Principal John Puccio sent out an email on Oct. 11 to the Pascack Valley community releasing two logo options for students and staff to vote on. Earlier this morning Puccio sent out an email confirming the second option as our new panther logo. 

“[The logo choice] is now entirely up to the students and the staff,” Director of Technology and Communications Paul Zeller said.

The logo selection committee, a collection of students, teachers, the athletic director Shawn Buchanan, Principal John Puccio, first convened in mid-April over Google Meet.

“The committee got together and took all of the input from student surveys we received in April,” Zeller said. “We have a consultant who took notes, she compiled all those notes and gave those notes to a graphic designer. The graphic designer then took those notes and developed [these logos.] 

Zeller said that when he began conducting logo meetings he would let students speak first, then the teachers, and then he would summarize what everyone had said. He would then ask if anyone had a difference of opinion or if they had changed their mind on the topic at hand, hold a further discussion, and come to a consensus. 

Zeller said that the administration on the committee had no say in the design of the logo. The committee had the athletic directors present in order to review the logistical aspects of the logo.

“The consultant will help us devise a style guide, and that will say if [a club or sport is] going to put it on a T-shirt, these are the logo images they are going to use so they are the right size and the right resolution,” Zeller said. 

Zeller said that after the committee presents the selected logo to the Board of Education at the next board meeting on Oct. 25, the committee’s work will be done. 

“This has been a very intense situation, everybody’s been under the microscope, and the fact that [the students and staff] stuck with this committee and helped is tremendous,” Zeller said.