Hello Givens Community! Everyone has been pitching in to prepare for our transition.  Our student committee has been hard at work, and we almost have our new mascot selected. We wanted to share our journey with you. 

Five students, nominated by their teachers,  were asked to represent the voices of their peers in electing the new mascot for our school. During our first meeting, we learned all about the importance of a mascot and how they work to represent the business or school they stand for. We then planned out the lesson that all students would receive before we opened for nominations. They wanted to include two important pieces of information:

1. An opportunity for their peers to learn about the role of a mascot in representing the business or school they are chosen for. 
2. An Opportunity for students to understand the Guiding Principles we have been using in our work. 

Each classroom teacher used the slides created by our committee to teach the mini-lesson to their students. There were opportunities for virtual students and future students to participate in this process. After that, we started collecting nominations and received about 20 different entries. Students had to submit the mascot choice and evidence that connected to our Guiding Principles. We saw some very creative entries. 

Our committee met, and narrowed down the choices using criteria we came up with together:

1. The mascot can not be the same as another school within our district.
2. It must be a mascot that does not show disrespect to any person or group of people. 
3. The evidence must connect with our Guiding Principles
4. The animal must be viewed in a positive light.

We narrowed our ballot down to the six choices below. All Current and Future students will get the opportunity to vote (Future students will receive an emailed ballot). Voting will open on December 18th and close on January 7th. Students may choose to use the upcoming week to campaign for the mascot choice they would like to win. 

***The images are clipart and not an official picture of our mascot.

Following the election, we will share the winning mascot on January 12th. Our student committee will then work with a logo designer to help create our new logo. We are excited about this work and meeting our goal of including our peers and staff in our process.