Hurley Northstars

By BRYAN HELLIOS

[email protected]

Hurley - The Hurley K-12 School board approved using Hurley Northstars as the school's mascot name during Monday night's meeting.

The change was passed with Leslie Kolesar being the only member to vote "no."

Prior to the board's vote, senior class president Ally Rye along with Dayne Stuhr - president of the mascot executive committee - explained how the name was selected.

"Once we had it down to three (choices), we sent that out to the whole school and the school-wide vote was Hurley Northstars," Rye said.

Board president Joe Simonich wanted to know that the process was done fairly and with no coercion.

"Were you coached - were you scripted - I mean was it a free flow of information," he asked. "Can you just tell the board a little about that?"

Both Rye and Stuhr said they thought the process was fair and inclusive of the voices from the entire school.

"The way Mr. Genisot had it was the lines were clear cut," Stuhr said. "There wasn't any interference."

Rye said the response she received from most of her class was that, "Everyone was able to see the bigger picture."

"We're able to see that we're doing this for a positive change," she said.

Stuhr asked the board to consider allowing the same committee which chose the name to also be allowed to choose the mascot's logo, using a similar process.

"There is a wide variety of interpretations as to what the Northstars will look like and what it will represent," he said.

Simonich said the mascot change was a "hot topic in the community for quite some time."

"You guys carried out our direction very well and professionally," he said. "We thank you for that." School board member Maria Sokol made the motion to accept the name and was seconded by Daryll Mattson.

Kolesar opened the topic to discussion and expressed her dissatisfaction with the process.

"When the referendum was taken off the table," she said. "A lot of people really felt disenfranchised."

She said people were so angry many refused to take part in the process to change the mascot.

Kolesar wanted the board to wait to approve the name to see if it "would stick."

"Maybe the students will start calling themselves something else," she said.

The Midget mascot has been removed from most places in the school and she said the school can just be Hurley for a year.

"If anybody asks what your mascot is, say, 'Hey you know, we decided to change our mascot and we just haven't decided who we are yet,'" Kolesar said.

In other business, the board approved:

- A raise in lunch prices and to start charging for seconds.

-Moving forward to fill coaching vacancies.