City of Newton, MA
Home MenuWho Inspired Newton's Public School Names?
Newton Public Schools are located around the city: two public high schools, four middle schools, and 15 elementary schools. It didn’t take much imagination for someone to call the high schools Newton North and Newton South. Even before that, the city’s one high school was simply called Newton High School.
City leaders did try a bit harder to name the middle and elementary schools – though only within a limited range. Many cities and towns name their schools after national leaders, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Martin Luther King. In Newton, the inspiration came from people who lived much closer to home. Almost all of the school names we researched came from local heroes of one kind or another – politicians, military veterans, education leaders.
Most of Newton’s public schools were built and named before 1950. In 1954, there were 26 elementary schools, compared to 15 now. It is perhaps a sign of those times that all the schools are named after white men. After all, the first female alderman in Newton wasn’t elected until 1953. Click on the links below for more information on some of the people who inspired the school names.