A New Jersey school board member has proposed naming an elementary school after “true ally” Donald Trump because no one else would do.
In Colts Neck Township, about an hour south of New York City, Robert Scales on Wednesday asked for the school board to form a committee to look into renaming Conover Road Primary School after the man who once revealed how he loved the “poorly educated.”
According to NJ.com, Scales argued that while the state and county governments have let down the school district, the current president has not.
“What person is doing things that protects our school?” he said at the meeting, before criticizing the governor and county-level officials. “So when you think about the nation, the United States of America has a birthday coming up, and it’s 250 years, and I’ve been struggling, trying to figure out: how can our school really celebrate and promote that as well, too?”
“So, what I’d like to propose is to form an exploratory committee to rename the primary school, ‘Donald J. Trump Primary School,’” he said. “I think if we look at who our true ally is, and kind of who we’re modeling things after—the birthday of America—and someone who has contributed a great deal of time to this great town of Colts Neck, it would be our president.”
Scales describes himself as “committed to upholding the conservative values” of Monmouth County, which supported Trump with nearly 55 percent of the vote in 2024 to Kamala Harris’ 43 percent.
However, Scales’ effort to put the president’s name on yet another building may run into trouble if a 2009 school board policy is still in effect.
“Names selected to be applied to any facility or building shall be free from biases, prejudices, or political, and/or religious connotations,” it says, according to NJ.com. “In selecting a name for a school, the board shall consider the location, community, and local heritage.”
The school’s name is derived from deceased Colts Neck landowner Joseph Conover, whose estate named the school as a beneficiary, Superintendent MaryJane Garibay said at the hearing. The school bought playground equipment with those funds, she noted.
Scales’ idea may still find support among other school board members. School Board President Angelique Volpe said she and her husband, school board member Kevin Walsh, have extended an invitation to Trump to visit the district.
Walsh, according to his LinkedIn and Facebook profiles—the latter of which shows plenty of pro-Trump imagery—has been director of security at the Trump Organization since 2021.
Volpe said during Wednesday’s meeting that she and her husband had been lamenting the lack of schools named after Trump, compared to those bearing Barack Obama’s name. She added she had sent him a list, presumably to share with the administration.
Scales claimed there were “80″ such schools, but the Daily Beast has not been able to verify that tally.
Scales did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, nor did the White House.
Volpe and Walsh have had success with at least one Trump administration official when it came to securing a visit to Colts Neck. Last December, at Volpe’s request, Education Secretary Linda McMahon appeared at a middle school in the township as part of the Trump administration’s “History Rocks!” initiative.
The initiative, which is part of the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, includes a 50-state tour.
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