South Colonie School District will continue rebranding discussions

South Colonie, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Since 2011, South Colonie Central School District (SCCSD) has already been working on rebranding its mascots. Superintendent Dr. David Perry said changing a mascot is not uncharted territory, and the school district already had removed Native American images from the logos.

“We had phased that out in 2010…2011. And have been using just the Colonie Block C,” he said. “Our students have been looking for an image or mascot [to accompany] the raider nickname.”

But now the Board of Regents requires the school to no longer use the name ‘Raiders.’ The Superintendent says the rebranding committee was already preparing for that.

“We are at a point where we will start to engage our community and student body to come up with possible solutions,” he said. “We have a two-year time frame, so we are not in a big rush.”

Resident Chuck Weinlein, a class of ‘82 graduate, hopes to join the rebranding committee.

“The rebranding has just not gone very well,” Weinlein said. “And the term ‘Raider’ is not a pejorative term of the Native American peoples. It’s a term for the military. About going from your area of expertise into the next area.”

Weinlein even brought an idea to the school board meeting, but no public comments were being taken. But school officials said there would be an opportunity for the public to share.

“They can provide feedback, as well as our students,” Superintendent Perry said. “We have some possible names and images that could go along with what the Rebranding Committee had paired down.”

For now, school officials will wait to release that list to the community until a date for public sharing is finalized within the next two weeks.