The suggested names for Atlanta’s new school focused on science, technology, engineering and math include a who’s who of African-American science heroes.
Several people suggested naming the school in honor of Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to travel in space, according to records The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act.
Also popular: astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and President Barack Obama, who isn't technically a scientist but has fired a marshmallow cannon at his annual White House science fair.
The new K-8 STEM school will be in the former Kennedy Middle School building. It replaces Bethune Elementary, which the Atlanta school board voted to close earlier this year.
Other nominations include:
- Ernest Everett Just, an experimental biologist;
- Lonnie Johnson, the rocket scientist who invented the Super Soaker;
- Garrett Morgan, an inventor; and
- Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, taken without her permission, formed one of the most commonly used human cell lines in medical research.
Byron Amos, the school board member who represents the school, proposed the Dr. Mary M. Bethune - Dr. Pearlie C. Dove Educational Complex. And Diamond Jack, the new school’s principal, pitched Atlanta Innovation Academy.
A school naming committee will meet one last time on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Kennedy Middle School to finalize its recommendation to the full school board.
Update: The school was named the Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy.
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