A New Name for Our School

As part of our district's ongoing commitment to eliminate systemic and institutional barriers, we worked with our families and community to create the new name for our building – Roots Academy at West Hill – effective July 1, 2023.

It is our belief that no school – especially a school that serves a majority of African-American students – should honor the memory of a person who owned slaves, which is why we worked to replace the former name – Philip J. Schuyler Achievement Academy.

For more information on how and why we began this work, please see our news release from June 2020.

How did we come up with our new name?

A committee of district staff, students, families and community members worked in partnership to collect submissions on possible new names for our school. After receiving the suggestions, the committee researched each one, and presented three options for the public to vote on. Of these three choices, Roots Academy at West Hill was the winner.

Below is the rationale that was submitted along with the name by the Young Abolitionists Leadership Institute (YALI):

The motto of the Roots Academy should be, "We are the foundation of education." The Roots Academy will provide a strong educational foundation which will be the springboard to success in all that students endeavor to do after they leave. Roots Academy recognizes that the trunk of a tree won't grow strong enough to support the branches if the roots are not healthy, nurtured and well-developed.

The Young Abolitionists Leadership Institute (YALI) has been identifying and researching statues, monuments and memorials around downtown Albany. Most of the statues are of white males, many of whom are associated with past wars. The NYS Women’s Veteran’s Memorial on Madison Avenue and Harriet Myers of the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence on Livingston Avenue are the most noticeable contemporary acknowledgements of women’s contributions in Albany. During YALI students' research, they asked who decides who is most worthy of a statue, monument or memorial?

In several instances, they learned that the broader community has had no say as to who gets a statue, why they deserve a statue or where it goes. Philip Schuyler’s statue was erected due to a rich benefactor's wishes. He was not the only one to fight valiantly in the Revolutionary War. Why are certain people singled out for statues, monuments or memorials? Are they truly worthy of acknowledgement?

Is it fair that our statues focus on people versus key values and concepts like unity and peace? As time passes, the memorialized person becomes less significant and little, if anything, is taught about them. For example, despite the research conducted by the Underground Railroad Education Center and the naming of Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School, many of the teachers and students have no idea who they were, or why the school was named after them. There is no concerted effort to make sure everyone learns this. An additional element for consideration in this renaming decision-making process is that human beings are complex and more than one attribute (which is what gets promoted in statues and namings). What does this do for our students understanding of the workings of the world in which they live?