The PV Mascot Selection Committee shortened its list of mascot names from 11 to six after its fourth meeting Wednesday afternoon on Zoom. Committee student representative Delia Collis said that she is “excited” to narrow down the remaining mascot nicknames to three. 

“Not just as a member of the mascot committee, but as a member of the student body, I think we’re all excited to get a mascot and just slowly start fishing out [the nicknames] and growing pride in our mascot,” Collis said.

Although the meetings are not open to non-members or the press, organizers John Puccio, PV’s Assistant Principal, Shawn Buchanan, PV’s Athletics Director, committee representative Vasili Karalewich, and Collis made themselves available for questions afterward.

After discussing the results from a survey sent out to committee members last week, Buchanan will send out a separate survey to the committee this week in hopes of narrowing those six names down to three. 

“We’re getting a lot of participation [during the meetings], which is good,” Karalewich said. “People are coming to the meetings doing their own research saying, ‘Hey I saw something about this, is this a cause for concern?’ or, ‘Hey this school uses [this mascot]’ – so we’re getting a lot of participation.” 

The student representatives said the committee cannot reveal any suggested mascot names at this time. 

Although the date of the next committee meeting is yet to be determined, Collis said that the next meeting will be used to discuss the results of the second survey. While the student representatives hope to have the final three suggestions by the end of next week’s meeting, Collis noted that “anything can happen” during their next meeting.  

“We want to get down to those three names on that survey, and then talk about our path moving forward – [for example], how do we conduct the vote [with the student body], and should we list rationales for the vote? What are the pros and cons of doing that? [Figuring all of that out] is kind of our goal,” Karalewich said. 

According to Buchanan, there is a possibility that the student representatives will give an update to the Board of Education during a BOE meeting on Monday, Feb. 22.

The student representatives said they are looking forward to sharing the final three suggestions with the student body and the BOE. 

“I don’t think I’m too nervous [about sharing the mascot names with the BOE] because we have great representation from the school,” Karalewich said. “Almost every single club and sport, every single academic department [is represented] so I’m pretty confident.”