The former Hug High School should be re-named for Dolores Feemster.

Several other very worthy candidates have been considered over the past six months, but Mrs. Feemster's qualifications transcend by one consideration: Her nine decades living and working in northeast Reno, including 37 years as a counselor at Hug High.

She was born a stone's thrown from her longtime home on Sutro Street, just south of the future school. Longtime educator Procter Hug, Sr., remained active long after his retirement, distributing diplomas every year. Mr. Hug and Mrs. Feemster of course knew each other well.

"I am convinced she is the reason why many students, especially (but not exclusively) black students, walked across the stage to graduation," wrote school board member Angie Taylor in this newspaper after Mrs. Feemster died in 2018.

"If you missed too much school, she called. If you were struggling in school, she helped. If your struggle was at home, she served as mediator, negotiator and confidante," Rev. Dr. Taylor continued.

Long after her retirement, Hug educators often called her for help. Dolores' method of counseling emotional students can serve us all in this divisive era: "The louder they got, the softer I got. The louder, the lower. Pretty soon, they sat down and we started talking," she advised.

The door to her little house was always open. She told of occasional mornings when she would wake to find a wayward student sleeping on her living room sofa, knowing that Mother Feemster's was always safe haven.

Dolores Monica Mendocino was born in an Italian-American enclave of northeast Reno in 1929. Only the Reno-Sparks Convention Center had the capacity to hold her memorial service, after which the reception was held at the Hug High cafeteria, of course.

Among countless accolades, she was honored as mother of the year by the Reno Business and Professional Women's Club and with a University of Nevada President's Medal. Her name stands engraved on the school's wall of distinguished Nevadans.

The late journalist Dennis Myers wrote that Dolores "was a forceful presence in (the civil rights) movement and her house a center of activism. When Feemster was named in 1990 to the Nevada Women’s Hall of Fame, it was said of her, 'Community, education and children have been the center of Dolores Feemster’s life'." She rose to presidency of the NAACP in 1981.

In a Tuesday, May 12 online-only meeting, the Washoe school board will vote on re-naming the former Hug High as it transitions to become a technical/vocational academy. The additional distinguished candidates should have other schools named in their honor and we will support them. But old Hug should bear the name of this daughter of northeast Reno so that when students from that majority-minority part of the Truckee Meadows walk by, they can be inspired by her name and her exemplary life.

The school board allows e-mails in support and we encourage them, although lower-income communities (which pay a disproportionate share of school taxes) have the least Internet access. Please e-mail <publiccomments@washoeschools.net>

If you have no web access, you may also call (775) 747-0544 to leave your name and number in support and it will be forwarded.

Thank you.
___________________
Rev. Webb is Pastor Emeritus of Reno's Second Baptist Church. Attorney White's parents became the first non-African-American members of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and his mother, Helen Stewart, recruited her friend Dolores. Andrew Barbano is editor of NevadaLabor.com. All are longtime NAACP members.

Make Dolores Feemster's light shine brightly
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-6-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-7 & 5-9-2020 / Expansions in blue

History and chaos come together at next Tuesday's closed meeting of the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees.

In geologic or astrophysical time, it won't matter much. For the oppressed, it matters a bunch.

After deciding not to vote when they had four of seven votes in favor or re-naming the new Sutro Street technical school for the late, great Dolores Feemster, the board did nothing and sent the issue back to the school naming committee. (Barbwire 11-13-2019) Now, instead of playing to an overflow house, they will decide in an empty room. Bureaucracy means never having to say you're sorry.

The former Hug High School enveloped Dolores Feemster's life as much as she was part that of the school's entire history. Many of her children and grandchildren attended and she worked there as a counselor for 37 years. (A new high school, named for late educator Procter Hug, Sr., is being built at the Wildcreek Golf Course.)

Ever after her retirement, school officials sent students with problems down the street to Grandma Dolores' house for some TLC and kindly advice. As current trustee Rev. Angie Taylor noted, Mrs. Feemster's little dwelling became a community center.

Dolores and her son, the late Reno City Councilmember Darryl Feemster (1962-2017), sparked the construction of the northeast Reno Duncan-Traner Community Library. Her daughter-in-law, Dr. Debra Feemster, became Traner Middle School principal and was elected to the school board after retirement.

Dolores Monica Mendocino was born in an Italian-American enclave of northeast Reno in 1929, a short walk from where she lived until she died in 2018. Only the Reno-Sparks Convention Center had the capacity to hold her memorial service. (I know, because I surveyed all places of worship in these parts.) Former Hug High and NFL star Jojo Townsell asked all alumni to rise, then led the assembled multitudes in the Hug fight song. The after-service reception was, of course, held at the Hug cafeteria.

Dolores had boxes and boxes of plaques and trophies in her house. Her name is engraved on the University of Nevada wall of distinguished Nevadans and she also ascended to the presidency of the Reno-Sparks NAACP.

Three other names have been before the school board and all deserve high honor, perhaps on one of the new schools in the pipeline. But Dolores' time is now and the former Hug High is the place. The lion's share of Nevada school funding comes from sales taxes, the worst form of revenue because the lower your income, the higher percentage you pay.

As I told the school board last November, re-naming their new neighborhood tech school for anyone but Mother Dolores would be adding insult to injury. Northeast Reno has always been the heartland of the local ghetto/barrio. Its residents are largely lower income workers who pay a bigger chunk of their income in sales taxes than other areas of the Truckee Meadows.

I have tried and failed to get a number from the county health district regarding how many people in that area have died from the Coronavirus. (See below.)

WALLPAPER THE SCHOOL BOARD WITH SUPPORT. As noted above, the Tuesday May 12 meeting WILL NOT be open to the public and comments will only be taken online. (Citizens without computer access will thus be shut out.)

It didn't have to be that way. The school district gave up its own cable TV channel and will not even provide Zoom/Skype online interaction for public comments. The only way to view the closed meeting live will be via the school board's YouTube page. The meeting starts at 4:00 p.m PDT. School naming is agenda item No. 5.09. You may send e-mails during the meeting but I strongly advise voting early and often.

To send your support for Dolores to all seven school board trustees, please do so via both of these addresses: <Samantha.Fredrickson@washoeschools.net> or <publiccomments@washoeschools.net>. Trust me, volume of e-mails will have an impact in this detached environment.

You may also send in comments via the US Postal Service at P.O. Box 30425, Reno NV 89520 but do it NOW! Anything mailed after Saturday May 9 may not make it in time. Such communications are scanned and sent to the board and included as part of the comments received by email, according to school district spokesperson Victoria Campbell.

While names may be read into the record, comments will not. So those of you with computers, get to work. Households without, a stamp only costs 55 cents. Please do what you can and watch NevadaLabor.com for continuing updates.

If you have no web access, you may also call me at (775) 747-0544 to leave your name and number in support and it will be forwarded to the board. Again, if you e-mail, please send me a copy at <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Nevada's greatest journalist, former Tribunite Dennis Myers, wrote that Dolores "was a forceful presence in (the civil rights) movement — and her house a center of activism. When Feemster was named in 1990 to the Nevada Women’s Hall of Fame, it was said of her, 'Community, education, and children have been the center of Dolores Feemster’s life,' " stated our friend Dennis (1948-2019).

RUSSIAN ROULETTE. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Laurie Garrett has just become a Covid-19 superstar because of Sunday's New York Times Frank Bruni column.

Garrett's 1994 bestseller "The Coming Plague," accurately predicted what we are living thru and dying by today. She has become a modern-day Princess Cassandra and like the royal family of ancient Troy, our royals let that wooden horse into the city anyway and gutted our public health system in the process.

Noting the Coronavirus death count disparity between blacks and browns and the rest of society, Garrett called America's skyrocketing death toll predictable, preventable and understandable.

She noted that high blood pressure, which disproportionately affects lower-income people without health care access, is manageable "with a little patch on your arm." But our public health system lies in shambles and the result has been chaos, she told the PBS Newshour last Monday.

"We may see what collective rage looks like," she told The Times, adding "my event horizon (until the current crisis diminishes) is 36 months, and that's my best-case scenario."

Zounds.

I have been unable to get detailed local statistics about age and ethnic makeup of virus victims, but I am safe in stating that Washoe County deaths mirror national numbers. The county health department website is a wasteland for detailed information and its boss, Kevin Dick, just fired longtime epidemiologist Dr. Randall Todd. Go figger.

The recycled Hug High must become the shining symbol of hope on the hill for those who have paid the most for all the new schools and streets. To name it for anyone but Mother Dolores would stand as a constant reminder that no matter how hard you work, you don't count for as much because you're from the 'hood. Except you're allowed to pay higher taxes.

Please let Washoe County become a shining star of taking care of its people so that when the children of northeast Reno pass their new tech school at Sutro and N. McCarran, they may be inspired to do great things by looking up at Dolores Feemster's name

CHANGE THE DATE / SAVE THE DATE — Friday, October 23. For obvious reasons, I've moved César Chávez XVIII from March 31, the great labor leader's 93rd birthday. The event will be held at the Atlantis Resort, sponsored by Laborers' Union Local 169, the Reno-Sparks NAACP and the usual suspects. Doors open 5:30, dinner 6:30-ish. I don't know how I'll top my greatest hits of a cherried-out Aretha Franklin 1965 pink Cadillac convertible (with suitable live music) followed by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak with suitable politics, but I'm working on it. Ex-Tribunite Dennis Myers will become the first journalist inducted to the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. In addition to the HOF, nominations remain open for union organizer, employer and project of the year. Reservations at CesarChavezNevada.com/

This is the second time I've moved it and will do so again if necessary. I'm even shopping for union-made Christmas pIñatas. Maybe I can get one that looks like Mitch McConnell.

Be careful out there. Stay safe and take care of each other.