Are the Indians really retiring after all?

At the Board of Education’s meeting held at PV and on Zoom on Monday night, district Superintendent Erik Gundersen stated that he would inform the schools’ mascot selection committees that the Indians, Cowboys and Cowgirls all remain options, despite the announcement in June that the district’s “Indians” and “Cowboys” mascots would be retired.

“I don’t think the students believe that [the ‘Cowboys’ mascot] is an option that they are able to entertain, and this board wants me to make it very clear to both committees that Cowboys and Indians can be on the table,” Gundersen said.

According to Board Member Michael Fronte, the Board “rushed to judgement” on the retirement of Hills’ “Cowboys” mascot, and he believes that the Board potentially reconsidering its decision should be “communicated to the students.” 

“I think it was important [at the time] that we voted unanimously,” Fronte said. “[It was our] decision and we have to live with it. We made our calls and we stood by. We’re adults, I think we were a little hasty that night, but it’s in the past. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it. There’s no finger pointing here – we just are stronger and better.”

It was also brought up that Hills could implement a “Cowgirls” mascot for the school’s female sports teams, while keeping the “Cowboys” for the male teams.

“The gender part to me is important but I feel like [it is worth considering] how many boys would like to be called ‘Cowgirls’ – like if the name was changed to ‘Cowgirls’, would the boys [accept it]?” Freshman Allison Varghese said. 

Board Member Kristin Martin believes that the decisions should be left up to each school’s mascot selection committee due to the fact that the committees have already begun to meet.

The PV Mascot Selection Committee presented its first update to the BOE. PV seniors Delia Collis and Vasili Karalewich were the representatives. 

“During our meeting, we emphasized to each member to remember that privacy will be respected and needs to be respected in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for our members to share their views since we understand that this is such a sensitive topic,” Collis said.

Karalewich said that there are 68 students included in the discussion, and 15 coaches and teachers spread throughout all of the departments. Collis said that the next meeting, as of now, will take place in person on Jan. 21 at 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium. During the second meeting, Collis shared that the group will be narrowing down its mascot choices to three options.

“As a committee member, it is their responsibility to have discussions with their selective groups, and then to come together to choose a decision and nominate three names together. It’s not supposed to just be one person [choosing the mascot], but it’s supposed to be a representation from all of us,” Collis said.

During the presentation, Collis and Karalewich clarified that the committee meetings will only be used to discuss mascot choices, not logos.

“The mascot itself is different from the logo, so the mascot will be voted on first, and then we’ll go through a process with different renderings for that mascot, and then you’ll go through a similar process,” Gundersen said.