Updated at 8:33 p.m.
The Raiders are back even before the Ravens could take flight as the Rutland High School mascot.
The board of school commissioners voted 6-5 around 11 p.m. Tuesday to bring back the Rutland Raiders, a last-minute addition to the meeting agenda.
Board Chair Hurley Cavacas Jr. voted in favor of the Raiders, breaking a tie on the issue. Cavacas said he had wanted to restart a move to change the school mascot, citing as flawed an October 2020 board meeting in which the Raiders moniker was retired.
Cavacas said he agreed with people who said the vote had been “set up” before the meeting occurred.
“I will say what I’ve been saying right from the beginning: The process was flawed, and that’s what has to be revisited,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “This is the best way to do it.”
Commissioner Alison Notte, who served as board chair when the mascot change took place, voted against bringing back the old name with the arrowhead logo. She accused pro-Raider commissioners of violating several of the board’s meeting procedures, including Robert’s Rules of Order, which she said requires an unwarned action to receive two-thirds of the vote to pass.
Notte said this meant the mascot vote on Tuesday needed eight votes rather than a simple majority. In her opinion, the “Rutland Ravens” remains the school mascot.
“It is not a valid vote,” she told VTDigger, adding: “It is just very disappointing that people want to put their personal agendas and their ties to a mascot or moniker that is embedded in years of stereotypical characterization of Native Americans.”
In October 2020, the board voted to retire the Raiders after a group of students, staff and alumni expressed concerns about racism in the mascot’s origins.
The board in February officially replaced it with the Ravens, a name that a group of Rutland High School students chose after seeking suggestions from city residents and other students in the district.
The following month, city voters elected three school board candidates who supported bringing back the Raiders. They included Tricia O’Connor, who made the motion to add the mascot on the board agenda at the beginning of the meeting Tuesday and to immediately revert from the Ravens to the Raiders.
Publication of meeting agenda
Notte also asserted that the board meeting Tuesday violated Vermont’s Open Meeting Law.
The law requires agendas to be warned, or publicized, at least 48 hours for regular meetings and 24 hours for special meetings. And any additions or deletions from the agenda should be made as the first act of business at the meeting.
O’Connor declined to comment on the motions she put forward Tuesday, saying Cavacas serves as the group’s spokesperson.
The Vermont League of Cities and Towns’ position is that the Open Meeting Law does not give a public body free rein to change its meeting agenda at the last minute.
“Items should only be added to that agenda when necessary to deal with an unforeseen occurrence or condition requiring immediate action,” the organization states in a fact sheet. “Taking this approach will assure that the public has adequate advance notice and an opportunity to be heard on all topics to be discussed and decided by the public body.”
The league does not work with school boards and declined to comment on the Rutland School Board’s action on Tuesday.
Cavacas maintains that the board properly followed procedures for the hybrid in-person and remote meeting, and that only a simple majority vote was needed for the mascot reinstatement.
When asked whether the vote could have waited until the public had been properly notified, Cavacas said that was a possibility but that as chairperson he was taking cues from the majority of commissioners.
“Our policy states that if the majority of the board wants an agenda item, I have to listen,” he said.
The Rutland Herald reported that the board voted 6-5 to add the mascot to the Tuesday agenda, with Cavacas casting the tie-breaking vote.
What lies ahead
Both camps agree that the mascot issue isn’t settled. The school board — particularly with a new composition of commissioners — can make another motion to change the mascot. Cavacas and at least one other commissioner are retiring when their current term ends in March.
Cavacas said he believes the back-and-forth can end if the mascot question is brought to city voters. He said there’s still time to put that on the ballot this year if petitioners get enough signatures.
Notte disagreed, saying the outcome of a citywide vote wouldn’t be binding because the mascot decision is one that lies with the school board.
Rutland City Attorney Matt Bloomer and Mayor David Allaire couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
The district superintendent’s office, meanwhile, is waiting for guidance from the board on how to proceed following Tuesday’s vote.
Since the fall of 2021, school officials have started working on how to update the mascot on athletic team uniforms, sporting equipment, buildings and other structures. This included coming up with a cost estimate of the work necessary and replacing “Raiders” with “Rutland” on the floor of the schools’ main gymnasium.
Assistant Superintendent Robert Bliss said these efforts will be put on hold at the same time that school officials continue to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, a new school budget, updating the local curriculum and promoting a culture of inclusivity.
“Those are the things that currently stand as the most important pieces of what we do in the education world,” Bliss said in an interview. “And within that, we enact policy as it is created.”