Kerry Peirson reacts to vote. pic.twitter.com/63JlVOZOOe — Keri Brenner (@KeriWorks) April 17, 2019

In an historic vote, members of the Dixie School District Board of Trustees agreed this week to shed what critics said was more than 150 years of name linkage to an era of slavery and racism of the Civil War South.

On Tuesday, trustees, acting after months of community turmoil, online vitriol, personal attacks and national media coverage, voted 3-1, with one abstention, to change the name of the district and Dixie Elementary School and remove what proponents said was any stigma of racism or nod to the Confederacy. The resolution calls for the change to take place before the start of the 2019-20 school year on Aug. 22.

Related Articles Live updates: Dixie School District board votes on name change proposal

“I wish they would have shown more enthusiasm, but I’m glad they got it done,” said Kerry Peirson of Mill Valley, who first proposed the name should be changed in 1997. That and subsequent tries in 2002 and 2015 all failed — until now.

“It’s come so far since then,” Peirson said. “It looked like the board was reluctant, but they got it done, and we’re on the way.”

The vote came after three hours of testimony and debate before a standing-room-only crowd at the district office in north San Rafael. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause after the vote.

Trustees Marnie Glickman, Brooks Nguyen and Megan Hutchinson voted yes, Chair Brad Honsberger voted no and Alissa Chacko abstained. After the vote, the board agreed to form an advisory committee in the community to help select the new name.

Nguyen and Hutchinson said they voted “yes” in order to end the months of personal attacks and divisiveness in the community.

“To me, changing the name, despite the tactics (of personal attacks) is the only path forward,” Hutchinson said in a prepared speech before the vote. “The biggest disappointment to me has been the weaponizing of this issue — people saying ‘I’ll never vote for another parcel tax or another bond measure.'”

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Nguyen said she was looking to put an end to “relentless political activism” so that “no other board member ever has to go through this again.”

Glickman, who led the name change charge, and who also endured months of vicious attacks online and in person because of it, was “happy for our students” at the outcome.

Yavar Amidi of Students for Unity and Justice calls for a minute of silence in solidarity with black residents. pic.twitter.com/C6uKfLtyLl — Keri Brenner (@KeriWorks) April 17, 2019

“This is what’s best for our students,” she said after the vote. “We’ve made a really important step and we’ve learned some really important lessons in the process.” She said she hoped the move “would help us hire a great new superintendent” to replace Jason Yamashiro, who resigned last month after less than two years on the job.

Chacko said she abstained because she “agreed with the end (to change the name) but not the means.” That was a reference to Glickman’s participation in a TV news report in August to announce the name-change drive — instead of proposing it to the rest of the board for discussion first as Chacko said she would have wanted.

“The process was unnecessarily divisive,” she said. “It could have brought the community together, but instead drove us apart,” she said. “The ends were good, but the means used were destructive.”

Honsberger, reading from a prepared statement before the vote, said he voted “no” because he “wasn’t going to cave in to bullies” and the personal attacks he endured because he had not said one way on the other if he was in favor of the name change.

“I’ve received hundreds of emails accusing me of being rudderless and being told to my face that I should be ashamed of myself,” he said.

He said rather than vote Tuesday for the resolution, he supported an advisory election during 2020, to allow the entire community to weigh in, as was approved by the prior board of trustees in November.

“I refuse to be bullied, pressured or threatened to make a decision for our community,” Honsberger said. “I want to make a decision with our community.” A group of young adults from Dixie and Dixie alumni — Students for Unity and Justice — has launched a petition drive to recall Honsberger because of his unwillingness to commit to the name change.

On Wednesday, district resident Laurie Pirini, who is leading a petition drive to recall Glickman, noted that the resolution passed Tuesday was conditioned on no district money being spent for the name change.

“With Brad (Honsberger) and Brooks’ (Nguyen) conservative $39K estimate — which is more than twice the original estimate Dr. Yamashiro provided back in January, they’re looking at needing another $40K or so to cover at least 20 percent overage and rebranding as well,” Pirini said in an email Wednesday. “What do you think is gonna happen if the money isn’t raised?”

So far, the Marin Community Foundation has pledged to donate $40,000 for the name change effort. Audience members on Tuesday yelled out they would raise additional money if necessary.

The group We Are Dixie, which has opposed the name change, issued a statement Wednesday:

“We did what we could, but unfortunately, in the end the school board chose to no longer fight against the divisiveness and resource-wasting tactics implemented by Marnie Glickman and her political activists,” the statement said. “Their scorched-earth approach means they have ‘won’ the fight at the cost of our community.”

At the same time, more than a dozen residents spoke passionately Tuesday during public comment in favor of changing the name.

“The most important issue is the inhumane treatment and injustice faced by black Americans for no other reason than the skin color they were born with,” said Yavar Amidi, of Students for Unity and Justice. “We stand with our black brothers and sisters and call for the immediate removal of the racist and Confederate Dixie name.” Amidi and his group held signs such as “Dixie Must Go” and disrupted the meeting several times with rallying cries outside the board room.

Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke said the real issue was how to restore and unite the district after months of divisiveness. She intervened several times in recent weeks to offer help, and was one of a host of elected officials to send letters to the district in favor of the name change.

“It’s been a challenging time for the community,” she said Wednesday. “Now the hard work begins to rebuild the community with a focus on what’s best for students.”

Peirson, who is black, said it was a “bigger issue” than just the Dixie district, an approximately 14,000-resident, majority white community served by three elementary schools and one middle school.

“I don’t think it’s a local issue,” he said. “Seventy-nine percent of the district’s budget is state and federal funding. We’re all stakeholders.”

District parent Patti Bender, however, later said in an email those numbers were “false and misleading.” She noted that Dixie was more than 85 percent funded by local taxes, and that state and federal funds accounted for less than 15 percent of the budget revenue.

Peirson said Tuesday that n advisory ballot of just Dixie voters would “exclude most African-Americans in the county,” he said.

“To me it was the right thing to do,” Peirson added. “Now at least they can move forward. It will be better for the kids and the whole environment.”

NOTE: This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 18, 2019 to add budget revenue information.