Dr. Bill Hough holds a sign showing his support of the school named for his father.
CHARLOTTE – Members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education listened impassively Tuesday night to a parade of speakers on the matter of whether to keep the name of William A. Hough for the new high school under construction on Bailey Road in Cornelius. The board accepted petitions, heard of a resolution by the Cornelius Board of Commissioners, and then took less than five minutes to vote 7-2 against an attempt to change the one-month-old school name.
“Was the board (school naming) policy followed?” asked Board Member Joe White.
“The process was followed, sir,” responded Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman.
With no further discussion, a motion to change the name failed, garnering the support of only two of the nine board members.
DOES IT RHYME WITH ‘TOUGH’ OR ‘THOUGH’?
“Hough” was the top choice of a CMS naming committee formed in the fall and consisting of 20 parents, students, educators and community members, drawn from the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson. (CLICK HERE to see the list of committee members.) CMS staff presented the committee’s top three choices (other options were Unity and Rocky River) to the board at its November meeting, and the board voted 7-1 in favor of the Hough High name.
William Amos Hough, Jr., in 1966, during his tenure as principal of North Mecklenburg High School.
So who was Mr. Hough?
William Amos Hough, who died in 1998, was principal of North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville from 1955 to 1974, a contentious time for Charlotte-area schools that saw the merger of the county and city school districts and court-ordered desegregation. Mr. Hough successfully shepherded an anxious and fearful student body through racial integration, overseeing the folding of the entire student body from Torrence-Lytle, an all-black school closed in 1966, into white North Meck. Mr. Hough’s former students and staff have stepped forward in recent weeks to praise their principal, citing his deep Baptist faith, his leadership through difficult times, and his commitment to fairness as reasons why the newest school in north Mecklenburg County should bear his name.
Others immediately raised concerns about how the new school’s name might be abused. “Hough” is correctly pronounced as “Huff,” but a group of parents publicly expressed concerns that the word would be mispronounced as “ho,” street slang for a prostitute, and also complained that the correct pronunciation is a slang reference to inhaling drugs.
Members of the Hough family watched in dismay from the sidelines, saying their surname has never caused them any problems. The name controversy prompted Rhonda Lennon, the new board member representing the North Meck district, to make a motion to rescind the board’s decision in favor of the Hough name.
QUESTIONS ABOUT PROCESS
Explaining her motion to the board Tuesday night, Ms. Lennon said that while she had no personal objections to the Hough name, parents in her district expected to be able to offer comments on the naming committee’s three finalists. She said such input was allowed in six other CMS school openings that she knew of.
“It was their expectation that this would be the case, and that expectation was not met,” Ms. Lennon said. “It is for this reason that I made the recommendation” to vacate the board’s November vote approving Hough High and to reconvene the naming committee.
Board Member Kaye McGarry seconded Ms. Lennon’s motion, saying she had voted in favor of the naming committee’s recommendation in November, but since then “I got an earful” from angry parents.
McGarry and Lennon were the only two who voted for the motion, which needed five votes to pass.
PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR AND AGAINST
Before the vote, 13 people took turns at the school board podium to speak for or against the Hough name.
Cornelius Commissioner Dave Gilroy urged the board to reconsider the Hough name.
Cornelius Town Board Commissioner Dave Gilroy, who has a sixth-grader at Bailey, said his fellow board members had voted 5-0 the previous night in favor of a resolution asking CMS to wait 30 days before deciding on a new name for the high school. He claimed that “a very small group of parents engineered this process primarily through secrecy,” and said reopening the name choice would offer “a chance to truly engage students and parents.”
Retired North Meck High teacher Bill Strong handed the board petitions from the North Meck Class of 1969 and from the Smithville neighborhood of Cornelius urging the school board to keep the Hough name. Mr. Strong said the Smithville neighborhood petition drive was led by Nanny Potts, a retired teacher and former member of the Cornelius Town Board.
Students at Bailey Middle in Cornelius also spoke on both sides of the issue. Two friends, Katelin Talbot, an 8th grader, and Kayli Kingery, a 7th grader, said they did not want to be called names because “words do hurt.” They held up a sign reading “let students vote.”
Bailey sixth-grader Meg Houck spoke in favor of the Hough name.
Meg Houck, whose name is pronounced like “how” and who is a sixth grader from Davidson, said she was tired of adults yelling at each other over a school name. She said she would rather be learning about Mr. Hough’s legacy and about the impact of segregation than worrying over the school’s image. “We should be moving on to more important things,” she said.
Robin Bradford, who lost to Rhonda Lennon in the November election for the District 1 seat on the school board, said, “We need to keep the W.A. Hough name as it is.”
Phil Carey of Huntersville chastised Ms. Lennon for playing word games, questioning whether Hopewell High would now have to lose its first two letters, to the point that Ms. McGarry interrupted and asked if it was allowed for speakers to make personal attacks.
“It’s quite alright with me,” Ms. Lennon said, waving for Mr. Carey to continue.
In all, seven spoke in favor of keeping the Hough name, and six spoke against it.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Watching the proceedings from the audience was William A. Hough III, a physician and the son of the man the new high school in Cornelius is named for. Dr. Hough drove with a relative from his home in Winston-Salem to attend Tuesday’s meeting, and was surrounded by friends, one of whom gave him a “Yes! W.A. Hough High School” sign to hold.
Dr. Hough has preferred not to comment during the name controversy, but he broke into smiles and gave the “thumbs up” sign when the vote was over.
The school’s new principal, Dr. Terri Cockerham, stepped over to shake Dr. Hough’s hand. She said after the vote that she is ready to move on with picking a school mascot and colors for William A. Hough High, scheduled to open its doors in August.
She said she is relieved to have the name controversy behind her and plans to make sure the new school communicates the story of Mr. Hough and the history of this area.
“The important thing now is that we’ve got a great school,” said Dr. Cockerham. “We can make this the premier high school in Charlotte.”
And no one will get teased for that.
Congratulations to the School Board for standing behind the decision to name the new high school for William A. Hough. I am unimpressed with the effort by my new representative, Rhonda Lennon, to cast this as a question of process (advocating that the board undo its own process and poll prospective students). Several decades ago when I was part of a class opening a new high school (in East Tennessee), we were polled about a mascot choice and voted overwhelmingly to call ourselves “the Road Runners.” The School Board wisely recognized that as foolishness. There is a reason we require voters to be at least 18.
This attempt to encourage childish jokes about a great man’s name has been an embarrassment.
Cheers to Joe White and the majority of the school board for respecting the work of the naming committee and adhering to the process, and jeers to Rhonda Lennon, who’s first actions look to be an attempt to have it both ways. By not objecting to the name itself, but requesting a “do-over”, Ms. Lennon seems to want to keep everyone happy, and we all know how well that works…
At any rate, glad we can move on from this issue, and congratulations to the Hough family on a well-deserved honor.
As Mr. Hough’s grandaughter, I just want to say how happy I am that all of this controversy is over. Grandaddy most definitely would have been shocked and embarrassed by it. I watched the meeting online last night, and my only comment is to give props to the obviously very smart 6th grader, Meg Houck, who said it best.
I married into the Hough family, and had the pleasure of getting to know Mr. Hough for the last several years of his life. I walked 18 holes of golf with an 82 year old Mr. Hough and my wife, and only one of us complained about tired feet afterwards – and it wasn’t Mr. Hough. It was still dark when we were awakened that morning by Mr. Hough, as it was his custom to arrive at the golf course before it opened so he could be the first one out on the course. At the age of 86, he was still climbing onto the roof every fall to blow off the leaves, much to the horror of his beloved family. He fended for himself until the day he died – he wouldn’t have, and couldn’t have had it any other way. He was a revered figure by his family and all who knew him. He is sorely missed.
Instead of dwelling on the “controversy” and it’s emotional affect on the Hough family over the last several months – I say several because the family has been aware of and excitedly followed the naming process well before it erupted into a totally unexpected folly – but instead, as Mr. Hough himself would be apt to do, would like to look for and focus on the silver lining: The dispute over naming of the new high school has enabled the admirable works and fine character of Mr. Hough to be shouted from the rooftops. Everyone will know not only the name of the school, but what it “stands for”. The Hough family has won in two ways through the honor bestowed by the naming committee – the family patriarch will not only be memorialized, but the ensuing controversy has facilitated the public’s education of why the man so rightfully deserved such an honor. Furthermore, the support shown to the Hough family and the news stories detailing Mr. Hough’s life have far outweighed the trivial nature of what’s in a name.
Full text of Meg Houck’s speech to the Board of Education, Dec. 8, 2009
My name is Meg Houck and I am a sixth grader at Bailey Middle School. I will attend W.A. Hough High School in North Mecklenburg.
I wanted to let you know a few things that the kids of North Mecklenburg are learning as we watch people argue about the naming of our new high school.
- We are learning that it is ok to make fun of people because of their name.
- We are learning that sometimes people who yell the loudest are the ones that get heard.
- We are learning that doing the easy thing is better than doing the right thing.
- We are learning that a closed mind is better than an open one.
- We are learning that our leaders don’t always lead.
- We are learning that adults sometimes will say anything to get what they want.
It seems to me that people are spending a lot of time yelling at each other about something that should be over and done with. How does that help make our schools better places for us to learn?
What should we be learning?
- We should be learning that our name IS important –that it should mean something good. The name W.A. Hough can help us learn this.
- We should be learning about the history that surrounds our schools and our area and about the pain and suffering that segregation caused in the United States. The history of W.A. Hough can help us learn this.
- We should be learning that leadership is important and when we elect our leaders that they will help us be better people. The leadership of W.A. Hough can help us learn this.
- We should be learning that people can talk through their differences and don’t have to yell at each other. This means listening to each other and sometimes not getting your way. The work of W.A. Hough can help us learn this.
- We should be learning skills that help us make good decisions. The decisions of W.A. Hough can help us learn this.
- We should be learning that our school system cares about our safety and our ability to learn above our image. The school board can help us learn this.
We should be moving on from this conversation and on to one that REALLY matters. There is lots of hard work ahead for the school board.
I hope that after tonight, you can get to doing it.
And remember: We’re rough, we’re tough, we’re W. A. Hough!