John Lindblom – Record-Bee staff
KELSEYVILLE ? Undeterred by an appeal from community members and threat of a recall, the Kelseyville Unified School District board on Wednesday night reaffirmed its vote to change Kelseyville High School”s 85-year-old Indian mascot.
Immediately after standing firm on a 5-0 vote it rendered in late March, the board unanimously adopted “Knights” as KHS”s new mascot and nickname.
“I”m not going to change a decision in fear of a recall,” KUSD board member Andy Dobusch said.
His comment seemed to capture the sentiments of the four other board trustees and resulted in loud applause from name-change proponents.
Moments later, Armand Pauly, owner of Polestar Computers in downtown Kelseyville, assured that the recall initiative will indeed occur.
“There will be an attempt to start the recall operation,” Pauly said. “I believe that it will be kicked off. I just know the people I”ve been involved with and they”re pretty passionate” about maintaining the Indian mascot.
“There were a lot of people who felt the (vote) was done improperly,” Pauly added. “They didn”t come up with any policy. All they did was change the name. What kind of idiot thing is that? You (also need to) change the logo; it”s a whole resolution. Change the name to what? There are guidelines to go by.”
Pauly”s comments followed a contentious three-hour session divided along the lines of KHS traditionalists who see the Indian mascot as a symbol of pride versus Pomo tribal members who consider it disrespectful and offensive.
As leaders in the effort to preserve the Indian mascot, the principal point made by Marr Olson and Mark Borghesani was that, by not sounding out residents before its original vote to remove the Indian, the board had unwittingly laid the groundwork for a split in the Kelseyville community.
The board could rectify the situation, they suggested, by rescinding the March 22 vote.
Olson, a contractor and KHS junior varsity football coach, asserted that if the board revisited the issue through a subcommittee that “there would be much more unity involved.”
“Along with Native Americans, we can compromise and work out something that would be good for all parties,” he said.
Following Olson to the podium, Borghesani, general manager of Kelseyville Lumber, was more adamant about the split. Referring to a prior meeting with KUSD Superintendent Boyce McClain, he said, “In our meeting, the superintendent told us he didn”t want a divided community. Well, right now, we”re divided. The board is faced with two decisions. One decision is basically to ignore us and approve the mascot change, or, two, to rescind the vote and put it to the community like Marr mentioned.”
Asserting that the community was “left out” of the decision, Borghesani continued, “Nobody came to us, nobody talked to us. Nobody (on the board) raised their hand to say, ?Hey, has anybody talked to the community?” No.”
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown also reasoned to the board that it wouldn”t hurt its image by revisiting the issue.
But, as could be ascertained by the individual comments of the trustees, the board was unmoved by such rationale.
“I didn”t want to turn it over to a subcommittee, because it”s something we have no control over,” said Peter Quartarolo. “I”m a strong believer in tradition, but I can”t turn my back on something that is potentially harmful.”
“I stand by the decision we made before,” said Valerie Ramirez.
“It”s really the right thing to do; two months hasn”t changed that,” said Rick Winer.
“There hasn”t been anything said here tonight that”s going to change my mind,” said Board President Gary Olson.
Even so, much was said.
Referring to him not by name but “as the man whose picture was in the paper the next day” following the board”s March decision, Brown once again blamed outspoken American Indian activist Clayton Duncan for fostering the entire mascot issue.
Pauly concurred. “I haven”t heard any evidence that on our campus we have a problem with our students dealing with the mascot issue. It was a case of Clayton Duncan coming in (to KHS) and saying, ?I want to talk about it.” They held a meeting the next month and voted on it. It was that fast.”
There had been no time, Pauly said, to put documents together to respond to those issues Duncan introduced.
As for Duncan, himself, he used his turn at the rostrum to profusely thank the board for its earlier vote and to pummel the concept of American Indian mascots.
Although Brown is skeptical that Olson, Borghesani, Pauly and others can secure the requisite 1,600 registered voter signatures to force a recall election in Kelseyville, the group will make the effort.
“A lot of people who are upset about it have signed already,” said Pauly. “We”re going to go ahead and pursue this, because it”s our last resort. If this thing starts to snowball and that”s where the electorate wants to go with it, we”ll deal with it.
“If enough people are serious about it, then we”ll take that step.”
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mchsi.com.
Story clarification:
A story in Wednesday”s Record-Bee about the Kelseyville High School mascot controversy reported that “a group of individuals from the town”s business community” were seeking to reverse the school board”s decision to remove the “Indians” mascot from Kelseyville High School.
The story also indicated the group was considering an effort to recall school board members.
According to Mary Morse, Kelseyville Business Association President, this effort has not been an issue of the majority of the town”s business owners and “has nothing to do with the local business community.”
She said “less than a handful” of the people who support the recall effort “also happen to be in business.”
The online version of the article will be revised to reflect this clarification.
