A committee will recommend Tuesday that Richland 1 school board members deny a request to rename W.J. Keenan High School after segregation-era Booker T. Washington High School.

“We found that there were no extreme circumstances that would warrant a name change,” said James C. Starnes, chairman of the seven-member committee appointed to examine the name change request.

The Booker T. Washington High School Foundation asked school board members to name the new Keenan facility after the former all-black school. The new Keenan facility is under construction.

“We have no reaction,” foundation president Albert Griffin said of the committee’s recommendation.

Foundation members have said Richland 1 officials once pledged to name a school after the now closed and demolished Booker T. Washington High School. Griffin thinks it’s improbable he’ll ever see such a school.

“We could hope, but I probably won’t be living when they do it,” said Griffin, a 70-year-old 1955 Washington High graduate. “I don’t look for any new school buildings in the near future.”

In a June 19 letter, Griffin requested the new Keenan facility be named “‘The New Booker T. Washington High School,’ or any other designation that includes the name ‘Booker T. Washington High School.’”

Starnes said the renaming committee examined reams of letters submitted in September by community members. His committee planned to make a recommendation to school board members Oct. 24, but the overwhelming community sentiment made their recommendation clear, he said.

“I feel comfortable saying that 98 percent of what was received was supporting keeping the name W.J. Keenan,” he said.

According to Richland 1’s school-naming policy, “facilities that previously have been named for persons will not have their names changed, except in extreme circumstances.”

Starnes said the committee reached consensus that the overwhelming support for maintaining the Keenan name indicated the foundation’s request did not qualify as an extreme circumstance.

In his letter requesting the name change, Griffin enumerated the former Booker T. Washington High School’s distinctions and its place in Richland 1, Columbia and South Carolina history.

The school was closed in 1974 and sold to USC.

Keenan is named for W.J. Keenan, a former Richland 1 school board member and founder of Keenan Oil Co.

A new facility on Pisgah Church Road and Wilson Boulevard is scheduled to replace Keenan’s Pine Belt Road facility next August. The new $39.8 million school is part of the district’s 2002 $381 million plan to upgrade facilities.

The renaming committee examined the issue at the school board’s request. Board members voted Aug. 22 to invoke the board’s policy for naming schools. That policy directs the board chairman to appoint a committee to consider a request.

Board chairwoman Lane Quinn appointed seven people from the policy’s required constituent groups: Keenan student body president France Jackson; Keenan area resident Harrison Rearden; Richland 1 Teacher of the Year Ilona Sunday; board member Jasper Salmond; district athletics director Carlos Smith; and Keenan principal Steve Wilson.

Quinn said it’s unclear whether board members will act on the renaming committee’s recommendation Tuesday.

“It’s very possible we could vote on it, but it might get delayed till the next meeting.”

Reach Michals at (803) 771-8532.

WHAT’S NEXT?

A committee is scheduled to recommend that Richland 1 school board members deny a request to rename Keenan High School. The public may comment at the beginning of the meeting.

WHAT: Richland 1 school board meeting

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Richland 1 district office, 1616 Richland St., Columbia