The PV Mascot Selection Committee has narrowed down its list of mascot names from 53 to “10 to 15 names” after holding its third meeting Wednesday afternoon in PV’s auditorium and on Zoom, according to committee student representative Vasili Karalewich. 

“We were able to narrow down, through surveys and rationales, our list [of mascot names], and basically take a deeper look into some of those mascot names and discuss what we’re going to do moving forward,” committee student representative Delia 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, Collis, and Karalewich made themselves available for questions afterward.

After a Google Doc consisting of the original 53 mascot suggestions was sent to the committee, members had to add rationale or comments to the list of names to decide which names should be omitted or kept on the list. The third meeting allowed for members to vote on whether listed names that had no rationale should still remain as mascot options. 

“We had a vote to decide whether some of the names that didn’t have any reasoning to them should be kept [on the list] or not, and 90.5% of people decided that they should be taken off, so that narrowed down our list, ” Karalewich said. “Then there were some names of some negative rationale or very limited rationale and 95.2% of people decided to take [those names] off the list as well.” 

Collis said that the committee cannot reveal any suggested mascot names at this time. 

The committee plans on having its next meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 3, according to Collis. Before its next meeting, a survey will be sent out to committee members in order to discuss the new list of names that they’ve narrowed it down to. 

“We should have a survey for the mascot committee to be able to go back to [its] respective groups, and then from there we’ll vote in a weighted format where [each member as a] top pick, a second pick, and a third pick,” Collis said. “Then [the] collective groups go and discuss all the mascots that were given from that list [of] 10 to 15 [names].” 

Collis said the committee does not yet have a specific date on which it plans to present its final mascot suggestion to the Board of Education. 

“We definitely want to make sure that we promote every name getting the attention it should before it gets dropped because we’d hate for people’s ideas not to be heard,” Collis said.