Olympia students are campaigning to rename Stevens Field for beloved teacher
Among the attendees at Tuesday's Olympia City Council meeting was a group of fifth graders from Lincoln Elementary. Their goal? Take the first steps to get the city's Stevens Field renamed in honor of former teacher Randy Edwards.
Stevens Field, Olympia's first ball field, sits south of Lincoln Elementary in the South Capitol neighborhood.
The name Stevens Field commemorates Washington's first governor, Isaac Stevens, and his son, Hazard Stevens, but students said in public comment that Governor Stevens' violent legacy should not be celebrated. They said the city should consider a new name — one that recognizes a local teacher, coach, and mentor who made an impact on generations of Olympia youth.
While the idea to rename Stevens Field began with Lincoln Elementary volunteer Jan Rocks, students at Lincoln have taken the lead to petition the city and school board to rename the field.
Rocks said, 'This project is now a kid project.'
According to Michael Stine, who teaches fourth and fifth grade at Lincoln, the school's theme for the year is community.
'In our classroom, we decided to pursue advocacy in community, so we started learning about, first of all, identity and advocacy in general,' he said. 'I broached the idea of the park project to the kids, and they were really enthusiastic because they use the field.'
From there, students learned about how parks are renamed from Olympia parks staff. They examined how Priest Point Park was recently renamed Squaxin Park and split into teams to work on presentations for their classmates, outreach to the neighbors, and public comments for the city council and school board.
Born into a New England family, Isaac Stevens graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He fought in the Mexican-American War where he developed ties with then-brigadier general Franklin Pierce.
Following Pierce's ascension to the presidency, he proclaimed Stevens as the first governor of Washington Territory. Here, Stevens led from 1857 to 1861 when he was summoned back to the battlefield during the Civil War.
Stevens is often remembered for his leadership in the Union Army, but his influence on Washington state and its Indigenous communities continues to raise concerns.
'During the beginning of Stevens' time serving as governor, Stevens got mad that the Native Americans were living near the citizens of Olympia,' one student told the city council. 'In his anger, Stevens used his power to get the chief of Nisqually executed.'
In addition to the execution of Chief Leschi, students said Governor Stevens forged deceptive treaties with the Nisqually Tribe, forcing them to cede their land and rights to his government. They also said Stevens illegally declared martial law during the Yakima War and pardoned himself after facing legal consequences.
Despite Governor Stevens' troublesome legacy, the park has honored him and his son for over a century. Acquired in 1921 by former Olympia Mayor George Mills, the field was named after Stevens and his son, Hazard Stevens, who the land was purchased from. Mills then sold the field to the Olympia School District for $6,000. It has since been home to the Olympia Bears and other local teams under the school district's ownership.
'If we called it Edwards Field, we'd be saying thank you to someone who meant a lot to our community as a teacher, coach and referee,' another student said in a public comment.
Known as 'Randy' and 'Mr. E' to most, Edwards taught fourth and fifth grade at Lincoln Elementary for 40 years, between 1969 and 2009, but even in retirement, he volunteered and coached throughout the community.
He worked as a P.E. teacher through Olympia Regional Learning Academy for 10 years after retirement. He served as a coach and president of the Little Baseball Association, and coached baseball and softball for Olympia High School and South Puget Sound Community College. He passed away in 2022.
'When he coached, he was about sportsmanship, letting every kid try every position on the baseball field,' said his son, Ben Edwards. 'You know, it doesn't matter if it wasn't necessarily their strength. If they wanted to try it, that's what it was about.'
Ben Edwards shared an excerpt from an eighth-grade project a former student created about Mr. E.
'He's my hero on levels as simple as helping me out on the first day of school, to things as large as teaching after his open-heart surgery and showing me what school could be like,' the student wrote.
Though community members and former students shared fond memories of Mr. E's leadership, there is still a ways to go before the field can officially adopt a new name.
While city council members voiced their support for the students' campaign, Mayor Pro Tempore Yen Huynh said, 'How do we get to a point where we don't accidentally rename something after someone and later find out maybe there's these less-than-nice things they've done.'
Huynh said the city is working on a process for renaming facilities such as public parks.
In the meantime, Stine and his students plan to continue their advocacy by speaking at the school board meeting on June 12 and sharing the campaign with the community.
'Trying to get more adults involved, reaching out to South Capitol Neighborhood Association and hopefully getting them on board, that's really the next step,' Stine said.
Ben Edwards said his family is grateful for this effort.
'Our family is touched that Michael's class would advocate to change the name of the field in honor of a man who dedicated a large part of his life to the youth in our community.'
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Wood, Wrench and Alcala emphasized that they want to offer a younger perspective to Congress than Collins. Calabrese is more so focused on the length of time Collins has held office. He said he'd only serve up to two terms if elected. 'I think it's time for some people — I mean we're not Middle America but Middle America-thinking people — who understand what's going on boots on the ground to get involved,' he said. Both parties have grown more ideologically cohesive creating a political environment that's less hospitable for lawmakers who straddle the center — now a rarity in Congress. Collins became a more reliable vote for her party during Trump's last presidency compared to her track record before. In 2017, 87% of her votes were party-line. This was a shift, as Congressional Quarterly found between 1997 and 2016 that she voted with her party on party-line votes only 59% of the time. But last year, she bucked her party the most out of all senators. An analysis from Roll Call found Collins sided with Republicans 47.8% of the time in 2024, although largely because of her votes in favor of President Joe Biden's nominees. Her level of bipartisanship fluctuates depending on the measure, but she remains a rarity in the Trump era, neither endorsing the president nor fully turning her back on him. 'I don't want to say she's on the outside of her own party, but to a certain extent she is,' said Mark Brewer, chair of the political science department at the University of Maine. Fewer people are running, and succeeding, with bipartisan campaigns. However, the success of Collins, the only senator from her party representing a state Trump lost in 2024, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in the second district — which also went for Trump — exemplifies that Maine is still holding onto that tradition, Brewer said. Bennett's career as a prominent bipartisan voice is another example, Brewer added. 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'The fact that Trump is taking money away from Mainers, whether they're Republican, liberal, what have you, the fact that he's doing that means that we can't rely on the current government that we have.' On the other hand, Calabrese said if elected he would help codify many of Trump's executive orders into law. He commended Trump's approach to immigration policy. 'All this illegal immigration that's one thing that I totally agree with him on,' he said. He also supports Trump's push to make the U.S. a global leader in Artificial Intelligence and the cuts made by his Department of Government Efficacy. Calabrese said, 'the President is not a king,' noting that he'd try to tow the line between helping the president follow through with his plans while still respecting the balance of power. However, Calabrese said, 'If he needs to take his executive orders to the Supreme Court, well that's the checks and balances.' When it comes to the Supreme Court, Rench was also motivated to run because of Collins' pivotal vote that helped seat Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 'I have a nine year old daughter and after Sen. Collins, in my opinion, enabled the reversal of Roe vs. Wade,' Rench said, 'I no longer trust her with my daughter's future.' Collins voted for Kavanaugh after she said he gave her private assurances he wasn't a threat to the landmark abortion ruling that he later voted to overturn. Early surveys show the senator with much lower favorability than ever before. A poll from Morning Consult found that since last quarter, Collins' net approval declined by 12 percentage points — more than that of any other senator. According to the poll, 51% of Maine voters disapprove of Collins, down from 47% at the end of last year. A big part of Collins' problem is that when it comes to Trump her approach is just antagonizing everyone. – Public Policy Polling Another poll commissioned by a top Democratic super PAC shows Collins is being pinched on both sides. 'A big part of Collins' problem is that when it comes to Trump her approach is just antagonizing everyone,' the pollster wrote in a memo. The survey of 569 registered Maine voters showed 81% of voters who supported Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris think the senator votes with Trump too often and 73% of Trump voters think she doesn't vote with Trump often enough. Only 10% think she's striking the right balance. But on Monday, Pan Atlantic Research released its latest independent Omnibus Poll capturing the opinions of 840 likely voters and found close to an even split between those who find Collins favorable or unfavorable, similar to its polling in September. 'A year and a half out from Election Day, it's far too early to poll right now,' Kernan, Collins' spokesperson, said. Pollsters have gotten Collins wrong before. The day before the election in 2020, Maine Senate polls showed Collins' Democratic opponent Gideon ahead by six points. Collins went on to win by almost 9%. Some speculate she appealed to undecided voters in the end and that pollsters underestimated that Mainers would split tickets. Wood noted that Collins voted against Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett right before the 2020 election. 'It was a reminder that she has a tendency to be independent sometimes and there was a hope that she could be a catalyst in some way for a post-Trump Republican Party, that was the Republican Party they grew up with,' Wood said of voters. 'That did not come to fruition. I think that voters now have a much clearer understanding of the threat in front of us.' But beyond this race, pollsters across the country failed in 2020, as well as in 2016, to accurately capture the zeitgeist, particularly for working class voters in rural areas. When it comes to Collins' continued independent, deliver-for-Maine pitch, Brewer said, 'I think it's going to be harder for her to do that, to run that kind of campaign. It doesn't mean that she can't pull it off.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
