning America reported.

There’s already a Michelle Obama Elementary School in Panorama City, California, as well as a Michelle Obama School of Technology and the Arts in Park Forest, Illinois. And St. Paul, Minnesota, has a Barack & Michelle Obama Elementary.

Several other schools across the United States also are named for Barack Obama alone.

This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Michelle Obama Elementary? California parents seek to ditch ex-president for first lady."