No one suggested Ronald Reagan for the name of a middle school opening next month in Wellington. Nor were any other United States presidents, living or dead, in the running.

Public education fails in its civic purpose this way, according to the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based, conservative think tank in a national study released Monday on school naming trends.

“Only five schools in Florida honor George Washington, compared with 11 named after manatees,” the authors wrote after reviewing the state’s 3,000 public schools. “In Florida, the sea cow trumps the father of our country.”

But Palm Beach County, which has a Washington Elementary in Riviera Beach and a Manatee Elementary west of Boynton Beach, gets a passing grade, said Brian Kisida, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas, who co-wrote the study.

The county also has Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy schools, along with dozens of campuses named for prominent local trailblazers, educators and benefactors. Think Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr., S.D. Spady, and William T. Dwyer.

“The more the better,” Kisida said, noting a tendency for school boards to choose nature names close to 40 percent of the time because they are “easy, innocuous and noncontroversial.”

Of the last dozen schools to open in Palm Beach County, six are named for natural features such as “Hidden Oaks,” and six are named for people, including Don Estridge, a personal-computer pioneer with IBM in the early 1980s in Boca Raton.

Broward honors tennis legend Arthur Ashe and Everglades champion Marjory Stoneman Douglas, but has only one school, Nova Eisenhower Elementary, named for any of the nation’s chief executives.

“They are missing an opportunity to make a statement,” said Kisida, a product of Eisenhower Elementary in Davenport, Iowa.

In April, a Wellington community committee, including school administrators and parents, settled on Emerald Cove for the middle school opening near U.S. 441 and Forest Hill Boulevard. The School Board unanimously approved the name over runner-up choices “Legacy” and “Cypress Edge.”

Why Emerald Cove? “The area surrounding our beautiful school is green with beautiful lawns, landscaping, palm trees and other rich plant growth,” the committee declared.

Tony Marconi, education coordinator for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, served on the naming panel. They kicked around about 60 names, including Stoneman Douglas, but everyone “had to be able to live with” the final choice, he said.

The School Board requires input from the Historical Society, but there is no mandate for historical names. New monikers for county schools are expected to be reflections of local history, people and places.

“There’s been quite a lot of attention to honoring our history on a national and a local level,” said Carole Shetler, south area superintendent.

Still, controversy has marred some naming opportunities this decade.

In 2004, a new West Palm Beach elementary school was about to be named for the famous 1878 shipwreck of the Providencia near what is now Palm Beach. But the proposal was dumped after School Board member Debra Robinson questioned whether the vessel once ferried slaves. The school opened as Grassy Waters Elementary, for its proximity to a preserve.

In 2003, the proposed name of Palm Beach Central High for a new campus in Wellington came under scrutiny. Critics said the name is too close to the original Central Schools that opened in 1908 in West Palm Beach. The School Board still picked Palm Beach Central, citing the high school’s mid-county location.

One old school name that carried a lot of baggage was changed in 2005: Jefferson Davis Middle became Palm Springs Middle. Davis, president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, is a hero in the eyes of many Southerners. But many blacks view him as a symbol of the South’s efforts to retain slavery. Superintendent Art Johnson says politics would likely get in the way of any attempt to pick a presidential name for a future school.

“I think George W. Bush would generate criticism from certain segments of the community,” he said, questioning the need to add another Washington or Lincoln to the lineup.

The study is simply designed to be “a conversation starter,” Kisida said.

“We are under no illusion,” the report states, “that simply renaming a number of schools after historical figures will spark a significant improvement in civic values.”

To read the study, visit html/cr_51.htm

Marc Freeman can be reached at or 561-243-6642.

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INFORMATIONAL BOX:

Palm Beach County school names since 2000

2000

Village Academy Elementary

North Grade Elementary

Heritage Elementary

Binks Forest Elementary

Polo Park Middle

South Grade Elementary

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune

Elementary

2001

Boynton Beach High

Odyssey Middle

Beacon Cove Intermediate

Frontier Elementary

Sunrise Park Elementary

Discovery Key Elementary

2002

Freedom Shores Elementary

Crosspointe Elementary

Royal Palm Beach Elementary

Cholee Lake Elementary

Pleasant City Elementary

Independence Middle

Benoist Farms Elementary

2003

Jaega Middle

Diamond View Elementary

Equestrian Trails Elementary

Palm Beach Central High

2004

Grassy Waters Elementary

Pierce Hammock Elementary

Don Estridge Middle

Tradewinds Middle

Osceola Creek Middle

Park Vista High

West Boca Raton High

2005

Hidden Oaks Elementary

Seminole Ridge High

L.C. Swain Middle

2006

Elbridge Gale Elementary

2007

Emerald Cove Middle

Local school name tributes

Here is a sampling of people who have schools named after them in Palm Beach County

School; History

Addison Mizner Elementary: architect

Barton Elementary: John Thomas “Jack” Barton, Lake Worth mayor, publisher

Binks Forest Elementary: Arthur W. “Bink” Glisson, Wellington pioneer and developer

Clifford O. Taylor/Kirklane Elementary: Clifford O. Taylor, educator and former principal

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary: educator

Elbridge Gale Elementary: farmer, educator

Gove Elementary: Genevieve Gove, educator

H.L. Johnson Elementary: Howard L. Johnson, educator

J.C. Mitchell Elementary: Joe C. Mitchell, developer; former Boca Raton mayor

Jerry Thomas Elementary: legislator

K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary: Kathryn E. Cunningham, educator

Morikami Park Elementary: George Morikami, landowner, farmer

Pierce Hammock Elementary: Legendary Barefoot Mailman Charles W. Pierce

Rosenwald Elementary: Julius Rosenwald, former president of Sears, Roebuck and Co.

S.D. Spady Elementary: Solomon David Spady, educator and former principal

U.B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary: Ulysses B. Kinsey, educator

Bak Middle School of the Arts: Dora Bak, benefactor

Carver Community Middle: George Washington Carver, agricultural researcher

Don Estridge High Tech Middle: IBM pioneer

Howell L. Watkins Middle: educator

L.C. Swain Middle: Greenacres founder

Watson B. Duncan Middle: educator

Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts: benefactor

John I. Leonard High: educator

William T. Dwyer High: businessman

— Compiled by Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek and Staff Writer Marc Freeman