Cape’s call for school-naming group riles community

The family of longtime Milton-area educator Herman O. Brittingham and many family friends attended a Cape Henlopen school board meeting to insist the new elementary school in Milton should retain the name of the existing school: H.O. Brittingham Elementary.

About a dozen friends and family members appeared at the July 27 school board meeting protesting a public notice that ran July 25 in the Cape Gazette, seeking residents to serve on a school-naming committee for the new elementary school. The notice said the new school, which is going up on the same site as the existing school, would temporarily be named H.O. Brittingham until the committee decides on a name. 

The notice set off a firestorm on Facebook as friends and family expressed shock and outrage that the district would consider changing the name of the school.

Cape Henlopen Superintendent Robert Fulton said he should have notified family members before posting a notice about naming the new school.

“I have no desire to change the name,” he said in a mea culpa during the superintendent’s report of the Cape Henlopen school board meeting. “If there’s anybody at fault, I take responsibility.”

Speaking on behalf of members of the Brittingham family who attended the meeting, Ken Brittingham, a grandson of H. O. Brittingham, gave the board a brief biography of who his grandfather was. In his grandfather’s 50 years in education, he said, he never missed a day of work. As an administrator, he said, his grandfather never took vacation.

“He is probably the most dedicated educator I have ever met. So you can imagine, our family is very concerned about deliberations about changing the name of HOB elementary school,” Brittingham said.

Brittingham said the family was hoping the notice was a procedural matter and nothing more.

“We’d be happy to assist you and serve on the committee, if you would like,” Brittingham said.

Fulton welcomed the Brittinghams and anyone else who would like to serve on the committee, and he said he was following school policy by posting the notice for a school-naming committee.

Fulton said the same procedure was followed when the new school on Route 24, Love Creek Elementary School, was named, and he wanted to follow the same policy for the remaining schools. A new Rehoboth Elementary School is planned, and Milton Elementary and the Lewes School will be renovated to house elementary students. The existing Richard Shields elementary will be torn down, and the board will eventually decide whether the new elementary school in Lewes will keep the Shields name, he said.

“There’s a lot of things that are going to change,” he said. “The advertisement was not meant to convey that the name was going to change … I’m trying to be consistent with how we handle these situations and not do something different for each location.”

The district is accepting nominations for the committee until noon, Tuesday, Aug. 8. Nominations can be mailed to the district office at 1270 Kings Highway, Lewes, or dropped off in person.

The committee will hold its first meeting at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the district office.

For more information, contact Fulton at robert.fulton@cape.k12.de.us.