By corissa@calaverasenterprise.com | on March 09, 2023

The Calaveras Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to replace the outdated scoreboard on the high school’s football field with a new digital scoreboard. It is undecided what will happen to the old “Redskins” mascot logo on the sign above the scoreboard. Enterprise file photo

While the Calaveras Unified School District (CUSD) Board of Trustees came to an agreement last week on improvements to the athletic facilities at Calaveras High School, an issue surrounding the old school mascot remained unresolved.

At a March 2 meeting, the board voted 5-0 to upgrade the outdated weight room at Calaveras High School and to replace the high school football field’s outdated scoreboard.

Weight room upgrades will come at a cost of $35,000-$45,000 to the district, covered by extraneous funds left over from an arts budget of around $100,000 that was previously allocated by the board.

The upgrades may include painting and removal of old equipment, and installation of two sets of dumbbells up to 80 pounds, three racks for storing the dumbbells, two cable machines, and seven stations each equipped with a squat rack, an Olympic barbell with locking collars and up to 345 pounds in rubber weights, plus an adjustable bench. Additional equipment includes three chrome EZ curl bars, leg press machines, a stationary bike and a treadmill, and belts and gloves.

In addition to the weight room, the board voted to replace the current scoreboard on the high school’s football field with a new digital scoreboard. The new wireless scoreboard would replace the current outdated one and can be used for both football and track. The board opted to go with a more expensive option, a Daktronics scoreboard to be installed by Lodi Signs. The scoreboard could cost upwards of $20,000 with installation, according to Trustee Bryan Porath, who informed the board of the quotes for both the weight room and scoreboard upgrades. Funds for the upgrades would come from the same arts budget as the weight room upgrades.

While discussing scoreboard upgrades, Trustee Lorraine Angel, one of three new trustees elected in 2022, asked whether the new scoreboard would incorporate the high school’s new mascot, which was decided on by students during the 2021-22 school year after the former mascot name was banned statewide in 2015.

Porath stated that the bid was only for the scoreboard, and did not include removing and replacing the sign above it which bears the former “Redskins” mascot logo. Porath estimated it may cost another $5,000- $15,000 to replace the “topper” sign.

The board discussed the possibility of updating the sign, too, with trustees falling on both sides of the issue.

Porath stated, “A lot of people — everyone in the sports community and everyone I spoke to — want to keep the existing Indian head up there, so that is staying up there.”

Angel said, “My kids will always say to me: ‘Once a Redskin, always a Redskin.’ But I’m going to say that I think it’s time to move on because we are the Red Hawks now; we’ve got to go with it. That’s what the kids decided.”

The board discussed the option of taking the old sign down and later adding a new one, which would come with considerations such as size and weight restrictions, with Trustee Sherri Reusche saying, “I’d like to just get it done.”

Matt Brock, also new to the board this year, stated, “To me, it’s a very complicated and sensitive issue for many people and I don’t feel comfortable voting on it tonight.”

Other trustees agreed to add the issue to a future agenda and move forward with just a new scoreboard for now.

Superintendent Mark Campbell asked Porath to get a bid for adding a new mascot sign, and to “go back out to the people that you spoke with, solicit their feedback and hear their voices.”

During the meeting, the trustees and Campbell also expressed gratitude to school staff for going to work and keeping schools open despite recent winter storms dropping large amounts of snow. Campbell joked that students at West Point Elementary had to walk past snow piled “above their heads,” and thanked Principal Katie Hood for clearing a path for them.

A report was also presented to the board by Elementary Educational Services Director Jeff Crane regarding the district’s recent scores on the i-Ready diagnostic assessment which compare student learning to their grade level and highlights potential areas of growth for both English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.

CUSD scores were behind statewide scores in English language arts with a “very low” score of 72 points below standard (statewide results were also low at 12 points below standard), while in math, CUSD students scored even lower at 95 points below standard (statewide results in math were 51 points below standard).

“We’re behind where the state is, but parallel in that statewide (we’re) doing better in ELA than in math,” said Crane. He also pointed out that 53% of “English learners” (students whose first language is not English) made progress toward being fluent in English, outscoring the state in this area.

Angel pointed out that the district has adopted new curriculum in both study areas since 2019.

That is a very old picture of the scoreboard. The top says “Calaveras Hoghschool”and above the score says “Home” and “Visitor”. There is no “Redskins” on the board currently.

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