Update: The Leander ISD board of trustees voted during a Feb. 16 meeting to update the name of Elementary School No. 26 from Monta Akin Elementary to Monta Jane Akin Elementary.
Original story posted Feb. 22, 7:52 a.m.:
The Leander ISD board of trustees voted during a Feb. 2 workshop to name the district’s 26th elementary school Monta Akin Elementary School.
Akin was the assistant superintendent of instructional services in LISD and retired in December 2015 after more than 40 years in the district. According to a news release from LISD, Akin was instrumental in implementing the district’s continuous improvement culture and guiding documents, and she worked closely with one of the district’s longtime superintendents, Tom Glenn.
Before serving in the assistant superintendent role, Akin was a teacher, a reading specialist and a curriculum director.
“Looking at the history of this district, it is impossible to overstate Monta’s influence,” LISD board President Will Streit said. “She played a pivotal role in transforming LISD from a poor-performing district in the late 1970s to one of academic excellence today.”
The campus will be located across from Stiles Middle School at the corner of Ronald Reagan Boulevard and Journey Parkway and will open in August for the 2017-18 school year.
The public submitted about 250 name ideas for the elementary school, and the online submission form was available on the LISD website from Jan. 6-20 and advertised through a variety of outlets.
Veronica Sopher, assistant superintendent of communications and government relations, said district staff provided a preliminary list of names and justifications to the board prior to the Jan. 19 meeting. She said they also received the list of names and justifications submitted online by the end of business Jan. 20.
The majority of the submissions proposed the name Carol North Elementary after an LISD teacher who taught grade school for more than 20 years and was well-known in the community.
Other suggestions included LeAnn Elementary, in honor of the archaeological discovery of well-preserved skeletal human remains by Brushy Creek dating back to more than 10,000 years; Sandy Arguigo Elementary or Monta Akin Elementary, both of whom were also longtime teachers; and Barack H. Obama Elementary.
Sopher said board members were able to choose to use the feedback from the community, but it is not a requirement.
The board was set to consider updating the elementary school name to Monta Jane Akin Elementary during a Feb. 16 board meeting. The meeting occurred after Community Impact Newspaper’s Feb. 15 print deadline.
