Help pick mascot for new school
If you were a mascot at Glacier High School, what would you be?
And what colors would you wear?
Kalispell school trustees are asking people to give it some thought during conversations with friends and family over the next few weeks.
"It was a game in the car to come up with the name" of the school, District 5 trustee Colleen Unterreiner said. "This will be a game in the car, too."
That "game" will involve coming up with a permanent identity for the 1,200 or so students who will call Glacier High their academic and athletic home after the new school opens its doors in fall 2007.
The school board wants the entire community to take the game seriously and get involved now to help choose the school's mascot and colors.
It worked like a charm in naming Glacier High School.
Then, trustees asked people in the district to log onto the school Web site with suggestions, and by early February were deluged with ideas for a naming committee to sift through.
At a regular school board meeting Tuesday evening, District 5 Superintendent Darlene Schottle suggested following the same format.
While community suggestions are coming in, Schottle will form a committee of representatives from the outlying elementary districts that will send students to Glacier High (Olney/Bissell, West Valley, Evergreen and Helena Flats), one student each from Flathead High, Kalispell Junior High and Linderman, Flathead's athletic director and a representative of either Swank Enterprises or CTA Architects/Engineers.
She hopes to hold the initial meeting by the first of October.
Over the space of six weeks or so, Schottle plans to convene the committee three times to develop a suggestion for trustee action.
In the early going, the committee will develop a list of criteria. Popularity of a suggestion will be only one of several tests the mascot and colors must pass.
Trustees are excited about the potential for getting people on board with the schools.
"This is not the most important decision we will make," trustee Tony Dawson said in arguing for the final decision to be saved for the school board. "But it's an opportunity to get some PR, build the excitement and get some involvement."
He envisions a student assembly to let them share ownership and be connected to the process. Schottle said she could ask each rural school representative to bring along a student to help with committee work.
Trustee Eve Dixon argued for extending participation beyond the committee membership and to the whole community. Board members agreed downtown community members would be invited into the process.
Her colleague Brad Walterskirchen called it "a huge opportunity for marketing" and getting folks to back the schools.
Trustee Ivan Lorentzen advised against "asking the wrong questions" in seeking mascot and color suggestions. "We don't want to have winners and losers," he said.
Across the table, Anna Marie Bailey echoed support for the marketing opportunity and for bringing the decision back to the board.
"We also just passed the bond" with a popular vote last November, Bailey said, and approved the final issue of bonds earlier in Tuesday's meeting. "So everybody in the community should take part in this, because they are paying for it."
Although mascot and color ideas were not solicited back in February, several choice ones came in - including the Wolfpack, Avalanche, Bighorns, Lions, Magic and, of course, the ever-popular Fighting Marmots.
Still like them? Have something better?
Now's the time for the next set of big ideas - and the rationale behind them.
Go online to register your suggestion at www.yournewschool.com
Or pick up a suggestion form at the District 5 superintendent's office, 233 First Ave. E. in Kalispell; phone the district office at 751-3434; or e-mail schottled@sd5.k12.mt.us
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com