Editor’s note: This story has been edited to add comments from Wausau School District Communications Director Diana White that were received after press time.
Damakant Jayshi
The Wausau School Board on Monday will vote on the district’s proposal to rebrand the city’s secondary schools, prompting renewed criticism over the lack of community input in the process.
In a June 13 email, parents were told that the school board and administration would seek input on the names, mascots and school colors of the soon-to-be merged junior and senior high schools. The email invited parents to be part of the process. Six days later, a followup email shared excitement for those who had expressed interest and said “the input process will officially begin in July.”
But on Monday, with virtually none of the promised community input, the Wausau School Board is being asked to approve a mascot and color plan as part of the districts’ ongoing restructuring efforts. The district administration is seeking the board’s approval for their changes, to begin in the fall of 2025. Now, some parents are accusing the district of again pushing a proposal without first seeking true input from the community.
“Once again, in spite of continued assurances that they want the community’s input the Wausau school board is trying to quietly push forward with their own agenda,” parent Norah Brown wrote on her Facebook page. “Now, don’t get me wrong – we have much bigger things to worry about with this board and superintendent in charge than the colors and mascots of our schools, but this speaks to a larger problem – the constant lying and lack of transparency presented by this superintendent and board.”
The restructuring plan calls for Wausau West and Wausau East to merge into a single high school for grades 10 through 12, with a junior high at Wausau East for 8th and 9th grade students.
District administrators are proposing renaming West as Wausau Senior High School, retaining the West Warriors mascot and colors of blue and gold. Wausau East would become Wausau Junior High School, use East’s Lumberjack mascot with colors of red and black. Prior to the district splitting from a single high school into two in 1970, Wausau Senior High School used the Lumberjack mascot and logo.
At the June 26 meeting of the Education/Operations Committee of the board, members said they were not interested in complete rebranding of the high schools – involving colors, names and mascots – at this point. They also expressed concerns about the likely high costs the endeavor would entail.
Multiple parents have posted on social media encouraging the community to speak during Monday’s Wausau School Board meeting.
Some parents who have reached out to Wausau Pilot & Review say they are not so concerned by the specific choices made, but in the process which, they say, is indicative of how the entire redistricting process has been handled to date. Some parents said they signed up to give feedback but saw no action on that front. Others say they received an email saying they would be in the “group” but received no further communication from district officials.
Now, they say, it appears the choices have already been made.
Other parents are criticizing the lack of discussion about how to unify the new schools and create a positive culture among students.
An email sent to Superintendent of Schools Keith Hilts and the district’s marketing and communications coordinator Diana White returned an auto reply, saying they are out of office.
But after this story first published, Wausau School District Communications Director Diana White responded to say that school officials have since reached out to people interested in participating in the mascot decision to give “context of the School Board’s recent discussions.” White said the Board “tends to see red and blue from the two schools as the two colors to unify the schools.”
White, who did not say when the latest email was sent, also denied that previous mascots will be used.
“The Board does want you to know that the final decision will be made with community input and that for unity sake, the four previous mascots would not be used: Cardinals, Lumberjacks, Warriors, and Warjacks,” she said, in her most recent communication she said was shared with parents.
But she did say the schools would stay as Warriors and Lumberjacks “for now,” until “funding is secured.”
On June 26, Hilts told board members that the administration had engaged a local designer to brainstorm ideas on rebranding. Those ideas were not listed on the meeting agenda. Hilts said he didn’t “upload it” because “images are really powerful and we didn’t want to present things without any context.”
“If the board wants us to continue in the way we are proposing, we would create a focus groups of students, parents and community members and… staff,” he said.
Parents and community members have criticized the administration of hand-picking members of various focus groups with those who support the ideas preferred by district officials and a few board members. Some said they were promised a spot on the school restructuring focus groups but never heard back.
Hilts emphasized the proposal – based on the suggestions made by the local designer – was just an idea and nothing more.
“Again, these are just some of the ideas they threw out. There’s nothing, I want to emphasize to people that we’ve not gone and created any type of plan at this point,” Hilts said on June 26. “If people are watching and saying, ‘well, they’ve already created something.’ No. We are just kind of generating ideas and the idea would be to bring this to focus groups and get feedback for the board if that’s the path you want to follow.”
On Monday, the board will vote on the proposal. The board can accept the proposal as is, modify it or reject it altogether. The meeting is set for 5 p.m. at the Wausau School District’s Nicholson Board Room, 415 Seymour St., Wausau. See the full agenda here.
