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The Wichita school board has approved recommendations to name three school buildings.
The new southeast quadrant K-8 school will be named Christa McAuliffe Academy. McAuliffe was a high school history teacher from Concord, New Hampshire. She was one of 11,000 applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space program. She died January 28th, 1986 when the Challenger exploded after launch. McAuliffe's motto was "Reach for the Stars."
The new Lewis/South Elementary will be named James Enders Elementary School. Enders was a social studies and physical education teacher in Wichita Schools and was known as "coach" by many. He began teaching in 1961 at Roosevelt Jr. High School. He moved to Truesdell Middle School in 1964 and retired in 1991. He died in 2010.
The former Northeast Magnet High School building will be renamed Chester I. Lewis Academic Learning Center. Lewis was a state and national leader in the civil rights movement. He helped initiate the Dockum Drug Store sit-in in 1958. He also helped with the integration of the Wichita Public Schools. He died in 1990.