"Why would you want to be on the Boerne ISD?" queried a Cibolo Creek grade-schooler, participating Monday night in the BISD tradition of allowing visiting students to ask questions of the board at the meeting's opening.

Cliff Luttrell, BISD board president, fielded the question with a wry half-smile and replied, "That is a question I ask myself a lot lately."

The board faced a barrage of public comment Monday as six speakers took the microphone to plea for a change in board's decision on the naming of the district's new high school, scheduled to open in the fall of 2008.

Steve Champion, brother of the late Sam Champion, who is the namesake of the district's second high school, said it came as "a complete surprise" to the family when they learned that the school would not bear Champion's full name.

The board approved the name Boerne Champion High School in 2006 after months of deliberations and meetings with a school-naming committee comprised of citizens, school faculty and board members. A subsequent public poll determined which school would bear the name Boerne High School and which would be Boerne Champion.

After citing a letter to the editor by a member of the naming committee who wrote that she thought she had voted for Champion's entire name being used, Steve Champion said, "What we have here, board members, is a family that's confused, a member of the naming committee that's confused, ... and entire community that's confused."

He concluded his sometimes-tearful comments with, "Get this item back on the agenda and do the right thing."

Bill Fisher, a Boerne resident, father of four children, and president and CEO of Sysco Food Services, told the board, "I'm here because I'm very passionate about doing the right thing. To the board members that voted to name the school after Sam Champion, I applaud you."

To name the school after Champion, the board had to rescind its policy of not naming any facility after a living person. Champion was undergoing treatment for a recurrent brain tumor when the decision was made.

Fisher further commented, "Today this community is confused and concerned. I don't know all the dynamics. I do know there's a great concern in our community. Serving on the board I know has challenges and presents tough decisions. I make them every day. This is not one of them."

After the public comments, to which the board was precluded by bylaws from responding, Luttrell offered Champion's widow, Caroline, a public apology "for any offense given or taken" from his quote in an August issue of the San Antonio Express-News, in which Luttrell attributed her statements that she wished Sam Champion's name be used in full "or not at all" as the expressions of "a grieving widow."

"This is an issue that has not been dealt with lightly," Luttrell said of the naming process.

In other board business, a $500 pay hike was approved for all BISD employees.