CALUMET CITY | With the nation about to swear in its first African American president in January, a Calumet City resident said she thinks Hoover-Schrum Elementary District 157 should be the first to have Barack Obama's name on one of its school buildings.

Heather Ware approached the District 157 School Board with her idea last week and asked what needed to be done to get Hoover Elementary School's name changed.

D.157 Board President Natalie Barnes said she thinks the idea is "something we should give serious consideration to" and suggested Ware pursue it further.

"I didn't know what I expected, but I wasn't going to back down," Ware said. "I was happy to get the reception that I did."

Ware said she thinks most students who now attend Hoover School likely do not know anything about Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president for whom the building is named, She suggests Barack Obama Academy would be a more fitting moniker especially since the senator is from Illinois.

But former D.157 school board President John Link, a 32-year Calumet City resident, said he thinks it would be disrespectful to have the former president's name removed and replaced with someone else's.

"We've already established that honor, he's earned that," Link said, adding there may be a financial burden for the district to change stationery, signs, and other items with the school's name.

He said he thinks it's "premature" to name a school after Obama. However, Link suggested the district might want to consider affixing Obama's name to the school media center, the administration building, or the entire district office and Hoover School site The Barack Obama Campus.

"(Obama) is a positive family man with strong values and these are all things we are trying to teach our children," said Ware whose daughter attends fifth grade at Hoover. "A great deal of children would really love to have that name on that school."

A nine-year Calumet City resident and Obama campaign worker, Ware said she sent e-mail messages about her school name change proposal to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, state Rep. Constance "Connie" Howard, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush. She also plans to contact Gov. Rod Blagojevich about the idea as well.

Calling the effort "a labor of love," Ware said she will follow up with phone calls and will also start talking to some other D.157 parents to get some "general feedback."

Ware said she wants to pursue the name change proposal now "while the iron is hot."

"Right now, if we go forth we might have the advantage," she said.