Monday’s deadline to submit mascot suggestions for Maine School Administrative District 54 is fast approaching.
On Wednesday, Assistant Superintendent Jon Moody confirmed that the school has received more than 1,500 suggestions. Forms are available online and in paper form at district schools, town offices and libraries across the district, which includes the towns of Canaan, Cornville, Mercer, Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Smithfield.
“I do not want to hear after the fact that people didn’t have the time to vote,” board Chairperson Lynda Quinn has said.
Superintendent Brent Colbry has said that he expects duplicate suggestions among the 1,500 submissions, but the process will not be weighted, so multiple submissions will be counted only as one.
The SAD 54 board of directors voted 14-9 on March 7, 2019, to “respectfully retire” the nickname “Indians” for all schools in the district.
Two school board committees, the Support Services Committee and the Education Policy and Programming Committee, will then review the suggestions, with each committee bringing five options forward for consideration.
Students in grades six through 12 will then be given an opportunity to provide feedback on the options the committees present them.
After the students weigh in, the committees will reconvene to review the feedback before making a final recommendation to the MSAD 54 school board, which will then vote on the finalists.
It is still unclear how long the rest of the selection process will take, according to Colbry, who suggested the board tackle the process “in chunks.” If a new mascot is selected, it will be implemented for the 2020-21 school year.
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