The floormat at the entrance to Stikine Middle School - along with various shirts, uniforms and even the stuffed cougar out in the commons - will soon be out of date, with the secondary advisory committee electing to change its mascot to the Wolves, mirroring Wrangell High.
At the second school board meeting of the new year on Monday, staff and returning members welcomed newly elected fellows Dave Wilson and Jessica Rooney.
Officers were selected for the reshuffled board, with Georgianna Buhler retaining her position as president, Tammi Groshong being elected to vice-president in a 3-2 vote, and Aleisha Mollen named board secretary.
Perhaps the biggest news of the evening though had been an announcement from secondary schools principal Bill Schwan and Secondary Advisory Committee member Diane O'Brien, with Stikine Middle School adopting the high school's Wolves monicker as its official mascot. O'Brien explained that after consulting with the principal and taking exit interviews into consideration, SAC voted to change the school's "Cougars" image.
"The kids want to see it changed, for a lot of reasons," Schwan added. Of those, he suggested the name change would make financial sense for the school, allowing retired Wolves gear stored in the high school basement to see new life with the younger students.
The name has long been a feature of the middle school, with a stuffed mountain lion under glass greeting visitors to the commons from its Church Street entrance. With a relatively recent group of administrators at the school, they had been uncertain how old the name was or where it had originated from. A call to longtime teacher and principal Monty Buness, who retired in 2014 and now lives in Palmer, revealed Stikine Middle School for a time did not have any mascot.
In sports, middle school players sometimes went by the Wolves monicker, but Buness found the school had lacked an identity of its own. An answer came from a unique event on the other side of the island. Trapper Paul Matteoni had in November 1989 shot and killed a cougar that had wandered near his cabin at Wolf Creek.
The shooting had been a first for the species in the state, and his initial claim at a local tavern had been reportedly disbelieved. Even still, the presence of cougars in the state is limited to Southeast, and is considered to be rare.
"People report to me sometimes that they've seen some, or a track of one," Forest Service wildlife biologist Joe Delabrue commented.
Confronted with doubt, Matteoni brought the animal's carcass to town and reported it formally, causing a stir among state officials and leading to criminal charges of taking a non-game animal being filed against him. A local jury acquitted Matteoni, and after leaving the Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection office's freezer the deceased mountain lion found new life through taxidermy.
"Somewhere down the line we got a hold of that carcass," Buness recalled, with resident John Taylor helping to mount the display. For the region the name had a uniqueness to it, and the story had been exciting. It's been in the middle school since, and the name stuck.
Schwan said the name change would become official this week, but was unsure what to do with the cougar. One board member suggested donating it to the museum, though no attempt to find a new home for it has yet been made.
In other board business, Buhler recommended a full review of the school district's strategic plan, complete with fresh public input. A revision of the current plan was reviewed and approved by the board Monday evening, but Buhler felt the three-year-old document ought to be created anew, to better reflect the school's current makeup. An evaluation date for a final version has been set for next March, with workshop sessions likely to be announced in the run-up.
And in the persons to be heard segment of the meeting, parent DaNika Smalley lodged a complaint about the elementary school's handling of its "Choose Respect" march held on October 6. She reported her child had been involved with the rally and march to follow without her prior knowledge, and felt that some of the subject matter covered by the event had been inappropriate for the school to cover, namely sexual abuse and domestic violence. Smalley felt the subject was not an academic matter and one best left to parents.
She also voiced concerns about children being taken off campus without prior notification to guardians. The march was one example, but last week's demonstrations for fire prevention week outside the Public Safety Building had been another instance. Smalley felt better communication on the part of schools would be appreciated.
Asked about school policies afterward, Wrangell superintendent Patrick Mayer explained parental permission to leave campus had been sought on a subjective basis, depending on the excursion, but that the policy would be reassessed.
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