Tensions flared Tuesday night among Austin school district trustees, who debated whether to strip the Confederate moniker from Lanier High School and rename it at a board meeting later this month.

The group agreed to revisit the issue next week during a monthly board operations meeting, where board officers and sometimes other trustees have informal discussions about whether to place issues on future agendas for a vote. At the operations meeting, trustees also will discuss whether they want to further refine the policy on renaming schools to include a stipulation that a new name cannot include a reiteration of the current name.

The campus was named for Sidney Lanier, a noted poet who fought for the Confederacy.

The one-hour conversation started with an 11-minute statement read by Trustee Ann Teich, who represents the district's north central area that includes Lanier.

Teich said Lanier students and staff members overwhelmingly are against renaming the campus. She said she will meet with them next week to gauge whether they want her to keep fighting against the possible change.

"For you to assume you know better than the community is highly disrespectful to them," Teich said, adding that if schools with Confederates monikers are being renamed, then district schools named for figures who were slave owners or slave traders, including Austin and Bowie high schools and Lamar Middle School, also should be renamed.

Teich then went back and forth with a few trustees, as each reiterated his or her points.

"It's really disrespectful to assume we don't know a community," said Trustee LaTisha Anderson, who represents the northeast portion of the district that includes Reagan and LBJ high schools. "I've been in Austin all my life. And went to Lanier. ... I chose to be a trustee to make a difference, not to be fighting over because you don't believe someone doesn't know a community. I have a lot of respect for you, but the disrespect? I've had it about to here."

While some trustees said the board last year made a commitment to rename the schools, others didn't voice a specific opinion about changing Lanier's name or said they were unsure how to proceed.

Trustee Yasmin Wagner said she had "an intense feeling of disappointment" in the board.

"Here we sit, wringing our hands, wanting to go back and rehash the same conversations, talk to folks all over again, in hopes of getting a different result," Wagner said. "At this point, I think it's intensely unfair most directly to the Lanier community that we have been sitting on this for 13 months. ... If some trustees don't agree with the change, that's fine, but that's still the will of the board, as a body corporate, that we move forward with the name change.”

Wagner, who represents the southwest part of the district that includes Bowie High School, said Teich was stalling the process by raising the possibility of renaming additional schools. Wagner said she wasn't against further discussions but said the board first must decide on Lanier.

Trustee Jayme Mathias, who represents the southeast portion of the district that includes Eastside Memorial, said he is willing to discuss schools named for slave owners and slave traders, as well.

"White supremacy is not an AISD value," Mathias said. "Institutional racism is not an AISD value. ... How do we help lead this community from what was, especially those names that were imposed on communities of color on the centennial of the Civil War and help the community understand these are not heroes to be adored. Any cost incurred by our community, that's money well spent."

Previous district estimates showed a cost of $77,000 to rename a high school, but other districts that have done so reported costs closer to $300,000.

If the board approves the change, Lanier would become the district's second high school to be renamed because its namesake had ties to the Confederacy.

Last week, the board voted to rename Reagan High School as Northeast Early College High School. Reagan was named for John H. Reagan, the Confederate postmaster general, in 1963 after court-ordered desegregation.