Mascot vote causes color controversy

Salem Editor — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:09:00 GMT

They want to keep Windham “green and growling.”

Several Windham youths are calling on the School Board to allow students to have a “new and fair” vote to choose the school colors and mascot for the town’s new high school.

They have put out petitions that call for students to select either the jaguar or wildcat as their mascot and to choose blue and gold or green and gold as the colors.

They are taking their case to the School Board at its Tuesday, Aug. 7, meeting, and they have made their preference known: the wildcat, along with green and gold.

“It may seem insignificant to people ... but it is (significant),” teacher Joani Matthews told the board last month. “It’s all part of pride and spirit. I think it has a big impact on these kids. I think it will help if we entertain the idea of taking a new vote.”

The students are having T-shirts printed to promote their cause and are encouraging supporters to wear green at the meeting.

“It’s the one piece of the school they have a say in,” said Cindy Hastings, whose sons and their friends are leading the effort.

If the students ultimately prevail, they will have changed the outcome of a student vote taken in 2005 that selected blue and gold and the jaguar.

It was a process some claim was flawed: two pairs of colors included green, so the “green vote” was split, allowing the ballot’s third choice, blue and gold, to win.

Likewise, they argue, the jaguar won because two other choices – the wolverine and the wildcat – both begin with W. People like mascots that begin with the same letter as their town and the “W vote” was divided, they feel.

According to former Windham Middle School principal Steve Plocharczyk, the school’s original colors are green and white.

Over time, gold was added to uniforms, and in roughly the past 15 years, the school has been using green and gold.

In a letter from eighth-grader Chip Hastings that another student read to the School Board, Chip said that younger students, who are less likely to know about the tradition of school colors, were given an equal say in what the high school’s colors
should be.

Chip wrote that kids don’t want blue because it’s used by many other area high schools. Older students, he said, want to continue with the green-and-gold tradition.

More than 700 people signed a petition in June for green and gold that Chip started.

Chip’s brother Max, 9, helped collect more than 400 signatures from people who prefer keeping the tradition of the wildcat.

Some School Board members also believe the process leading up to the 2005 vote was flawed.

Beth Valentine said she favored redoing the process to choose colors.

“It clearly is a very important issue for the kids,” Valentine said. “If it doesn’t cost us more, if it doesn’t affect our schedule ... I think we should not change the decision, but very quickly put together a group to redo the vote.”

Glen Davis, the school district’s representative to the high school building project, told the board a change in colors would have to be done soon because the color scheme is embedded in plans for the building.

“I’m not telling you it’s too late, but I’m saying you have a short window of time here,” Davis said. “You need to do this quickly.”

Only Valentine and Al Letizio, Jr., supported reconsidering the board’s previous adoption of the colors.

Beverly Donovan, Barbara Coish and Bruce Anderson voted against doing so.

Donovan said the schools are so busy a new vote probably couldn’t be done until the second month of school. She also argued that revoting isn’t fair to the kids who were happy with the outcome.

“I think it sends the wrong message,” she said.

Coish said she didn’t want to see members of a high school committee redo its work, and believed that when students reach high school, they will love its colors.

“When you get in there, what’s going to make Windham High School is you,” Anderson told the students. “It’s not going to be the colors you wear. It’s going to be the attitude you project, the work you do, the sportsmanship you show on the field, and what you’ve achieved.”

Windham News : mascot

Mascot vote causes color controversy