At their meeting Monday night, the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education approved two mascot logo designs to be voted upon for both Pascack Hills and Pascack Valley.

Paul Zeller, the Director of Technology and Communication for the district, reported on the process of selecting two designs for each school. He was placed in charge of the mascot committees for both schools by former superintendent Erik Gundersen. 

After the BOE approved the designs for school-wide vote, Hills Principal Timothy Wieland sent an email with a Google Form link for students and staff to use for voting. The deadline for students and staff to select a design is Thursday, Oct. 14 by 2 p.m. 

When students voted on the new mascots in February, they selected key words that they wanted represented in their mascot. At Hills, the word with the most votes was “strength,” and others that had a large number of votes were “fierce,” “confident,” and “brave.” Zeller explained that these helped in creating the mascot designs. 

Students were also able to submit logo design ideas following the vote for the new mascots. The first Bronco design was inspired by a submission from a Hills alum, and the second was inspired by a drawing made by a current student. Zeller explained that art teachers and athletic directors from both schools did not give their personal opinion on the designs, but gave guidance based on colors, shading, and printing for team uniforms and merchandise. 

Earlier in the meeting, the BOE went into executive session to interview three agencies to help in finding a permanent district superintendent. BOE President Tammy Molinelli also said that a BOE liaison will be selected to help communicate with them, which BOE member Debra Stephans volunteered to be. The permanent superintendent will be chosen by the BOE that is elected in November. 

Members of the community also discussed travel abroad trips that are scheduled for students at Valley in February, April, and May. Parents and teachers voiced their opinions on deciding if the trips should be canceled. The BOE unanimously voted to table the item to be discussed at a later date due to their concerns of making a decision too early.