Update: I ended up going with this:
begin program.
import spss, spssaux
import os
schoollist = ['brow']
for x in schoollist:
school = 'brow'
school2 = school + '06.sav'
#opens the file
filename = os.path.join("Y:\...\Data", school2) #In this instance, Y:\...\Data\brow06.sav
spssaux.OpenDataFile(filename)
#creates the variable
cur=spss.Cursor(accessType='w')
cur.SetVarNameAndType(['name'],[8])
cur.CommitDictionary()
for i in range(cur.GetCaseCount()):
cur.fetchone()
cur.SetValueChar('name', school)
cur.CommitCase()
cur.close()
spss.Submit("""save outfile="%s".""" % filename)
end program.