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This September, Spalding High School will be renamed in honour of former principal Alphansus Davis, who served in the post for 28 years.

According to Paul Lee, chairman of the school board, he fully supports the name change, while stating that the retired principal has given the Clarendon school a facelift.

"Myself and the board absolutely support this name change. Consultation was made with the entire community including the stakeholders and the past students. The era of Mr Davis changed the mindset of the country on a whole as to how they view the secondary schools. As a youngster growing up, if you should pass to go to Spalding Secondary School, it was sort of a shame. Mr Davis, during his tenure, changed that and changed the whole profile of the school," he said. The school opened its doors in 1973.

Quickly consented

According to Lee, the recommendation for renaming the school in honour of Davis was made by Member of Parliament Richard Azan.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness quickly consented and directed Azan to write to the minister of education to formalise the move.

Lee continued to shower the retired principal with praises.

"The infrastructural development that took place during his tenure would have contributed towards the changing of the minds of persons on how they view the school. He also changed the mindset of teachers and prinicipals of other secondary schools, because for a while, the teachers who taught at secondary schools thought they were not on par with the traditional ones," Lee said.

"The preservation of the Alpansus Davis School can be very benefical. This story can be told and perhaps in the future, the school can turn this into an economic activity where youngsters can come and tour the school and learn about its history," he added.

Davis, who also served as senior adviser to Prime Minister Andrew Holness when he was Education Minister, was also named as chairman of the Teachers' Services Commission (TSC), which resulted in a long and intense stand-off with the Jamaica Teachers' Association.

This took the intervention of then Prime Minister Bruce Golding which resulted in Davis relinquishing his position as adviser to Holness to clear the way for his appointment as TSC head.