The name Johns Hopkins Elementary School, which can be seen on the campus, has been changed to Johnston-Hopkins Elementary School. The sign will be corrected.

The school formally known as Johns Hopkins Elementary is now officially Johnston-Hopkins Elementary School, after Wednesday’s unanimous vote by the Iberia Parish School Board.

The name of the newly built school, which consolidated Johnston Street and Hopkins elementary schools, became an issue this summer after The Daily Iberian sent an inquiry to Johns Hopkins University concerning trademark infringement.

Iberia Parish School Board administrators were contacted in July by the Baltimore university’s legal counsel requesting that the name be changed.

The new “Johnston-Hopkins” title was recommended by the School Board’s lawyer Wayne Landry, who had been in correspondence with Philip Roberts, the university’s associate general counsel.

Landry initially sent Roberts a letter that proposed dropping the “s” and changing the school’s name to John Hopkins Elementary. In a letter dating Oct. 18, Roberts replied that the university was “not comfortable” with that proposal.

“JHU feels that the proposed change would do little to dissipate any likelihood of confusion regarding the lack of connection between our respective institutions particularly given the JHU, through its School of Education, operates an elementary school which employees the ‘Johns Hopkins’ name,” according to the letter.

Roberts, however, also said the university had “no objection” to the “Johnston-Hopkins Elementary” title because of its connection with the “actual name history associated with the school and sufficient distinctness from the Johns Hopkins name under the circumstances to avoid a likelihood of confusion.”

Landry told the School Board the new title would cause the “least amount of inconvenience” and was less costly.

Replacing the lettering on the sign in front of the school property would be the only necessary alteration, Iberia Parish Superintendent of Schools Dale Henderson said.

The estimated cost to change the sign would be under $2,000, Iberia Parish School Board Maintenance supervisor Harry Lopez said.

District 1 School Board member Clara Carrier had selected the original title of the elementary school, which opened in January.

“I’m glad to see us getting to the bottom of this finally because I’m the one that started this with the Johns Hopkins name,” she told the board Wednesday.

District 6  Board member Kenneth Lockett said he would vote in support of the title change, but only if it was based on a staff recommendation not the university’s attempt to “dictate” School Board decisions.

“Wayne, if this is your recommendation, I’m OK with it, but I’m not inclined to let them tell us what we are going to name our school,” Lockett said.

Landry said Johnston-Hopkins Elementary was one of several other original title options other than Johns Hopkins Elementary that were offered last year.

“I don’t think its a matter of inclined, I don’t we should have ever named the school that in the first place,” Landry said.

District 8 member Ed Buford said the motive behind combining the names “Johnston” and “Hopkins” was to satisfy the generations of alumni who attended both schools.

“That was the important thing,” Buford said. “This still gives us the opportunity to do that.”

In other business Wednesday, the board:

• Unanimously approved selling the vacant Peebles Elementary property on Weeks Island Road for $50,100, which is 74 percent of the property’s appraised value. The property’s buyer, New Iberia resident Tony Alleman, offered the highest of three “acceptable” bids that started at $25,000.

• The School Board approved also a resolution declaring November as Veterans’ Month.