Mountain Lions to rule Kalispell Middle School

The Daily Inter Lake

It's officially official.

Mountain Lions will roam the hallways of Kalispell Middle School when the doors open on the expanded junior high building next fall.

And they will be decked out in green and orange, the school's new colors.

Kalispell trustees voted their approval Tuesday night of the student choice of a new mascot.

A committee composed of and run by students who will be the first to attend the middle school started out with 46 mascot suggestions and whittled them down to four - coyotes, badgers, mountain lions and monsters (referring to the legendary Flathead Lake Monster).

Schoolwide votes came up with the final choice: Mountain Lions.

The Mountain Lions won the school board's unanimous support.

Activity programs at the middle school will continue to operate under a no-cut policy, in which all students interested in any extracurricular activities will be able to participate. The school will back as many teams as necessary to accommodate the turnout each season.

In the sixth grade, basketball and volleyball will continue as Rotary programs and football will continue under the Little Guy Football organization.

The middle school next fall will include sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Kalispell Junior High currently has eighth and ninth grades.

In fall 2007, ninth grade will move to Flathead and Glacier high schools and sixth grade will move from elementary schools to the middle school.