Debate over mascot change continues
Staff writer
Some residents expressed reservations Friday about a proposed change to Marion Middle School’s mascot.
Teachers last month proposed changing the name from Wildcats to Warriors to match the high school as part of a plan to increase unity in the district.
But some residents see abandoning the Wildcat name as a betrayal to Florence.
The town’s school district consolidated with Marion’s in 1971.
“Most of you are too young to know anything about the consolidation, where we promised that the Wildcat name would be kept to honor Florence,” Ruth Herbel, a Marion resident, said. “Why not let the middle school have its own identity and keep the Wildcat name?
“I was involved with the consolidation and have paid taxes to the school over 60 years, and I am a firm believer that our work in Florence should be honored.”
Herbel read out a message from Duane McCarty, a Florence alumnus who was not present.
“It’s not fair to the Florence alumni, the city of Florence, and all the students from Florence,” McCarty wrote.
Florence resident John Branson concurred.
“The alumni would feel abandoned if you do this,” he said.
Teachers previously sought community input through an online straw poll asking whether residents were in favor of the change.
Middle school principal Kelsey Metro announced the results as of Friday.
The poll received 436 responses, of which 52% were in favor of the change, 11% were neutral, and 35% were against. The remaining 1.2% said they didn’t know there was more than one mascot.
At a previous community meeting, Metro had said 73% of those polled were in favor of the change.
She explained after the meeting that she was counting neutral votes as favorable.
When asked why she was no longer representing the data in such a way, Metro said:
“The data that we talked about in our last meeting would have been prior to that, whereas the data today — I looked it up right now. And the other reason that we had discussed earlier was that going back and saying which were ‘neutral’ and which were ‘yes’ was so that everybody was aware of what was going on.”
Herbel expressed displeasure with how the poll was run.
“How many older adults have a Facebook account?” she asked. “I felt that this was poorly advertised. It should have been put in the paper so all of the taxpayers that support the school district would have a voice.”
Branson agreed.
“If you take a vote on it, you guys are definitely winning,” he said. “Most of everybody who cares about Florence is north of 50. They’re in the graveyard up there. And Florence has turned around so many times that a lot of those people weren’t Wildcats either.”
Alex Haines, who has lived in Marion for 11 years after growing up in Wichita, expressed a more favorable opinion of the name change.
“The question that you guys in the board have looked at is how do we make more unity?” he said. “I think this is a very valid option to accomplish that, to get a little more unified throughout. Maybe it even helps bridge the Florence/Marion thing.”
Stephanie Kraus, whose husband, Nick, is president of the school board, agreed.
“I understand there’s a lot of nostalgia there and wonderful memories of that, and consolidation is hard, but I feel like at some point we kind of have to be progressive,” she said.
Kraus asked the decision might come down to a final straw poll that included only “yes” or “no” options.
Superintendent Justin Wasmuth said the board would consider it. Wasmuth added that he had not received much pushback after the proposed change was publicized.
“I’ve gotten no phone calls, I’ve gotten four emails, and I’ve gotten a couple emails from a couple people,” he said.
Community members will be welcome at the next school board meeting, at 7 p.m. Monday in the district office.
“We’re going to take this to the point of really thinking these things through,” Wasmuth said.