After an outpouring of feedback from the public, the Leander ISD school board decided to name its 28th elementary school after Nancy Tarvin, former executive director of elementary curriculum, at its Jan. 24 meeting.

Elementary No. 28 is tentatively scheduled to open for the 2020-21 academic year, according to district documents. The district’s 27th elementary school, which opens this August, was named Larkspur Elementary School in December following much deliberation. The final decision came after failed motions for other namesakes, including Tarvin.

Tarvin retired in 2016 after around 25 years with the district and died of cancer in 2017. Before becoming the executive director of elementary curriculum, her positions with the district included associate school psychologist, lead psychologist and director of special education, said Joan Altobelli, who also served as LISD’s special education director, at a Jan. 10 meeting.

During the meeting, Altobelli talked about her own experiences with Tarvin and read a letter written to the board by Tarvin’s widower, Jim Tarvin.

“It’s not just the dedication to her job that is her legacy, either,” she said. “It’s her commitment to the good of the whole, to the Leander way. … Even more her vision for student learning, her work to help create the new elementary school design, and her being a driving force in the district by finding and adopting best practices from around the country.”

At both meetings this month, community members spoke in front of the board to advocate for naming a school to honor Tarvin. Additionally, as of Jan. 25, 652 people signed an online petition on www.change.org in favor of “Rename Elementary 27 Nancy Tarvin Elementary.”

“We have to listen to the community,” LISD trustee Jim MacKay said Jan. 24. “We owe the community that apology.”

Prior to discussing the naming of the school, the board talked about formalizing a process for naming schools and other district facilities, including a look at the naming policies for other similar districts.

Superintendent Dan Troxell said district staff would review LISD’s historical protocol for naming schools to present at a future meeting as discussion continues.

During citizen comments at the beginning of the meeting, former school board candidate Donnie Mahan expressed concerns about the school potentially being named without community input.

“Having a discussion, and only a discussion, about how the district should go about naming schools and then in the very next topic potentially naming a school without broad community input, which subverts the existing process for naming schools, is the problem, it’s not the solution,” Mahan said.

Before the board adopted the name, trustee Gloria Gonzales-Dholakia said she wanted to address the concern the process is broken.

“We did receive community feedback,” Gonzales-Dholakia said. “… This was from the community, and we’re trying to fix something because we heard from the community.”