Kelton Court School Becomes Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School

It is certainly old news by now since it was on the television and in the newspaper but one decision the school board made after I left the meeting the other night was to name the Kelton Court School the Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School.


Stephen and Harriet Myers were a husband and wife who worked to abolish slavery and worked on self-help issues for African Americans in the mid 19th century in Albany. A good bio of Stephen is on www.ugrworkshop.com.


I am curious how this will affect the history of the Kelton Court School. The school was part of the initial facilities plan and on the drawing board before a couple of the planned charter schools were announced. So there was public discussion regarding if the school was really needed. Then there were people in the neighborhood that opposed the building of the school. The Mayor opposed the building of the school. There were vandals in the Whitehall Road neighborhood that inflicted tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of dollars in damage on contractor's equipment and work materials and the cost of materials went up. Finally the school was completed and a principal appointed. Now the school is named and it is an outstanding name. Will the opposition and controversy continue?