SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Public Schools will meet on Wednesday to vote on new mascots for North Central High School and Garry Middle School and a new name for Sheridan Elementary School.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
The new name for Sheridan Elementary School will be Francis Scott Elementary School.
Here were the three options for the new name for Sheridan Elementary and the reasons behind them.
Frances Scott
SPS said the inspiration was Spokane’s first African American female attorney, a teacher at Rogers High School for more than 30 years, a president of the Spokane Education Association and a president of the WSU Board of Regents. Scott grew up in Spokane and graduated from Whitworth College (now University) with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. When she began teaching English and German at Rogers in 1958, she was one of four black teachers in SPS. She also went on to practice law on the side, taking mostly civil rights and pro bono cases, all while still teaching at Rogers.
East Central
Sheridan Elementary School is located in the East Central area of Spokane. The East Central area was the first area to be developed outside the downtown area because of its flat land. In the late 1800’s, people settled in the flat farmlands along East Sprague and Trent Avenue. The area was referred to as the “Park Neighborhood” and the earliest plats were Union Park and Liberty Park. East Central has more than 600 historic homes. The neighborhood has four large parks, two of which (Liberty and Underhill), are linked by the scenic Ben Burr Trail that runs along the basalt bluff that helps define the neighborhood.
Unity
The state of being united or joined as a whole. The word unity was selected by a screening committee representative. The word unity shows the connection between students and faculty and would allow for everyone to feel welcome no matter who they are.
Mascot change comes after Inslee signs measure
The change for mascots at North Central and Garry comes after Governor Jay Inslee signed a measure to ban the use of Native American names, symbols and images as school mascots, logos and team names at most public schools.
The new mascot for North Central High School is the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack represents family and persistence.
The new mascot for Garry Middle School is the Ravens. The new mascot honors the Native American culture.
There is also a possibility that SPS will vote on new boundary changes, according to the SPS agenda.
With the addition of three new middle schools to accommodate moving 6th graders into a 6-8 middle school grade configuration, resulting in increased capacity for lower class size and future student enrollment growth in elementary schools, school boundaries need to be adjusted.
A Boundary Adjustment Committee comprised of parents, citizens, and staff from across the School District have worked since January 2020 through May 2021 to develop recommended school boundary changes which have been presented to consider for adoption at the meeting.
