It was supposed to be a temporary gig.

However, four days into a substitute teaching job at Fulmore Middle School, on that rainy Thursday in 1964, Sarah Beth Lively declared to her husband: “I know what I want to do with the rest of my life, and I know where I want to do it.”

Lively spent the next 47 years at the Travis Heights school.

On Monday night, the Austin school board renamed Fulmore after the longtime educator. It’s the third school facility the district has renamed because of the namesake’s ties to the Confederacy.

The board voted 6-1-1, with Trustee Ann Teich voting against the measure and Trustee Jayme Mathias abstaining. Those attending the meeting, including all school board members, rose to their feet, applauding Lively for her service.

“It’s such a unique opportunity to provide this honor to someone who has had such ... a connection that spanned nearly five decades,” said Trustee Cindy Anderson. “There are not many Sarah Livelys of the world. We saw dozens upon dozens of letters and postcards from alumni, some of which we heard tonight, that spoke to how she changed the lives of her students. She taught them about advocacy and civil engagement and equity and inclusion and diversity. She really does epitomize the values of the district today.”

Lively, 85, taught at the school for 25 years, then volunteered daily for another 22 until 2012. About two dozen supporters, largely former students from the 1960s through the 1980s, showed up with hugs and roses and gathered around Lively, to show support for renaming the school for her.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said of her students’ efforts to rename the school for her. “They’re my children and I kept up with them. I know what kind of kids they had. Fulmore was a close-knit, multicultural place. I loved it.”

“It sounds trite, but she treated everyone the same,” said former student Derek Castillo. “She saw good in everyone, even the class clown or the guy who was the bully. Whoever it was, she found something to keep them engaged. She had the innate ability to find that in everyone.” Lively taught journalism, and Castillo said he became a television reporter because of her influence.

Former Austin school board Trustee Lori Moya, who served from 2006 to 2015, cried when she talked about Lively. “She changed my life,” Moya said.

“She empowered me and had confidence and faith in me, including when I was elected to the school board,” Moya said. “She’s a mentor and an amazing friend.”

The school, which offers a humanities and law magnet program, traces its origins to a single-room schoolhouse built in 1886. After a new, brick school building was built in 1911 — still part of the campus — the school was named for Zachary Taylor Fulmore, a 19th century Travis County judge and Austin school trustee who also had served as a private in the Confederate Army.

Trustees in 2016 voted to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary School, named after possibly the most famous Confederate, to Russell Lee Elementary, after a critically acclaimed Depression-era photographer.

The board in February pledged to rename all remaining facilities named for people with ties to the Confederacy, with the goal of having the new names in place by next year. Last month, trustees voted to rename the John T. Allan Building, formerly Allan Elementary, for Anita Ferrales Coy, who was principal at Allan and a district administrator. John T. Allan was an officer in the Confederate Army.

The school board is expected to consider renaming Reagan High School, named after Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan, early next year. It’s unclear whether Lanier High School, named after Confederate soldier and poet Sidney Lanier, will be renamed. Trustee Teich, who represents the area that includes Lanier, said she is against renaming any of the schools and will not bring Lanier up for a vote, which leaves the decision to pursue a name change to other board trustees.