Atlanta board to vote on renaming high school after Hank Aaron

The Atlanta school board is expected to vote Monday on a proposal to pay tribute to baseball great Hank Aaron by changing the name of an alternative high school in southwest Atlanta.

Officials want to find a new name for Forrest Hill Academy. Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose name the school shares, was a Confederate general and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

A school board committee tasked with suggesting a new name met Thursday and recommended calling the school Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.

The final decision is up to the full board, which will meet Monday.

Aaron, a Hall of Fame Atlanta Braves baseball player who broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, died earlier this year at the age of 86.

Forrest Hill principal Zawadaski Robinson said employees and students like the idea of honoring Aaron because of his life history. Board vice-chair Eshé Collins said Aaron was a strong supporter of Atlanta Public Schools.

“He’s done significant work for our children,” she said.

A district policy requires waiting five years after someone dies before naming a school after that person. The board will need a unanimous vote in order to waive that restriction.

There is precedent for such a move, including APS decisions in 2017 to name schools after U.S. Rep. John Lewis and Barack and Michelle Obama.

Other names the committee considered for a rebranded Forrest Hill included Hammond Park New Beginnings Academy, which would mark the neighborhood where the school is located, and Barbara Whitaker New Beginnings Academy, for a former APS assistant superintendent who died last year.