PORT ARTHUR — The Port Arthur Independent School District school board voted 5 to 3 to change the name Dick Dowling Elementary to Port Acres Elementary and 7 to 1 to change Robert E. Lee Elementary to Lakeview Elementary.
"General Lee and Lieutenant Dowling names will forever be in our school books, they will no longer be on our school buildings," school board president Debra Ambroise said.
Several people at the Port Arthur board meeting told 12news they’re happy the old confederate names are gone for good, but one man says he wasn’t please with the new names that were picked.
"What I don’t understand is that they asked for a name and I said Thurgood Marshal school he didn't even send it to the list," Port Arthur resident Charles Maxile said.
The school board allowed the community to make recommendations for new names during the month of September. Maxile wonders whether the board seriously considered what was submitted.
"They made that decision, we have no say so in this town. this stuff that's going on in Port Arthur needs to be stopped,” Maxile said.
Ambroise hopes students, teachers, and parents will get used to the new names Port Acres, and Lakeview Elementary.