Mascot decision left to students

Trustees limit Glacier choices to Wolfpack, Wolverines and Bears

A clear choice should emerge on a Glacier High School mascot in the next couple weeks, when future Glacier High students vote for their favorite.

Kalispell school trustees gave their blessings Wednesday night to the mascot-naming committee's top three recommendations: The Bears, the Wolverines and - once again - the Wolfpack.

They can live with any of those, they decided somewhat reluctantly. Whatever the students pick will be the one that the school board adopts.

Then, most importantly, they all agreed, they can move on to much weightier issues wrapped around the fall 2007 opening of the new high school north of town.

Sixth-graders from all city and rural elementary schools which are to feed into the Glacier High School district will be in on the vote - possibly conducted by Jan. 20 and tallied by Jan. 27 - as will seventh- through ninth-graders.

Seventh- and eighth-graders from the rural schools should be included, most agreed. But how to pull out only those seventh- through ninth-graders at Linderman and Kalispell Junior High temporarily stumped Superintendent Darlene Schottle and the board. Possibly, she speculated, all students in those grades should be included, whether they will attend Flathead or Glacier.

The school board voted Wednesday to open Glacier High with freshmen, sophomores and juniors, then add seniors beginning in fall 2008.

It's the second go-round in picking a mascot.

A month ago, the committee brought on a firestorm of protest when it recommended the Glacier High Wolfpack. Trustees did not formally reject that suggestion, but they voted not to accept it and instead sent it back to committee.

In a revamped process, committee Chairwoman Schottle reconvened the 10-member mascot committee of five students and five adults.

Members reconsidered the top dozen or so mascot suggestions, measuring each against a list of criteria. Two of those criteria were to not duplicate the mascot of another Class AA school and to not tread on politically sensitive ground, the bullet that shot down their support of the Wolfpack.

Based on those two, a couple of trustees said, Bears and Wolfpack should be tossed out.

Billings West High School students are known as the Golden Bears, and Helena Capital teams are the Bruins.

"How did we get Bears when we have two other AA's with bears?" trustee Mary Ruby asked.

Activities Director and committee participant Mark Dennehy was on hand to explain that "Golden" always has been an integral part of the Billings "Bears" mascot, and that "Bruins" is easily distinguishable from "Bears."

And Wolfpack conjured up all sorts of negative opinions in the community, including ranchers who suffer wolf attacks on their livestock and World War II buffs who reminded the school of Nazi submarine fleets known as wolf packs.

Drawing an analogy about how youthful tastes can change across time, board Chairman Don Murray said that the mascot students pick this year might become anathema to them as they mature.

"Are we simply abdicating our responsibility, (handing a decision over) to the kids?" Murray asked. If the Wolfpack was political poison before, he questioned how the school and community would receive it if the students' choose it.

"I'm not critical of the committee, but if we are willing to send the Wolfpack back out then we'd better be willing to accept it," Murray said. "Why shouldn't we just do it now, which was our original protocol?"

Colleen Unterreiner followed the reasoning.

"I like it that now we have three choices," Unterreiner said. "Or maybe we should just take if off the kids' heads and make a decision tonight. Two of the names don't meet the criteria … but Wolverines do."

The board recognized, however, that the promise to the community for a student vote needs to be honored.

"If we really believe this is taking too much of our time," trustee Ivan Lorentzen pushed for a decision, "then let's do it and move on … I would be as pleased as anything if it were the Wolfpack or the Bears or the Wolverines."

All agreed, but two were dissatisfied with the process.

"I am very disappointed with the committee's thought process. They just seemed to throw the criteria out the door," trustee Mark Lalum said. "Still, we'll go with it and do the best we can. But it put us in a real tough spot."

"I agree with Mark," trustee Anna Marie Bailey said. "I think it's kind of a slap in the face."

When Bailey called for the motion, the vote was three opposed (Bailey, Lalum and Unterreiner) and eight in favor.