New Jamestown High School nickname
Jamestown High School‘s new nickname will be “Red & Green” following a recommendation from the school’s Nickname Committee.
The Jamestown School Board voted 5 to 1 on Tuesday to adopt the new nickname.
Board member Frank Galeazzo was the only no vote, saying he thought more weight should have been put on what the students wanted, “I also would have hoped that the name matched up with the image of the cat more so. I know there were a couple other options out there before it was narrowed down to the final two.”
Athletic Director Ben Drake said student and community surveys sent out this fall only garnered 397 responses, with 134 students responding and 283 responses from the community.
Drake said the nickname committee felt the “Red & Green” name “bridges the gap between the tradition of the our school and the new logo,” “It provides a connection to our storied past and also a bridge to the future. And we also firmly believe that our current and future students will rally around this decision just as they have past transitions with our logo.”
“Red & Green” was the high school’s first known nickname from 1905 to 1935 prior to the introduction of the “big cat” logo first seen in the 1940s.
“Red & Green” also served as the longtime name of the JHS annual yearbook.
Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the district is on track with the timeline set by the New York State Education Department to change the nickname, which included voting on a new name by this year, “And then we have to address all of the less expensive items this school year by July 1, 2024. And then by the end of the school year in 2025, we have to have everything gone. So, over the course of the Spring we’ll be addressing anything leftover and next year we’ll be addressing large scale things like the (football) end zone and center of the basketball court.”
The District learned in late 2022 that the State Ed Department was effectively banning the use of most Native American mascots for public schools in the state. The State Board of Regents backed that up by voting in April 2023 that Native American-themed logos and mascots must be retired by 2025 unless schools get approval from a recognized Native American tribe to keep them. Schools that did not comply risked having the state withhold aid.
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