BUCKLAND — While some schools have become tangled in debates over their Native American mascot for years, Mohawk Trail Regional School may have emerged from its recent discussion relatively unscathed, perhaps even with a positive outcome.
The school is seeking ideas to replace its Native American mascot and a mural depicting it from anyone interested — students, parents, staff and community members.
In May, following several months of discussion and a couple of public meetings, the School Committee voted to remove its Native American mascot, of which there were only a few vestiges remaining: on a stone entrance sign and as a mural in the gymnasium. At the same meeting, the School Committee voted to create a new subcommittee that would figure out how to make these changes.
Now, the Ad Hoc Mohawk Trail Regional School Art Subcommittee is asking the community to weigh in on a replacement painting for the gymnasium. The school prescribed a theme: the Deerfield River, according to Superintendent Michael Buoniconti in an email sent to the community this week.
The school created a survey on Google Documents for community members to fill out, asking for each participant’s town as well as a landmark, icon or image they feel represents their home.
To replace its current logo, the letter ‘M,’ the school will accept submissions for a new design until July 31, according to its Facebook page. The design is required to be an original piece of artwork that is inspiring and embraces school spirit. It also may not contain Native American imagery or any weapons.
Logo finalists, who will be chosen by students, will be up for a community vote in August, and then presented to the School Committee in September.
While the school’s mascot was once an image of a Native American man in a feathered headdress, a few years ago administrators replaced it with the letter ‘M,’ without much fuss. The decision to make the switch was done incrementally and with no formal vote, School Committee Chairwoman Martha Thurber said at a May meeting.
However, when the school began discussing removing a mural of a Native American man in its gymnasium earlier this year, the community took notice. Scores of alumni who gifted the mural to Mohawk Trail Regional School in 1978 were especially vocal about the painting’s meaning, speaking out in meetings and submitting letters.
One such alumna was Lisa Nartowicz, Class of 1978 vice president, coming to several meetings this year to discuss the mural’s significance to her class, the school and the community.
“It is sad to think it will be gone for many who innocently view it as a symbol of honor and pride in their school,” Nartowicz wrote in April. “It has created a surge of memories and cohesiveness of thousands of students passing through (Mohawk Trail) halls.”
Nartowicz wrote that she hoped the “entire school community, past (and) present, can work together to find a new logo, and new shared excitement from this endeavor.” The school seems to have answered this call.
The next Art Subcommittee meeting is set for Tuesday, July 9 at 6 p.m. in the Superintendent’s Conference Room at Mohawk Trail Regional School.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.