As of Mar. 19 the final two school names have been officially selected and announced, Bon Tempe and Olema Trail. During the semi-finals the High School 1327 (HS 1327) community eliminated Awani-Wi, the name suggested by the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin.

The HS 1327 community will be moving into the final round of voting on Mar. 22 through Mar. 25. The final name will likely be announced Mar. 26. 

At the start of the voting, HS 1327 Small Learning Communities (SLC) made a voter guide for Bon Tempe and Olema Trail. The guide contains information about the name, possible mascots, reasons to choose each name, and how to honor a name if it is not chosen. Adjusted each voting round, this voter guide has been available since the selection of the final nine names. 

Once the final name is chosen, it must be approved by the Drake Leadership Council (DLC) to become official. It is unclear when the school plans to remodel the school with the new name.

Suggested to replace “Sir Francis Drake,” an English explorer who colonized and committed mass genocide against Coastal Miwoks, Awani-Wi made it all the way to the semi-finals of the name change process. Awani-Wi, the name of the Coastal Miwok village, is  located in present day San Rafael. In order to reject white supremacy and racism, many in our community wanted to rename HS 1327 after a Miwok village. However, not enough people wished to advance the name to the finals.

Because of elimination of Awani-Wi there is some confusion in the student body, including from sophomore Reiley Dillon.

“I’m really conflicted about it. The name change was trying to make a solution, but it caused a lot of division. And I’m not even very happy with the final two names,” Dillon said.

So why did the community vote out Awani-Wi? Amelia Richer, a sophomore at 1327 predicted why that may be.

“I think people maybe just voted it out because it was a little difficult to say. That’s what I heard, but i’m kind of disappointed. I think it was a really cool idea,” Richer said.

In the future, HS 1327l can honor the Miwok community by following some of the suggestions in the slides, for example extending the history curriculum on the Coastal Miwoks and their traditions.

So far the student body has shown discontent with the elimination of Awani-Wi. We can only wonder how much of the community feels the same.