ISLE OF WIGHT—When it opens in two years, the new Windsor Middle School will be named for a legendary educational leader in Isle of Wight County.

The Isle of Wight County School Board unanimously agreed to name the school after Georgie D. Tyler.

The name has significance to Windsor resident Samuel H. Duck, who attended the elementary school for black students that was named in her honor and opened in 1950 in the current Windsor Middle School building.

Duck graduated from the school in 1958 after it expanded to a high school in 1956. It was renamed Windsor Elementary School after integration in 1969.

“It brings back the legacy we once had,” he said. “The school having her name now means even more than it did the first time because we had to fight for it.”

Four residents spoke in favor of the name during a Thursday public hearing in front of a packed room.

“This is not a black issue, or a white issue, but the history of Isle of Wight County,” said Ben Rideout, a candidate for IOW Board of Supervisors in the Carrsville District. “We need to honor our black citizens and not only our white citizens. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Tyler began teaching in a one-room school in Isle of Wight County for $25 a month. Five years later she was appointed a supervisor in charge of visiting all of the county’s 27 schools that served black residents. She provided training and guidance to teachers, parents and children.