Glens Falls down to four school mascot options

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) - Glens Falls City School District is rebranding. This week, students and the community at large have gotten a look at the four top contenders for the district's new mascot, as it says goodbye to Native American imagery, in accordance with state education guidance released late last year.

On Thursday, the school released a survey to the public that students at Glens Falls High School got to see a day early. The survey asks for the community to choose their two favorite mascot options from a final four options generated over the last two months. Since early February, high school students and community members have engaged in thought exchanges and discussions to figure out what a mascot means to them - and what should represent their school.

"We've sought input from all of our stakeholders," said Glens Falls Superintendent Dr. Krislynn Dengler on Thursday. "We've gotten some great information from alumni, and caring community members who want to be part of what's coming."

Glens Falls' four final mascot options are a wolf, knight, hawk, and black bear. Those options were revealed to the public after giving elementary and middle school students a chance to see them and fill out the same survey the high school students were given on Thursday morning.

Now, the Glens Falls community at large gets to cast votes. All of the data from these surveys will go to a student board of high schoolers, who have been tasked with bringing the official reccomendation to the school board.

Picking isn't an easy process. At an earlier step in the process, the school looked to find out what the district thought of as its core values. That meant another survey, which generated 278 student responses. The ultimate quartet of values: Unity, support, grit, and passion. The community suggested possible mascots, too - by the dozen.

"The community had great rationale for some of their ideas, like 'Trailblazers' and 'Wings' and 'Patriots,'" said Dengler. "There were so many great suggestions and reasons behind them."

Of the top four, some were generalized. Votes for bears of any kind were added to votes for the black bear, which is native to the Adirondacks. Suggestions for other birds of prey contributed to the count for hawks.

Dengler said that nobody is peeking at the data until the info-gathering is done. The "GF Nation" moniker isn't going anywhere, regardless of the new mascot, with the unity of the phrase staying important to students. The student cabinet will meet next Tuesday-Thursday to discuss the data, and a final reccomendation to the board of education will be made on Monday, April 3.