MAHOPAC, NY — As Mahopac assembles a committee to come up with options for a new mascot and logo on which students will be able to vote, two local state assemblymen are expressing their displeasure.
The district is under pressure from the New York State Education Department, which told school districts in November to drop Native American symbols or depictions from their mascots, team names and logos by the end of the school year or forgo financial aid. The state Board of Regents is expected to finalize the regulation in April.
In December, the Mahopac Board of Education decided to only put an "M" on the artificial turf field being replaced, instead of the M plus arrow and feather the district has used for years since it dropped the headdress imagery of the indigenous people of the Plains.
Mahopac's new superintendent shared a plan for the change at the school board's Jan. 17 meeting and followed up with a letter to the community on the district website.
"Our objective is to select a new mascot that embodies the Mahopac spirit, provides school district recognition, and evokes pride and enthusiasm," said Superintendent Christine Tona.
The committee will be a large one — about 60 people — to make sure that students, staff, alumni, community members and local organizations will have a say. The committee will meet several times between February and April to come up with several options.
Students in kindergarten through grade 12 will vote on the options May 16, which is also the day of the annual Budget Vote and School Board Election.
If you're interested in being on the committee, fill out this form.
Meanwhile, Tona said, anyone with an opinion on the regulation is invited to tell the Board of Regents during the public comment period, which is open until Feb. 28.
The state's latest move on this issue has come under fire from two local members of the New York State Assembly, Matt Slater (R,C-Yorktown) and Anil Beephan, Jr. (R,C-East Fishkill). They wrote a letter to the New York state Department of Education about its decision, which affects the Mahopac and Wappingers school districts.
"We are writing to demand that the State Education Department, which threatened to withhold millions of dollars in state funding, provide the necessary dollars needed for these districts to rebrand," they said in the letter. "We maintain the actions of your Department are a complete overreach. Whether or not to change the mascot and logo of these school districts should be up to the school board and local residents. Your involvement in this issue has removed these school communities from the conversation. The individuals who live in the school districts should be the ones making the decision, not bureaucrats in Albany."
The first time the state education department weighed in on the issue was nearly a quarter-century ago.
In 2001, then-Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills said the use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students — and recommended districts change as soon as possible.
Many did, including Ossining and Rhinebeck. Others took longer, including Nyack, which stopped using the mascot in 2003 but kept the name until 2020, and Katonah-Lewisboro, which made the change in 2020 after a year-long process.
In November, the Associated Press reported that NYSED officials believed there were about 50 to 60 school districts in New York still using these kinds of mascots. The National Congress of American Indians considers the mascots to be harmful stereotypes, according to the AP. It maintains a database of K-12 schools that it says have Native American-themed mascots which puts the number at just over 1,900 schools across the country in 970 school districts.
If you want to comment on the state's new regulation:
Email: Regcomments@nysed.gov
Mail: Christina Coughlin, Assistant Commissioner, NYS Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 1078 EBA, Albany, NY 12234
Sign up for free local newsletters and alerts for the
Southeast, NY Patch
Patch.com is the nationwide leader in hyperlocal news.
Visit Patch.com to find your town today.