San Diego Unified takes first steps to rename Cesar Chavez Elementary

Jemma Stephenson, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Mar 25, 2026

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SAN DIEGO — San Diego Unified School District is starting the process to rename Cesar Chavez Elementary following allegations that the late labor leader sexually abused young girls decades ago.

The board voted Tuesday evening to create a naming committee — the first step in a process the district overhauled just last year.

The 10-person naming community will consist of school officials, educators, students and community members and hold at least two public input sessions to discuss possible names. The school board will ultimately vote on the final selection.

Under the district’s renaming policies, before beginning the process a school community should consider a host of factors, such as whether the name “reflects historical harm or exclusion.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, student trustee Alina Nguyen said her community had been hit hard by the revelations about someone many had regarded as a hero.

“This person doesn’t define who you are,” she told the audience.

The board’s vice president Sabrina Bazzo said that she was grateful for swift, meaningful action and called for transparency and conversations with students — “because they’re smart.”

Superintendent Fabiola Bagula said the district was creating a guide to help have dialogues with students.

Trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne pointed out that the same morning The New York Times published its investigation revealing allegations against Chavez, she and board president Richard Barrera were at an event at Chavez Elementary to honor the school’s namesake.

That particular school had already gone through a lot, including catastrophic January 2024 flooding, she added, and she struck an optimistic note.

“We can get beyond this,” she said. “This school will continue to improve.”

The move to rename Chavez Elementary comes as institutions across San Diego County and California have taken similar steps.

Also Tuesday, Los Angeles Unified voted unanimously to rename two schools named for Chavez and to remove his image from murals, the Los Angeles Times reported. And early next month, the San Diego Community College District will hear public input and consider renaming its campus named for Chavez.

In San Diego Unified, the renaming will be the second under the new renaming policies, which the district overhauled last year after coming under fire for a lack of transparency in a previous process.

The plan approved Tuesday clarifies that the school board can consider two renamings in one year, up from the previous guidance of limiting renamings to one per year, Bagula said.

Bagula said that that step reflects the seriousness of the movement.

In recent months, the district changed the mascot of Clairemont High School in response to a state law that restricts the use of Native American terms as mascots.

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