Anchorage Daily News

The new East Anchorage middle school will bear Congressman Nick Begich's name, the Anchorage School Board decided Monday night.

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Nick Begich came to Alaska as an educator in 1956.

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Supporters said giving the school Begich's name was the right thing to do: When junior and high schools stopped sharing buildings more than 20 years ago, Begich Junior High left Bartlett High and went away. The idea was a new middle school would be named for Begich someday, supporters said.

"I was a member of the School Board when this issue arose," Carol Stolpe testified. "It is my clear recollection that the conversation at the very table at which you are sitting ... was that there would be a school named for Representative Begich."

Begich came to Alaska in 1956 to teach and worked in education before taking on politics in 1963. He vanished in 1972 during a plane trip from Anchorage to Juneau. He left behind a wife and six children, including Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Four of his other children attended Monday's meeting, and three testified, including Nichelle Begich Mauk, who was just 14 when her father died. The mayor did not attend.

"My father believed in the power of education, the power to take anyone anywhere they wanted to go," Mauk said. "Naming the new middle school for a man who championed education for all is the right thing to do."

Of 500 school name nominations from the community, more than half were for Begich. The runner-up with more than 80 votes was Sheri Stears, the popular, effective principal of Clark Middle School and long-time gymnastics coach who died in 2002.

Ron Fuhrer worked with Stears at Clark, and suggested the new school be called Stears-Begich Middle School as a compromise. That would honor the pledge to the Begich family while also recognizing Stears, a woman who "reversed a challenged school, student achievement, and staff morale," Fuhrer said.

Many schools in Anchorage are named after places or neighborhoods, and Superintendent Carol Comeau said she'd support changing some of those so they are named after important Alaskans. Some board members responded enthusiastically to that, including president Jeff Friedman.

"When we have important people who have enriched our lives so much, we shouldn't be forgetting them," Friedman said. "It would be really nice to have three or four schools to name tonight, but when we can only name one, I'm just happy to finally get to vote for Congressman Begich."

Nicholas Joseph Begich Middle School will open in fall 2007 and enroll approximately 1,100 students in grades six through eight.

Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.