And then there were three

School board narrows list for Glacier High mascot - again

The Glacier High Wolfpack is still in the hunt.

But now, the Bears and the Wolverines have been added to the short list of final recommendations for the new Glacier High School mascot.

And if the school board decides next Wednesday night that it can go along with these three, the Bears, Wolverines and Wolfpack are up for a vote by students in the coming weeks.

That, at long last, will be the final word on how to represent Kalispell's newest high school when it opens in fall 2007.

It will be the culmination of a process begun with a lively public-input round this fall and kicked into gear when the mascot-naming committee met Oct. 17. But what was expected to be a fun, friendly - and quick - decision has turned into an extended debate about political correctness.

When the committee picked the Avalanche, Wolverines and Wolfpack as the top three candidates for a school board vote on Nov. 8, Wolfpack emerged as a slim favorite among the trustees.

But it raised enough hackles that they decided to leave it out in the community for another 30 days' worth of mulling over.

During that next month, it raised a howl in the community.

By the time the board reconvened for its first meeting in December, the waters still were murky enough that they referred it back to committee.

Finally, at the board's Dec. 21 work session, District 5 Superintendent and committee Chairwoman Darlene Schottle outlined a plan for the committee to revisit the top dozen or so suggestions from the community-input process. Those would be weighed against the original criteria - local tie-in, uniqueness among Class AA and nearby schools and universities, concrete image, marketability, and gender and political neutrality. They also would be held up against comments from the prior month.

The top three or four ideas were to come back to the board. If they could be happy with any of the final choices, trustees would send it on for a vote by students. Their choice would return for the board's official ratification.

Trustees, who said that they have bigger fish to fry, liked Schottle's plan and gave marching orders for the mascot decision to be made once and for all.

This past Wednesday night, the committee dispatched its duties. After discussion, committee members forwarded the Wolverines, Wolfpack and Bears as suitable mascots.

"Those three were the ones that had the most presentable mascot," Schottle reported Thursday. "They gave from (the committee's) perspective the most options to students for symbols and cheers and logos."

What she called the mascots' "energetic appeal" also went up against community sentiment.

"(Committee members) were aware and understood that there were some political implications for some or all of the names," she added. "But they felt the other criteria outweighed the other concerns expressed by what's not an overwhelming part of our community."

Now, trustees weigh in on the acceptability.

If all three pass muster, students eligible to attend Glacier High - the current populations at West Valley, Helena Flats, Evergreen, Olney/Bissell, Russell, Edgerton, Linderman and Kalispell Junior High - will cast their votes on those three.

Trustees have agreed that, whether they all like it or not, they will accept the students' decision.

Then they'll fry those bigger fish.