MADISON, Wis. -- West Side parents are gathering signatures on petitions requesting that the Madison School Board reconsider the name of the city's new elementary school.

The board voted to name the school after Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao.

Pao lead CIA-supported Hmong forces who fought beside U.S. troops in Vietnam. A few years ago, Hmong protested a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor's book that claims Pao was involved in drug trafficking and war crimes.

Two parents who will send their children to the new school when it opens will present petitions to the school board on Monday night, WISC-TV reported.

"This is not an ethnocentrism issue. This is about the credentials and the history of Gen. Vang Pao, the man himself," said Danny Thomas, a parent who is collecting signatures.

Heidi Reynolds, the petition's organizer and a mother of two children who will attend the new school, said she feels the board isn't listening to the community's concerns.

"It's frustrating because it doesn't feel like the school board that we elected is even taking the community at large into effect. And I don't want my kids to learn about a man who was a drug-runner and has all these controversial issues," Reynolds said.

The school board is expected to review bids for the school on Monday night. It will be built west of Highway M and north of Hawks Landing.

Madison School Board President Johnny Winston Jr. refused a request for an interview with WISC-TV. He wouldn't say if he is open to revisiting the school name.

Board member Lucy Mathiak said that she has heard little opposition to the name. Veteran board member Carol Carstensen didn't return calls from WISC-TV, but she has said that the board should at least take a look at the allegations against Pao.